Carib Lit Plus (Early to Mid June 2023)

A reminder that the process with these Carib Lit Plus Caribbean arts bulletins is to do a front and back half of the month, updating as time allows as new information comes in; so, come back, or, if looking for an earlier installment, use the search window. (in brackets, as much as I can remember, I’ll add a note re how I sourced the information – it is understood that this is the original sourcing and additional research would have been done by me to build the information shared here – credit and link back if you use).

Events

A reminder that Dotsie Issac‘s Senses, the second annual edition of her poetry and music showcase, is coming up in June right here in Antigua.

(Source – N/A)

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Maybe this requires a separate category? Summer activities for children in Antigua and Barbuda? If you’d like to pre-register for my Jhohadli Summer Youth Writing camp in the tail end of summer, email me at antiguanwriter@gmail.com I’ll have it as long as there’s interest. Meanwhile there’s also Splash Robo Club’s Kids Steam Team Summer Camp Edition.

(Source – Facebook)

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Antiguan and Barbudan designer Miranda Askie repped the 268 in Trinidad and Tobago at EWA AFRICA 2 – SANKOFA STYLE, a Caribbean fashion event kicking off the 2023 Pan African Festival TT, hosted by the Emancipation Support Committee of Trinidad and Tobago and directed by Richard Young.

“I am simply grateful for the opportunity granted by the tourism of Trinidad and Tobago @ewaafrica @richard_a_g_young and all the other designs I had the opportunity to dialogue with and more,” Askie said in the caption accompanying this post on instagram of her relaxing poolside in Trinidad in one of her designs. She explained, in response to my inquiry, “I was asked to represent Antigua for 2024 Caribbean fashion week and Ewa Africa2 Sancofa Style by the board of tourism of Trinidad and Tobago 🇹🇹”. (Source – Miranda Askie on Instagram)

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A two-fer right here in Antigua and Barbuda – the launch of my, Joanne C. Hillhouse’s To be a Cheetah, a collab with local artist Zavian Archibald, and the Wadadli Pen Awards ceremony, hosted, as usual by the Best of Books. July 2nd 2023; mark the date.

(Source – BA on Facebook)

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June means its once again #readCaribbean and #Caribathon two Caribbean Heritage Month social media book events encouraging readers to read and share Caribbean reads. This vid is by one of the CaribAthon founders and she kicks it off with The Secrets of Catspraddle Village by Callie Browning and At the Bottom of the River by Antigua’s own Jamaica Kincaid– “Jamaica Kincaid has yet to disappoint me; she feeds me,” she said. “This will get re-read a couple of times.” The video speaks most extensively on Kincaid’s book and also mentions Breanne McIvor’s The God of Good Looks.

I am currently reading Kim Johnson’s The Illustrated Story of Pan and most recently finished Andrea Levy’s Small Island – both of which I would recommend checking out.

See Books below for more reading ideas. (Source – Various)

Obits.

Ask a whole generation of Antiguans and Barbudans – those of us born in the 1970s – to this day of more varied options where had the best ice-cream and there remains only one answer, Thwaites, at the corner of De Souza Road and All Saints Road in Ottos. Never mind that it was the only ice-cream shop for the longest while, its flavours are wrapped in memories of family trips to the pink, wooden building for your choice of the smoothest vanilla, strawberry, or chocolate, before or after maybe, one room over, having your picture taken in your best Sunday dan-dan in the studio whose familiar backdrop is in the albums or on the mantels of thousands of Antiguan and Barbudan households. It is for the latter that in its announcement of his passing, ABS TV/Radio described Egbert Merril Thwaites as a “pioneering Antiguan photographer”. Thwaites corner is iconic for a number of reasons – notably the political meetings held there each campaign season; note that it bears the name of the man who was 99 at the time of his passing in early June (his death was announced on June 7th 2023). (Source – ABS TV/Radio on Facebook)

Books

Tameisha’s Adventures sends its 13-year-old heroine back in time to 1840s Barbados, a time in which Black people are oppressed even though slavery has legally ended. Tameisha is under constant threat of being sent to work in sugar cane fields. Will she find her way back home or stay in the past for ever? Evans previous publication is Memory and Landscapes: the Works of Four Early Twentieth Century Barbadian Writers. (Source – JR Lee email)

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Refica Attwood has authored an activity book, Eco Tour: Study Guide with Puzzles and Activities, which was published in early June 2023 under the Wallings Nature Reserve Inc trademark.

