Carib Lit Plus (Mid to Late May 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).

Books and Other Reading Material

Tameisha’s Adventures by Zoanne Evans. “Thirteen-year old Tameisha is tired. Tired of teachers, tired of homework generally tired of school. All she really wants to do (apart from hanging out with her friends) is to style hair. That all changes when a cosmetologist inspires her to make an unprecedented visit to the school library to research Madam C.J. Walker. In the library something goes terribly wrong and Tameisha finds herself still in Barbados, but in 1840 just post-emancipation…Will she find her way back to 21st century Barbados or will she have to stay in the 19th century and accept her awful fate?”

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The paperback edition of Ayanna Lloyd Banwo’s When We were Birds was published in 2023.

The Trinidad and Tobago author has already wracked up a bevy of awards and accolades for her debut novel (see below) and is, at this writing, on the short list for the Jhalak Prize. (Source – N/A)

Events

Soul Sations will be offering up good food for mind and body including a talk on wellness by Saran Davis on June 3rd at the G Art Gallery in Piccadilly. Scheduled performers include deejays Sistah Souljahs; singers Amanda Tappin and Rashid Walker; literary artistes Kimolisa Mings, Glen Toussaint, and MJ the Poet; with food by Vegan 100 and drinks by Timmy Time Cocktails. (Source – Kimolisa Mings on Instagram)

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My timeline was awash with pictures from the May 26th – 28th 2023 return of Jamaica’s Calabash literary festival and I’m borrowing some of them. Slideshow below.

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Slide to see Joyce Carol Oates, Johnny Temple with Padma Lakshmi, Angelina Jolie with Padma Lakshmi and Sarita Choudhury, steps with book titles, Kwame Dawes, Amina Blackwood-Meeks with Janet and Dale Mahfood, Olive Senior, and Kevin Jared Hosein. (Source – Johnny Temple, Caribbean Writers, and Calabash International Literary Festival on facebook, seasaltanddrum, Joyce Carol Oates, and Tanya Batson-Savage on twitter)

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The Antigua and Barbuda Ministry of Education‘s virtual research symposium series continues May 24th 2023 on facebook live. 6-8 p.m. The previous week’s symposium can be viewed here. (Source – Daily Observer Antigua by Newsco)

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In the UK, on June 24th 2023, Wasafiri will host an afternoon of readings & conversation, ‘Windrush: Writing the Scandal’, live in partnership with the Black Cultural Archives.

Windrush – the name of one of the ships that took them there – has become a catch-all for the post-World War 2 generation of then British West Indian citizens who went to help rebuild England, them and their generations after suffering extreme racism in the process. (Source – Ira Mathur on Twitter)

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The National Archives of Antigua and Barbuda’s inaugural marketplace and cultural exhibition is coming up on June 9th 2023. It is expected to feature local craft, maypole dancing, john bulls, moco jumbies, local foods, including a fungee eating competition, and local drinks. Vendors can call 462-3947 to register. (Source – Daily Observer newspaper by Newsco)

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‘The Historical and Archaeological Society (HAS) held the first event in its ‘Unlock the Museum’ series over the weekend, as persons passionate about Antigua’s history traversed Fort James. The ‘Unlock the Museum’ series was created to share some of the museum’s most intriguing artefacts, stories, and heritage about Antigua and Barbuda. Observer media travelled to the site of the first event in the series, Fort James, as Dr Christopher Waters, an archaeologist and expert in Antiguan fortifications spoke to us about what the ‘Unlock the Museum’ initiative means. “The idea is to bring all of this knowledge, history, material that we have to the wider public, unlocking our archives…so these field trips that we are doing now actually hark back to about 30 years ago, which was common within the Society,” Dr Waters explained.’ from Observer newspaper (Source – Facebook)

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Antiguan and Barbudan poet Dotsie Isaac debuted Senses, a spoken word event, last year to considerable acclaim and here she comes again. The event is scheduled for June 17th and benefits the local Sickle Cell foundation. ICYMI, I interviewed her for CREATIVE SPACE in 2022. (Source – Dotsie Isaac on Instagram)

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When I wrote in one of the recent Wadadli Pen 2023 Challenge posts that Teachers are the Real MVPs, I didn’t even realize it was Teachers’ Week – it was a recounting of an encounter and a celebration of one of our key partners, teachers. Well, May 14th – 21st is Teachers’ Week in Antigua and Barbuda and we are happy to join in giving them all deserved flowers. A teacher adjacent activity I wanted to mention is the Ministry of Education’s research symposium, May 17th and 24th, which you can view and/or listen from their facebook page. Symposia like this which offer research specific to Antigua and Barbuda is vital – give the findings a listen. (Source – Daily Observer newspaper)

Wadadli Pen News

ETA: Patronage update

As we’ve updated you, the 2023 season of the Wadadli Pen Challenge has launched. We can confirm that contributions from Barbara Arrindell, Wadadli Pen team member, and Daryl George, past Wadadli Pen winner, have enabled us to take the step of opening an account as a non-profit. They have been added to our 2023 patrons list, as well as individuals (Joy Lawrence), companies (KN Consulting, the Best of Books bookstore, Moondancer Books), and community groups (Cushion Club) who have committed to contributing to the 2023 challenge season, with prizes and other things (e.g. promotion). We continue to seek patronage. Contact us at wadadlipen@gmail.com if you want to contribute or volunteer/intern with us. As usual, we shout out all the media who have helped push our agenda and especially so this year – Observer Media Group, WTP 93.5 FM (which hasn’t happened yet but which we expect to this week), and apart from the Wadadli Pen blog and vlog, both of which you should be subscribed to by the way, we have a year-round presence on Antiguanice.com

