Cherie Jones

Cherie Jones (born 1974) is a Barbadian writer. Her debut novel, How the One-Armed Sister Sweeps Her House, was shortlisted for the 2021 Women's Prize for Fiction.^[1][2]

Cherie Jones
Born	1974
Occupation	Novelist
Notable work	The One-Armed Sister Sweeps The House (2021)

Biography

Cherie Jones was born in 1974.^[3][4]

She received her LLB from the University of the West Indies in 1995 and was admitted to the Bar in Barbados in 1997.^[3][4] She continues to work as a lawyer, in addition to her writing.^[4][5][6]

In 2015, Jones graduated from the Master of Arts writing program at Sheffield Hallam University, where she received the Archie Markham Award and the A.M. Heath Prize.^[3][7][8] She went on to complete a PhD in Creative Writing at the University of Exeter.^{[5][9][10][11]}

Jones is a single mother of four children and has spoken openly about being a survivor of domestic violence.^{[5][12][13][14]}

Writing career

Jones won the Commonwealth Short Story Competition in 1999 with her story "Bride".^[3][6]

In 2003, she won second place in the Frank Collymore Literary Endowment Awards for unpublished manuscripts for her short story collection The Burning Bush Women & Other Stories.^[15][16] The collection was published in 2004 by Peepal Tree Press.^[17][18]

In 2016, Jones won third place in the Frank Collymore Literary Endowment Awards for her unpublished interlinked short story collection Water for the End of the World.^[4][6][19]

In 2021, Jones published her debut novel, How the One-Armed Sister Sweeps Her House. The novel is set in 1984 in the fictional town of Baxter's Beach in Barbados. The title is from a cautionary tale in which a girl disobeys her mother and has to lose her arm to escape the consequences. The main protagonist is Lala, who works as a hair-braider for tourists and is trapped in an abusive marriage to petty criminal Adan. On the night Lala gives birth, Adan is involved in the murder of a rich white tourist. The novel describes the brutal aftermath and the violent backstory of Lala and other characters. It uses multiple viewpoints, including a police detective and the murdered man's widow, and examines issues of race, inequality, and cycles of abuse and domestic violence.^{[5][20][21][22]}

The novel was the Good Morning America monthly book club pick in February 2021.^[5][14][23] It was shortlisted for the 2021 Women's Prize for Fiction^[24] and the 2022 OCM Bocas Prize for Caribbean Literature.^[25] The German translation, Wie die einarmige Schwester das Haus fegt, translated by Karen Gerwig, was shortlisted for the 2023 International Literature Award.^[10][26] The French translation, Et d'un seul bras la sœur balaie sa maison, translated by Jessica Shapiro, won the Prix Carbet des lycéens 2023.^[10][27][28]

Works

• —— (2004). The Burning Bush Women & Other Stories. Peepal Tree. ISBN 9781900715584.

• —— (2021). How the One-Armed Sister Sweeps Her House. Little, Brown & Company. ISBN 9780316537001.