Jamaican author Garfield Ellis dies Canada

Garfield Ellis, 57-year-old writer, educator, media personality, and three-time Una Marson award-winning author, has died.

Ellis passed away at the Scarborough General Hospital in Canada on March 16.

Born in Central Village, St Catherine, Ellis, the eldest of 16 siblings, studied at the University of Miami, Florida, in the United States, where he obtained a Master of Fine Arts.

At the Jamaica Institute of Management, he obtained a diploma in management and public relations. He also studied at the Caribbean Maritime Institute, where he later worked as the chief marine engineering officer.

Ellis worked both in the public and private sectors in Jamaica, doing stints at the Jamaica Observer and the Jamaica Anti-Doping Commission and also lecturing part-time at the University of the West Indies, the University of Technology, the University of the Commonwealth Caribbean, Jamaica, and Durham College in Canada.

In 2011, Ellis hosted the Writer's Block, a half-hour interview programme for writers televised by the Public Broadcasting Corporation of Jamaica, and also co-hosted a day-time call-in programme and an evening magazine programme for Hot 102 Radio.

He was the author of six publications - The Angel's Share (Novel), Till I'm Laid To Rest (novel), For Nothing At All (novel), Such As I Have (novel), Wake Rasta & Other Stories, (short story collection) and Flaming Hearts & Other Stories (short story collection), three of which won the Una Marson Award for adult literature.