Judith’s homeland, Jamaica, provided stimulating
surroundings to nurture her imagination, and from her earliest
years, she loved to write. She sold her first short story, “The
Night of the Hurricane,” for eleven dollars over forty years
ago. The acceptance letter and the check stub became treasured
keepsakes.
In college and university, she majored in English, completing
a doctorate in English Education in 1978. She taught English
in high school, college and university, having her articles
appear in such publications as College English, College
Teaching, the Journal of Negro Education, the Maryland Journal
of English, and the NASSP Bulletin. While serving
as a supervisor of English teachers in the District of Columbia
Public School System, she gave workshops and taught courses
for teachers and was the speechwriter for the president of a
national educational association. She has also been published
in such magazines as the Adventist Review, Message, and Spectrum
and has edited manuscripts for a number of authors.
In 1997 she returned to Jamaica as the vice president for academic
affairs at West Indies College and later as the Dean of the
College of Arts and Sciences when the college became Northern
Caribbean University. She left the university to live in Kingston
in 2000 and published and edited her own Christian women’s
magazine, Sisters, which had an enthusiastic readership. She
was also a much-requested speaker in churches for women’s
programs, at retreats and for graduations.
In retirement, Judith is currently an adjunct English instructor
at Chattanooga State College and spends a good deal of her time
writing fiction and nonfiction with a spiritual theme. She is
a member of the International Women’s Writing Guild and
the Chattanooga Writers Guild.
<back to writer
profiles