(Source – RA on Facebook)

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I was hoping to finish reading my ARC of this before its release date (especially after my e-copy of her previous book, Josephine against the Sea, timed out before I could finish it. But here we are – I’m still reading Nightmare Island (about 133 of 305 pages in) but still motivated to finish.

In the meantime, let me say happy pub dat this week, June 6th 2023 specifically to Shakirah Bourne of Barbados.

Nightmare island is so far as mysterious as the name suggests with a spunky female protagonist to hook our imaginations on as we try to figure out what in the douen is going on. (Source – Shakirah Bourne on Twitter)

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New addition to the Antiguan and Barbudan Children’s Literature page – Pip the Parrotfish by Sophia Charles of Barbuda. Click the link to read about it. (Source – Daily Observer by Newsco)

Accolades

Trinidad and Tobago’s Ayanna Lloyd Banwo’s When We were Birds , recent winner of the OCM Bocas Prize, continues its winning ways, after making the short list of the Jhalak Prize, as it lands on the long list of Goldsboro Books 2023 Glass Bell Awards.

“The Glass Bell Award is judged by David [Headley, Goldsboro Books co-founder and MD, and founder of the Glass Bell Award] and his team here at Goldsboro Books. It is the only prize that rewards storytelling in all genres – from romance, thrillers and ghost stories, to historical, speculative and literary fiction – and is awarded annually to ‘a compelling novel with brilliant characterisation and a distinct voice that is confidently written and assuredly realised’. The shortlist will be announced on Thursday 27th July, with the winner – who will receive £2,000 and a beautiful, handmade glass bell – announced on Thursday 28th September 2023.” (Source – Twitter)

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Antigua-Barbuda independent media company Tarsier Strategy has won another international award – this one a MarCom International Gold Award for its work on The Tourism Authority’s #CoolisClean Campaign in the category Video/Audio | Digital Video Creation | Animation category. 

MarCom Awards honors excellence in marketing and communication while recognizing the creativity, hard work, and generosity of industry professionals. MarCom is administered by the Association of Marketing and Communication Professionals (AMCP). The international organization, founded in 1995, consists of several thousand marketing, communication, advertising, public relations, digital, and web professionals. AMCP administers recognition programs, provides judges, and rewards outstanding achievement and service to the community. (Source – Tarsier Strategy on Linkedin)

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This year’s Anthony N. Sabga laureates, including yours truly , the Arts and Letters laureate, have been feted at a grand gala in Trinidad and Tobago, and we acknowledge each of them as creatives in their own way. Science and Tech laureate Dr. Mahendra Persaud of Guyana through his research creates various strains of rice (flour and more to follow) that have helped boost production (to the benefit of local farmers and the Caribbean community in terms of better nutrition – with research, for example, looking at producing high zinc strains and lower glycemic strains of rice – and food security). Also, like any creative, he has spoken about working in isolation, being driven, wondering if your work is seen and understood, and hoping that this boosts interest and investment in more research within the region. Public and Civic Contributions laureate Dr. Adesh Sirjusingh of Trinidad and Tobago is creating a safer environment, first for gestating mothers, reducing maternal mortality, and working to be more responsive to patient needs in the public healthcare system. Talking to him, it’s clear that it’s not just about medicine but people – something I pressed for in our own public health care system in CREATIVE SPACE #11 OF 2023 – DOES OUR PUBLIC HEALTH HAVE A CULTURE OF CARE?

