KINGSTON, Jamaica — Seventy-six year old professor emeritus at the University of the West Indies (UWI) Mervyn Morris is the first Jamaican to be named poet laureate in the nation’s 51 years of independence from Britain.

According to the National Library of Jamaica (NLJ) the first poet laureate, Tom Redcam, was named posthumously in1933, and the second was J E Clare McFarlane, who served between 1953 and 1962 when he died.

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However, prior to now, Jamaican poets laureate were appointed by the Poetry League of Jamaica. So Professor Morris has become the first to be appointed to the largely ceremonial position through the actions of the government and the first time the appointment has been seen as a national honour.

According to NLJ Executive Director, Winsome Hudson, the appointment is considered a national honour, but not in the same league as the national honours bestowed annually by the nation through the Governor General.

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Asked whether Professor Morris will be paid, she that there is no salary for the post, but there is a stipend which will be handled by the Tourism Enhancement Fund (TEF).

Morris will be poet laureate for three years, after which he can be re-appointed or the post reopened for applications, which was the process used to select him.

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The new programme is an initiative of the Entertainment Advisory Board of the Ministry of Tourism and Entertainment, and the NLJ. However, the NLJ administers the programme.

Morris was born in Kingston, Jamaica, and studied at the University College of the West Indies and as a Rhodes Scholar at St Edmund Hall, Oxford. In 1992, he was a UK Arts Council Visiting Writer-in-Residence at the South Bank Centre. He lives in Kingston, Jamaica, where he is Professor Emeritus of Creative Writing & West Indian Literature.

In 2009, he was awarded the Jamaican Order of Merit (OM).

Balford Henry