Becka's Buckra Baby: Mint Editions

Thomas MacDermot (1870-1933) was a Jamaican poet, novelist, and newspaper editor. Born in Clarendon Parish, he was raised in a family of five children in Trelawny. After receiving his education at Falmouth Academy and at the Church of England Grammar School in Kingston, he remained in the capital to teach and become a journalist. Starting at The Jamaica Post and The Daily Gleaner, he moved to the Jamaica Times, where he would serve as editor for twenty years. In 1899, he launched a popular short story contest for young writers, helping further the careers of famed poet Claude McKay and journalist H. G. de Lisser. By 1903, he established All Jamaica Library, a low-cost series of short fiction by Jamaican authors. MacDermot also wrote his own works of fiction under the anagrammatic penname ¿Tom Redcam.¿ Beckäs Buckra Baby (1903) is considered a landmark of Jamaican literature and helped distinguish the Caribbean as a hotspot for modern writing. Following his death in England, MacDermot was posthumously appointed Jamaicäs first Poet Laureate.