To be clear, none of the work I do is with the expectation of winning an award and a lot of what I apply for (the opportunities and opportunities too I share) is practical – part of building a writing career – and moments like this when you are seen or selected by others is never in my bingo card, plus I am extremely reserved and don’t do well in the spotlight but I appreciate this appreciation in great part because it allows me to continue the work that I love to do; and …I receive it (that’s the mindset). Per the citation, I was recognized for my “achievements as a writer and in full appreciation of the role [I have] played in creating an enabling environment for self-expression through storytelling in [my] home country.” The full citation and more personal and extensive reporting on laureate weekend is to be posted on my Jhohadli blog.

Each laureate’s flag was hoisted and their anthem played at the gala awards ceremony June 3rd in the Grand Ballroom of the Trinidad Hilton. Featurettes of laureates’ life and work to that point were screened (those can be viewed here) and each received Each was presented with a cheque for the equivalent of TT$500,000, an Anthony N. Sabga Awards commemorative medal, and a citation, ushering them in to the company of laureates who have been recognized since the programme was launched in 2006. More about the Sabga prize here. You will find there as well the nomination form for the 2024 awards. (Source – JCH)

Wadadli Pen News

See above re Wadadli Pen founder, me again, claiming a prize – here I am thanking my communities which includes Wadadli Pen.

(Source – me)

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When I returned from the festivities above, it was back to work on Wadadli Pen. And, as I cleared the inbox and processed the entries, these questions asserted themselves – how to fast track automating this process because this one-one-thing ain’t it, how to boost public school participation especially at the primary and to a lesser extent secondary level because the private schools are dominating, how to boost male participation because the arts are for everyone, how to spur youth participation even as we’re happy to see the 18+ writers respond enthusiastically to the opportunities opening up now that the Wadadli Youth Pen Prize project is the Wadadli Pen Inc. non-profit. I’m recognizing some of the past finalists as I clear the entries for blind judging by the authors and am happy to see the mix of continuity and new voices. Final count of 2023 Challenge entries is 101 submissions. The stats, with some things as yet undefined, also show that

-the majority are poems, followed by fiction, then by essays a distant third – love to see entrants experimenting with creative pieces

-school participation generally was down in terms of the spread if not the volume – with participating schools/educational institutions on record being past winners for schools with the most submissions – Antigua Girls High School, Island Academy, St. Andrews Primary School, St. Anthony’s Secondary, and St. John’s Catholic Primary – and one of them will be winning that prize again; as well as St. John’s Lutheran School, Sunnydale, and Princess Margaret School, and tertiary institutions Antigua State College and, for the first time, UWI (Five Island Campus). Shout out as well to youth and community groups Listen to Me and Vibrant Faith Ministries for their submissions.

As a reminder, the Wadadli Pen main prize winners, i.e. the13 people who over 15 Challenge seasons in 18 years had their names emblazoned onto the Alstyne Allen Memorial plaque sponsored by the Best of Books bookstore, to date are 2004 Gemma George (F, 18, Antigua State College); 2005 Sandrena Martin (F, 16, Antigua State College); 2006 Ayoka [Angelica] O’Donoghue (F, 17, Antigua State College); 2007-2009 – no Challenge held; 2010 – no main winner; 2011 Devra [Vanessa] Thomas (F, 18-35); 2012 Rosalie A. Richards (F, 17, Antigua State College); 2013 Asha Graham (F, 15, Antigua Girls High School); 2014 Asha Graham (F, 16, Antigua State College); 2015 Margaret Irish (F); 2016 Daryl George (M, 18-35); 2017 Kaeiron Saunders (M, 18-35); 2018 Kyle Christian (M, 18-35); 2019 – no challenge held; 2020 Cheyanne Darroux  (F, 11, Golden Grove Primary School) & Andre J. P. Warner (M, 18-35); 2021 Kevin Liddie (M, 18-35)

As noted, our 2023 awards ceremony is already being planned.

Judges are our team member and returning as chief judge author and publisher Floree Williams Whyte, team member and former Wadadli Pen finalist Devra Thomas, and owner of Ten Page bookstore, a patron, and long time associate of Wadadli Pen Glen Toussaint.

