Dorothea’s first poetry collection, published by Peepal Trees Press in 2001, in it she explores ethnicity, femininity, her south London upbringing and her Caribbean-African roots and the tension between these two worlds.
“Connecting Medium links the past to the present, the Caribbean to England, mothers to fathers. Here are poems about identity and culture, generations and the future. A powerful sequence of poems about a black Medusa. Poems that link the material world to the spiritual one. Poems that recreate a sixties childhood in South London in vivid detail. Connecting Medium is full of energy and life. Hers is a bright, passionate voice.”
– Jackie Kay, Poet
“As Caribbean Women move into the oras of their own consciousness, wonderful new icons emerge to join Gort, Tacky, Zumbi, TL, Galahad & the Midnight Robber – Tia, Fola, Harriet’s Daughter, Sister Stark and the Mary’s: Prince, Seacole, Wiggins, Wages, Yellow Mary, MaryAnn of the Shifting Sand, GypsyMary and Mariana Grajales, to welcome a few. Now for the first time we havin a Dread Mary. The Black Medusa of this new voice in Caribbean poetry, this Brit born Bajan international, is Dorothea Smartt, who will tangle you up & burn you to stone”
–Kamau Brathwaite, Poet
BritBornBajan 