Meet the Author: Horane Smith

Author: Horane Smith
Release: 2008
Title: Seven Days in Jamaica
Publisher: Rain Publishing

Horane Smith was born in 1957, at Yardley Chase in the parish of St. Elizabeth, Jamaica, home of the famous tourist attraction Lover’s Leap.
Mr. Smith commenced a career in journalism at the
government information bureau, the Agency for Public
information (now the Jamaica information Service) in 1975.
From the API, Mr. Smith moved to Jamaica’s first community radio station, JBC Radio West, in 1979, where he worked as a freelance producer and programme producer.
In 1980, Mr. Smith was the recipient of the Jack Anderson Memorial Scholarship for Journalism awarded by the Press Association of Jamaica, to study Mass Communication at the University of the West Indies. Jack Anderson was a veteran Jamaican journalist and the scholarship is awarded annually to honour his commitment and dedication to the profession.
After graduating from UWI, Mr. Smith returned to the Jamaica Broadcasting Corporation, this time at its Kingston headquarters. He started there as a freelance writer and
moved quickly up to the rank of Senior News Producer/Reporter/ Editor and subsequently acted as Assistant Director of Television News. He was the recipient of the Outstanding Dedication to Duties Award from the JBC.
In 1988, Mr. Smith left full time duties at JBC to work as Information Assistant at the United States Embassy in Kingston, where he served as the main contact between the media and the Embassy. During that time, Mr. Smith was Consulting Editor to the JBC Newsroom.
Mr. Smith and his family left Jamaica in 1990, to take up residence in Toronto, Canada. While in Canada, he continued his journalism duties, corresponding for JBC-TV and writing columns for the Jamaica Herald and Dawn newspapers in Canada. In 1995, he returned to Jamaica on a visit and went to the famous and legendary tourist attraction, Lover’s Leap, where
he used to play as a young boy. Three months later, his debut novel, Lover’s Leap: Based on the Jamaican Legend was written. The novel was published in England, in 1999, to international acclaim.
John Prebble, the late British best-selling author, well-known for the 1960s box-office hit Zulu, starring Michael Caine, commented: “I have read it with great admiration, for not only
is it a bitter-sweet story but a profound comment on a contemporary subject.” Just before he died in January 2000, Mr. Prebble was asked by friends what was one of his regrets in
life. He responded that he wouldn’t be around to see the success of four new writers. Horane Smith was named among them.
Mr. Smith’s second novel, Underground to Freedom, was published in 2000, and the popular Port Royal in 2001. The Lynching Stream, his fourth work of historical fiction, was published in July 2003. Reggae Silver is his fifth novel, and was published in 2004. His sixth, Dawn at Lover’s Leap, the sequel to Lover’s Leap, was published in 2006.
Mr. Smith has been described by the Ottawa Citizen newspaper, one of the largest in Canada, as “no ordinary novelist.” He has been described by book reviewers as “prolific…going from
strength to strength…an engaging writer...a gripping writer.”
Mr. Smith works for a media monitoring/intelligence Firm and lives in Woodbridge, Ontario, where he lives with his wife and children.

Horane Smith is the winner of the inaugural Burke’s Books Literary Awards (BURLA) for his outstanding contribution to African-Canadian and Caribbean Literature. He is also among the first 100 outstanding Jamaicans to be recognized by the Jamaica-Canada Diaspora Foundation for his contribution to Jamaican literature. His latest novel Dawn at Lover’s Leap, was a finalist in the USA Booknews Best Book Award for Historical Fiction.

http://www.horanesmith.com/