- ANDREW SMITH/PHOTOGRAPHY EDITOR
Garfield Ellis, author of 'Such As I Have' and 'For Nothing At All'.
Tanya Batson-Savage, Freelance Writer
HE WAS 17 years old when Garfield Ellis, author of Such As I Have and For Nothing At All, decided he wanted to be a writer. For Nothing At All published last year, is his second novel in the MacMillan Caribbean Writers series.
The terrace of a New Kingston restaurant, which provides a quiet oasis away from the nearby metropolis, is the backdrop for the interview. He looks quite at home. His shoes are removed and as the interview continues he consumes a meal of steak and vegetables.
Like the characters in For Nothing at All, Ellis grew up in Central Village, St. Catherine, and a knowledge of the terrain infuses the graphic imagery which allows the story to lift off the page as the narrative shifts between a day of happy childhood to a time of tortured manhood, as boys who were once friends grow into mortal enemies.
For Nothing At All is an emotionally riveting tale that almost seems like an anti-growing up tale for boys. Though the characters move from boyhood to manhood their possibilities are so blighted that the story is one filled with despair. However, its end offers a shaft of hope.
FIRST OPTION
Ellis explains that because he grew up poor he never considered writing full-time as a first option. As the eldest of 10 children, he knew of responsibilities that kept him focused on monetary realities. "I'm the big son," he explained. "How you a go turn writer?" he asked rhetorically. "There's nothing to fall back on. When you step out you have to create a good foundation that you can stand on."
So, though determined about his drive toward mastering the pen, Ellis plotted a path that would first take him elsewhere. He decided that before becoming a writer he had to get a job and build a career, get the basics of the house and car and the ability to maintain a family. The chosen career was engineering and in 1985 Ellis graduated from the Maritime Institute with a degree in Marine Engineering, after which he became a marine officer.
Yet, the writing would not wait. "No matter what I do the writing always catches up. Writing catches up with you," he said. So while trodding the nine to five path Ellis kept writing. His labour bore creative fruits and awards to garnish them. His fiction has earned the Una Marson award, the Canute Brodhurst prize for fiction and the 1990 Heineman/Lifestyle short story competition.
"For me the writer is such an elevated position in terms of your artistry and humanity," he said. "So I come to it very slowly. I revere that space so much." Now, working three days per week at the Maritime Institute and teaching, Ellis is moving toward being a full-time writer, but he's not there yet. Though he has not fully tasted of the financial fruits, he's convinced they will come. "Ultimately I feel (writing) will take care of me," he said.
And writing means more to him than financial possibilities. Writing brings him agency. "People who grow up very poor have the desire to say I can be as good as anybody else in the world, but they don't have the medium to say it. Writing gives me that," he says.
NOT A POP WRITER
"What I'm trying to do in my own way is tell the Jamaican story. I try not to be a pop writer and I try not to be too academic," Ellis says. In For Nothing At All he manages to walk the line between the overly academic and pop fiction. He presents a story that beats with the heart of contemporary Jamaica, with its exploration of the violence gripping the young robbing and them of their future.
Ellis explains that, for him, the writing in and of itself is enough. "I write because I can't help but write," he said. "It's a good thing that I got a good education." This education includes his years at Kingston Technical as well as a Master's of Fine Arts (MFA) earned from the University of Miami.
TEACHING
Ellis feels fortunate that he enjoys teaching. Engaged to teach literature at Nova University and the University College of the Caribbean, Ellis explains that introducing students to the joys of literature brings him a special pleasure.
He admits that being a writer who has chosen to stay in Jamaica has its joys and its pains, and though he has contemplated enjoying the pleasures of voluntary exile to the First World he has chosen to stay home. He explains that what makes being in Jamaica particularly great is that he remains close to the subject of his work.
Yet, the limitations abound. "The most publicity I've ever had was my first collection of stories when I came back as a 'foreign writer'," Ellis reluctantly admits. "I think the people who should know better feel 'if you're a writer of any note what the hell are you doing here'," he said.
THE HERO
Nonetheless, he remains undaunted. "You see, the thing is I don't care. I write because of writing. I don't write to get published," he said. Ellis' drive, despite the odds, seems to echo those of the hero of For Nothing at All, who is determined to succeed despite his humble beginnings. Like Wesley, Ellis understands that people have limited expectations of the poor.
He cites an incident where in his late teens he explained to a woman that he wanted to become a pilot and she exclaimed it to be an impossibility. Though Ellis smiles through the tale, it is clear that it was a lesson well taught, though one he clearly intended to defy. "People don't expect you to be anything when you come from the ghetto," he says. "They proud a you, but they're conscious of a limitation."
And so, though Ellis says he writes because he simply has to, he also wishes for Jamaican students to become engaged with his books. He speaks of its use at the University of Miami and the intriguing feedback it has brought from the students, but he longs for that kind of interaction with Jamaican students. "I'd love to see Jamaican students engage with it that way; just grapple with it and see its relevance to their own experience," he said. "That's why I write."
