THE MAD WOMAN OF PAPINE
Four years ago
In this knot of a village outside the university
She was in residence.
Slade Hopkinson (1934–1993) was a teacher, actor, playwright, director, newspaper editor, and a government information officer. Among his publications are The Four and Other Poems and the plays The Blood of a Family (1957), Fall of a Chief (1965), The Onliest Fisherman (1967), and Spawning of Eel (1968), rewritten as Sala and The Long Vacation. In 1976 the Government of Guyana published two companion collections of his poetry, The Madwoman of Papine and The Friend. During his life, Hopkinson’s work appeared in Bim, Savacou, New World as well as the anthologies Anansesem, The Penguin Book of Caribbean Verse, and Voiceprint. Snowscape With Signature, a selection of poems written between 1952-1992, was published by Peepal Tree Press in 1993.