Roger Mais was a Jamaican journalist, novelist, poet, and playwright. He was born to a middle-class family in Kingston, Jamaica. By 1951, Mais had won ten first prizes in West Indian literary competitions. His integral role in the development of political and cultural nationalism is evidenced in his being awarded the high honor of the Order of Jamaica in 1978. Mais launched his career as a journalist and contributor for the weekly newspaper, Public Opinion from 1939 to 1952, which was associated with the People's National Party. He also wrote several plays, reviews, and short stories for the... newspaper Focus and the Jamaica Daily Gleaner, focusing his articles on social injustice and inequality. He used this approach to reach his local audience and to primarily push for a national identity and anti-colonialism. Mais has published over a hundred short stories, where most can be found in Public Opinion and Focus. Other stories are also collected in Face and Other Stories and And Most of All Man, published in the 1940’s. Mais's play, George William Gordon, was also published in the 1940s, focusing on the Morant Bay Rebellion of 1865.
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