To support our work become a Patron or Volunteer or Intern. (Source – in-house)

As with all content on wadadlipen.wordpress.com, except otherwise noted, this is written by Joanne C. Hillhouse (author of The Boy from Willow Bend, Dancing Nude in the Moonlight, Oh Gad!, Musical Youth, With Grace, Lost! A Caribbean Sea Adventure, The Jungle Outside, and To be a Cheetah – the latter scheduled for July 2023 release and available for pre-order wherever you buy books at this writing). All Rights Reserved. Subscribe to the site to keep up with future updates. Thanks.

It’s Deadline Day (Wadadli Pen 2023)

May 31st 2023 is here and we look forward to receiving the final entries to the Wadadli Pen Challenge (a challenge to residents of Antigua and Barbuda to tell their story – a story imagined, a story lived, a story in any genre – fiction, essay, poem, text-art hybrid, or sub-genre horror to romance to humour).

I’ve been clearing the inbox and some trends I can report are

types of entries – mostly fiction which takes us all the way back to Wadadli Pen’s roots when it was fiction only – Wadadli Pen now accepts all genres but fiction is proving to be popular this cycle – have you got your story in?

age of entrants – mostly 18+ so far this year which is a reminder that we have always been pressed to open up the age – Wadadli Pen was for 16 and younger initially opening up from their up to age 35 per international definition of youth but now, as Wadadli Pen Inc., we’re open to everyone and the top age group has really leaped at the opportunity – submission from students is so far trickling which we know is in part due to timing – Wadadli Pen is usually in the first quarter of the year and we may have to return to that rather than this cusp of summer experiment which has taken us into exam season – one of the ways we try to boost school participation is the schools prize for the school with the most submissions but this year’s stats and I believe the trend through the years (don’t quote me on that) suggest more buy-in from private schools – and as we really want to reach those who want to not just those who can we need to figure out how to boost public school participation – with initiatives like the teachers’ prize some years ago we tried to boost teacher awareness and participation – maybe we need to look at that again – maybe more school visits which has time challenges for us- maybe re-word our direct mailings to schools and education officers and institutions – we’ll continue to figure it out – in the meantime, teachers, we know it’s another ask but can you please encourage and assist your students with getting their entries in?

gender of entrants – our main interest in this stat is in terms of interventions – why are boys less likely to write? certainly it’s not because they have less going on, less to write about. hopefully it’s not reading and writing being considered a girl thing because it isn’t – just look at any list of greatest and/or most successful writers of all time. As we do believe in the cathartic potential of all the arts, we’re hoping to encourage more from our boys without undercutting the enthusiasm and production of our girls – parents, we know your plate is alreasy full but are you encouraing the creative potential of your offspring – boy or girl?

Overall – it’s not so far one of our more plentiful years but our main concern is not the numbers but that everyone who wants to write and submit does so. Have you?

As with all content on wadadlipen.wordpress.com, except otherwise noted, this is written by Joanne C. Hillhouse (author of The Boy from Willow Bend, Dancing Nude in the Moonlight, Oh Gad!, Musical Youth, With Grace, Lost! A Caribbean Sea Adventure, The Jungle Outside, and To be a Cheetah – the latter scheduled for July 2023 release and available for pre-order wherever you buy books at this writing). All Rights Reserved. Subscribe to the site to keep up with future updates. Thanks.

Wadadli Pen Window Closing; BCLF Window Opening

Of course, you already know this if you are a regular visitor to this site and, especially, if you remember to check in periodically with our Opportunities Too page.

Wadadli Pen is our own writing challenge encouraging Antiguans and Barbudans to tell their stories. Wadadli Pen Inc. – formerly the Wadadli Youth Pen Prize – has been working to nurture and showcase the literary arts in Antigua and Barbuda 2004. The submission deadline for this year’s Wadadli Pen is May 31st 2023. Prizes will be a mix of cash and gifts across three age categories (12 and younger, 13 to 17, and 18+/adult) in addition to the main prize for the overall winner. There will also be a prize for teh school with the most submissions. See Wadadli Pen 2023 for submission guidelines.

Keep writing as right after that the Brooklyn Caribbean Literary Festival with a July 1st 2023 submission deadline. It is their fifth annual story contest, open specifically to writers of Caribbean heritage; one winner based in the US and one in the Caribbean region. There is a US$1750 cash prize for each award among other valuable gifts.

As with all content on wadadlipen.wordpress.com, except otherwise noted, this is written by Joanne C. Hillhouse (author of The Boy from Willow Bend, Dancing Nude in the Moonlight, Oh Gad!, Musical Youth, With Grace, Lost! A Caribbean Sea Adventure, The Jungle Outside, and To be a Cheetah – the latter scheduled for July 2023 release and available for pre-order wherever you buy books at this writing). All Rights Reserved. Subscribe to the site to keep up with future updates. Thanks.

Trip to the Beach for Pares Primary’s Reading Picnic (Wadadli Pen 2023)

I was invited and went in my capacity as a local author but embraced it as an opportunity not only to read but to get the children thinking about writing their own stories.

First, about the picnic. I was invited by one of my own school days friends who is now a teacher. Pares Primary principal Ms. Drew tells me they do it every year and from what I could see, the children have a number of challenges to complete including a scavenger hunt and (here’s where I come in) being read to by someone. The location was Ffryes beach and if that’s not a recipe for making reading fun, I don’t know what is. Let me set the scene.

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I took inspiration from the beach and read Lost! A Caribbean Sea Adventure.

I shared the inspiration for the story and did an oal writing exercise inspired by the story, while encouraging them to submit to Wadadli Pen 2023.

Results were mixed. Fingers crossed.

As with all content on wadadlipen.wordpress.com, except otherwise noted, this is written by Joanne C. Hillhouse (author of The Boy from Willow Bend, Dancing Nude in the Moonlight, Oh Gad!, Musical Youth, With Grace, Lost! A Caribbean Sea Adventure, The Jungle Outside, and To be a Cheetah – the latter scheduled for July 2023 release and available for pre-order wherever you buy books at this writing). All Rights Reserved. Subscribe to the site to keep up with future updates. Thanks.

Patron Update (Wadadli Pen 2023)

As theWadadli Pen Challenge 2023 submission period winds down (per submission guidelines, deadline is May 31st 2023), our team continues to work behind the scenes. One of the things we’re working on is attracting gifts which we will promptly re-gift to whomever the judges select as the Wadadli Pen 2023 Challenge finalists. We’re reaching out to past and prospective patrons, and you can reach out to us as well if you wish to support Wadadli Pen’s mission to nurture and showcase the literary arts in Antigua and Barbuda via wadadlipen@gmail.com

(Pictured – 2017 and 2020 winners holding the Best of Books sponsored Alstyne Allen Memorial Challenge plaque emblazoned with the names of all Wadadli Pen main prize winners through the years)

Wadadli Pen Inc. can so far confirm commitments from the following new and/or returning patrons:

-Pam Arthurton (a longtime Wadadli Pen patron)
-The Best of Books Bookstore (which has been a patron since 2004 and has been hosting our awards since 2012; they, also, sponsor the Alstyne Allen Memorial plaque which bears the name of all the winners and contribute books)
-The Cushion Club (which remains committed to sponsoring the prize for the 12 and younger writers in memory of late Cushion Clubber and Wadadli Pen finalist Zuri Holder)
-Danielle Boodoo-Fortuné (an award winning Trinidad and Tobago artist and writer who has history with Wadadli Pen as both a patron and judge)
-KN Consulting (which has pledged gift packages to winners in the 18+/adult and 12 and younger age categories)
-Joy Lawrence (a past patron and volunteer who will be contributing two copies of her new book The People’s Point: An Antiguan Waterfront Community)
-Ten Pages Bookstore (a local, online bookstore which returns with gifts once again for booklovers)

ETA (same day of posting): Juneth Webson (a long time patron who regularly contributes cash and gifts and jumped in the comments to offer the same) and Papillote Press (who have confirmed that they’ve shipped two each of their four teen/young adult titles)

Shout out also to:

-Media partners for hosting or boosting Wadadli Pen (especially Antiguanice.com which hosts a page on their platform, Observer Media Group which hosted team members for a re-launch on Voice of the People, and We the People which hosted team members on its People on the Corner and The Review programmes)
-Wadadli Pen team members (Joanne C. Hillhouse-books and scholarships to her Jhohadli Writing Project workshops and Floree Williams-Whyte whose Moondancer Books has once again sponsored online advertising)

We also want to express thanks to the following for their financial contribution toward advancing our goals as a non-profit:

-Barbara Arrindell (Wadadli Pen team member)
-Daryl George (winningest past Wadadli Pen patron)

Remember, you too can give; email wadadlipen@gmail.com

As with all content on wadadlipen.wordpress.com, except otherwise noted, this is written by Joanne C. Hillhouse (author of The Boy from Willow Bend, Dancing Nude in the Moonlight, Oh Gad!, Musical Youth, With Grace, Lost! A Caribbean Sea Adventure, The Jungle Outside, and To be a Cheetah – the latter scheduled for July 2023 release and available for pre-order wherever you buy books at this writing). All Rights Reserved. Subscribe to the site to keep up with future updates. Thanks.

Wadadli Pen Challenge Trivia: Who is the Winningest (Wadadli Pen 2023)

I’m noticing as I catalogue this year’s entries that (so far) we’re getting mostly stories which took me back to the first year of the Wadadli Pen Challenge, 2004 back when each entrant, 16 and younger only, was allowed up to three entries, fiction only. Yeah, Wadadli Youth Pen Prize has been through a lot of changes over the years in its journey to becoming Wadadli Pen Inc. – among them opening up to other genres, other ages, etc. Today, it’s open to all ages resident in Antigua and Barbuda (another change as in the beginning it was Antiguans and Barbudans anywhere) and who knows what other changes may come. What’s remained fix is the Caribbean in the criteria, and I don’t anticipate that changing.

Now I promised some trivia.

Who are the winningest Wadadli Pen finalists (finalists being main and category prize winners as well as runners up and honourable mentions – basically anyone who makes it to the winners’ circle)?

Covering 2004 – 2021, these are the five (six due to a tie) winningest Wadadli Pen participants –

Daryl George who collected seven prizes, including one main prize and two age category wins, over four Wadadli Pen Challenge years: hon. mention, 18-35 – 2012, 2nd placed and winning writing for two different stories, 18-35, and 2nd placed overall – 2013, hon. mention, 18-35 – 2014, winner, 18-35, and overall winner – 2016

Asha Graham who collected five prizes, including two main prize and two age category wins, over two Wadadli Pen Challenge years: third placed for one story and winner for another, 13 to 17, and winner overall – 2013, winner, 13 to 17, and  winner overall – 2014

Andre Warner who collected four prizes, including one main prize and one age category win, over three Wadadli Pen Challenge years: 18 to 35 and main prize winner – 2020, honourable mention 2018, 2021

Zion Ebony Williams, Verdanci Benta, and Chatrisse Beazer who collected four prizes, including one age category win, over three Wadadli Pen Challenge years: ZEB -honourable mention, 12 and younger – 2014, 2nd runner up, 12 and younger – 2016, 1st, 12 and younger, and 3rd overall – 2017 & VB-winner, 12 and younger and third overall – 2004, honourable mention – 2005, 2006 & CB -honourable mention, 12 and younger – 2005, 2006, and winner, 13 to 17, and 3rd overall – 2011

The five (six due to a tie) winningest educational institutions (counting student trips to the winners’ circle) –
Antigua State College – 19 trips
Antigua Girls High School – 14 trips
Christ the King High School – 8 trips
St. Anthony’s Secondary & St. John’s Catholic Primary schools – 6 trips each

Four of these schools – AGHS (2013), CKHS (2016), SASS (2021), and St. John’s Catholic Primary (2013) – were also awarded prizes for being the school with the most submissions.

ASC has the most individual main prize winners.

Will any of these champs return this year or will new voices emerge. Get your entries in by May 31st 2023 to have a shot.

For more Wadadli Pen trivia, visit our About Wadadli Pen page; and to enter this year’s Challenge, go here for our submission guidelines.

As with all content on wadadlipen.wordpress.com, except otherwise noted, this is written by Joanne C. Hillhouse (author of The Boy from Willow Bend, Dancing Nude in the Moonlight, Oh Gad!, Musical Youth, With Grace, Lost! A Caribbean Sea Adventure, The Jungle Outside, and To be a Cheetah – the latter scheduled for July 2023 release and available for pre-order wherever you buy books at this writing). All Rights Reserved. Subscribe to the site to keep up with future updates. Thanks.

What Wadadli Pen Needs (Wadadli Pen 2023)

As we are in the last week of the Wadadli Pen Challenge 2023 submissions period, YOUR ENTRIES are what we need before May 31st 2023. Challenge yourself, be inspired, write, submit. Before doing so you can even get help polishing your entries at our May 25th workshops.

To make dreams come true this Challenge period and going forward, we need YOUR CONTRIBUTIONS if you are in a position to contribute as a patron to Wadadli Pen Inc. We welcome gifts big and small, in cash and in kind.

To do the work, we need YOUR TIME as a volunteer or intern – the link explains the difference and some of the skillsets we could use. But it’s about time and commitment to community work and specifically Wadadli Pen’s mission to nurture and showcase the literary arts in Antigua and Barbuda.

One of the volunteer or internship roles would be working with our YouTube channel which continues to grow (with several new subscribers in May 2023) in spite of limited content and promotion with this month trending upward in terms of engagement generally. No surprise given that it’s Challenge season. The top trending posts of the period are all related to that.

5 – Writing tip – “let it breathe”

4 – Wadadli Pen on We the People

3 – tie –

Inspired to Write (Wadadli Pen) –

Wadadli Pen Writing Challenge 2023 (Antigua and Barbuda) – How to Enter

2 – tie –

Promoting Wadadli Pen on The Review –

Wadadli Pen Tip – Just Ride

1 – Wadadli Pen re-launch on Voice of the People –

As with all content on wadadlipen.wordpress.com, except otherwise noted, this is written by Joanne C. Hillhouse (author of The Boy from Willow Bend, Dancing Nude in the Moonlight, Oh Gad!, Musical Youth, With Grace, Lost! A Caribbean Sea Adventure, The Jungle Outside, and To be a Cheetah – the latter scheduled for July 2023 release and available for pre-order wherever you buy books at this writing). All Rights Reserved. Subscribe to the site to keep up with future updates. Thanks.

Is My Story/Poem/Essay Ready to be published? (Wadadli Pen 2023)

The ratio of people who tell me they want to publish a book compared to people who tell me that they want to write is probably 4:1 and I get it – the hunger to get your work out into the world but I often feel like they’re putting the cart before the horse. I mean, obviously, if they’re thinking of publishing a book, they’ve written something but that doesn’t mean that that something is ready to be published. Writing is the purpose of writing; publishing a book is another step altogether and a big one. & I worry sometimes that people are skipping the writing en route to publishing a book, in part because it’s easier to self-publish now than when I started out from my surveying of the landscape. But that still doesn’t mean that the work is ready to be out in the marketplace. But it sells, it makes money, people like it, you’re just a hater. I mean that’s one way of looking at it. Another way of looking at it is that I believe in writer development and that’s one of the reasons I started Wadadli Pen – to nurture and showcase the literary arts in Antigua and Barbuda. Before the baby is sent out in to the world, it has to grow – go through stages of development, which in the case of writing, may include revisions and self-editing, feedback from someone outside of yourself or from a later self who has some distance from the work (i.e. put it down and come back to it), writing groups and/or workshops, writing classes or seminars, submitting to journals and contests (test your writing in the markeplace, building a writing profile etc)…or just put the work out; that’s worked for some people. I come from a different school. & the truth is different schools can yield success; there are different paths to the goal.

I do hope that one of your paths, if you’re a writer or aspiring writer in Antigua and Barbuda takes you through the Wadadli Pen challenge.

Some of the interviews we’ve been doing to promote the 2023 challenge have included hacks or tips about writing and about submitting – the Voice of the People appearance, for instance, floats ideas to jump start new writing, while on The Review I talk about what’s meant by “keep it Caribbean” from our submission guidelines:

“the idea is to kind of re-wire our brain to think of ourselves as the center of the story; to think of ourselves as where the story starts. That doesn’t mean that you have to write a stereotypical, cliche Caribbean story. In fact, we would prefer if you didn’t. You can write any kind of genre, you can set it in outer space, you can set it in a parallel universe, you can set it in a future reality but the idea is that imaginatively, psychically center your Caribbean-ness…life as you see it but also as you imagine it.”

from The Review interview

Margaret during her We the People appearance reminds that you don’t have to be Antigua-Barbudan born (only resident) to submit; whoever you are you have a particular story to tell.

You shoud give these media appearances a listen.

And if you think you need help, sign up for one of this week’s Wadadli Pen workshops…

and just so you know I will be offering scholarships to my Jhohadli Writing Project workshops as part of the prize package.

As with all content on wadadlipen.wordpress.com, except otherwise noted, this is written by Joanne C. Hillhouse (author of The Boy from Willow Bend, Dancing Nude in the Moonlight, Oh Gad!, Musical Youth, With Grace, Lost! A Caribbean Sea Adventure, The Jungle Outside, and To be a Cheetah – the latter scheduled for July 2023 release and available for pre-order wherever you buy books at this writing). All Rights Reserved. Subscribe to the site to keep up with future updates. Thanks.

Wadadli Pen Questions Answered

What’s Wadadli Pen?

How long has it been around?

How do you enter the challenge?

What do you mean by “make it Caribbean”?

How can I support Wadadli Pen?

Just some of the questions I answered when I stopped by The Review 268.

As with all content on wadadlipen.wordpress.com, except otherwise noted, this is written by Joanne C. Hillhouse (author of The Boy from Willow Bend, Dancing Nude in the Moonlight, Oh Gad!, Musical Youth, With Grace, Lost! A Caribbean Sea Adventure, The Jungle Outside, and To be a Cheetah – the latter scheduled for July 2023 release and available for pre-order wherever you buy books at this writing). All Rights Reserved. Subscribe to the site to keep up with future updates. Thanks.

People on the Corner, We the People (Wadadli Pen 2023)

Wadadli Pen team member Margaret Irish appears on the People on the Corner programme on We the People, 93.5 FM, to promote the 2023 season of the Wadadli Pen Challenge.

Speaking to the guideline that the story be specifically Caribbean, she said, “We do not have to center a creative piece in what we call reality…you could create an alternative reality…(but) the spirit of the piece (is) Caribbean… you can set your story in any dimension that you want…so feel free to make up something outside of what we call Caribbean realities.”

Listen for more tips and guidelines, as well as the history of Wadadli Pen.

See also… this writing tip, and this writing workshop ahead of the May 31st 2023 Wadadli Pen submission deadline.

As with all content on wadadlipen.wordpress.com, except otherwise noted, this is written by Joanne C. Hillhouse (author of The Boy from Willow Bend, Dancing Nude in the Moonlight, Oh Gad!, Musical Youth, With Grace, Lost! A Caribbean Sea Adventure, The Jungle Outside, and To be a Cheetah – the latter scheduled for July 2023 release and available for pre-order wherever you buy books at this writing). All Rights Reserved. Subscribe to the site to keep up with future updates. Thanks.