I’m happy to report that entries have started coming in and we look forward to y’all overwhelming us with submissions. It’s the kind of problem we like to have. (Source – in house)

Other Opportunities

Remember to check Opportunities and Opportunities Too to make sure you never miss out on another …opportunity. One of those opportunities, specific to Caribbean and Caribbean diaspora artists, is the Brooklyn Caribbean Literary Festival short story competition, which, in part due to limited opportunities, has quickly become quite coveted. It is made more appealing by the high standards it brings to table breaking and/or elevating the vanguard of new Caribbean writing. If you feel your pen is nice, this is a challenge you want to take. They have added to the challenge; ruminate on the number 5/five. “Have you ever thought about what you would do if you only had 5 months to live? What if that time was whittled to 5 weeks or even 5 days? What would you do with those remaining moments? How would you spend your last 5 dollars in the world, knowing very well that there’d be nothing else? Thinking back, is it possible to recall the most impressionable 5 moments of your life? The number 5 is undoubtedly an important increment. From universally representing the length of the daily grind between the (often) dreaded modern work week of Monday to Friday, those 5 days which have come to define the life cycles, circadian, arcadian and social rhythms of modern human civilisation; to the perfectly appointed number of digits on each hand, 5 is a relatable and easily identifiable multiple. In the Caribbean, 5 is nature in action. Countless childhood memories have been crystallised from the tart and sweet nectar of ripe 5-finger fruit – memories headlined by mothers who have themselves wiped clean the sticky chins and fingers of their children – those lifted hands almost an act of reverential offering. Which Caribbean person can deny that carambola is the star(fruit) of the wet season? The regalia of a formed hibiscus flower has five sepals, the fragrant frangipani, 5 petals. Indeed, the number 5, as a pattern and as a unit is stamped in the conscious and unconscious memory, flora, fauna and sensory landscape of all Caribbean people. Permit us to add one more object to the magical numeric sequence of our complex and variegated Caribbean lives. This year, the Brooklyn Caribbean Literary Festival (BCLF) observes 5 years of celebrating Caribbean writers in the North American diaspora and across the yes – you got it, 5 boroughs of New York. It’s been 5 wonderful years of falling in love anew with Caribbean stories.” The submission deadline is July 1st 2023.

Details here. (Source – BCLF email)

News

The Writers Guild of America is on strike. So? What does that have to do with us? I have been paying attention to this because as both a creative and freelance writer I have had to learn and adapt industry standards to my own experience and efforts to build a career as a writer in the Caribbean as I work and as I advocate. For example, ownership and rights as relates to created content, rates, and terms of use generally have always been priority issues for me and have informed the resources I try to share on this type (passing on some of the things I have had to learn the hard way). Wadadli Pen aside, I have not had the time to give to this kind of work formally (plus I’m not really built for that) but the outcome of this could inform standards for writers anywhere going forward – e.g. re the use of AI (not just for writers, voice, image, art created are all at stake) – and signal (or not) the value of the work we do as writers. Inasmuch as I understand it, and from this great distance here, I support writers standing up for the right to own and profit from the work we do. That’s broadstrokes. This is an interesting breakdown of the issues at hand.

Per The Blacklist, “What’s at stake is nothing less than the future of writing as a viable career.” They made a strong case against scabbing or breaking the picket line by picking up the work WGA members have put down on projects produced by Guild signatory companies. As someone who has been all-in on my writing career (no net) since 2002/3, I know how important it is for the people you work with (and sometimes for the other creatives you work alongside) to understand that we must insist on the value of what we do (the right to a fair fee, an understanding of rights and ownership of our Intellectual Property etc.), so that we can eat and, hopefully, thrive. (Source – The Blacklist email)

Accolades

Young Barbudan Sophia Charles won the BarbudanGo World Oceans Day writing competition in 2022 and her winning story “Pip the Parrotfish” is being turned in to a book which will be released in June 2023. As a pre-launch activity, BarbudanGo, a non-profit on Antigua’s sister island, held an illustration competition, the winner of which is Kyrolos Greaux. He won an art book and art supplies. As for Pip the Parrotfish, BarbudanGo is in the process of planning and organizing a series of reading drives. (Source – the Daily Observer by Newsco)

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Fresh off of her win at Bocas, Trinidad and Tobago’s Ayanna Lloyd Banwo has made the short list of the Jhalak Prize.

The prize is awarded to writers of colour in the UK. Ayanna lives in the UK and her book When We Were Birds is one of six in the running, culled from a long list of 12. The three-member judging panel includes award winning UK based TnT poet Anthony Vahni Capildeo. The winner will be announced on May 25th 2023. (Source – Twitter)

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Regional winners of the Commonwealth Short Story Prize have been announced. Jamaican Kwame McPherson is the Caribbean pick.

ETA: About the regional winner for the Caribbean via Ruth Killick Publicity, “Caribbean – Kwame McPherson (Jamaica) A past student of London Metropolitan University and University of Westminster, Kwame McPherson is a 2007 Poetic Soul winner and was the first Jamaican Flash Fiction Bursary Awardee for The Bridport Prize: International Creative Writing Competition in 2020. A prolific writer, Kwame is a recent and successful contributor to Flame Tree Publishing’s (UK) diverse-writing anthologies and a contributor to ‘The Heart of a Black Man’ anthology to be published in Los Angeles, which tells personal inspiring, uplifting and empowering stories from influential and powerful Black men.”

McPherson is joined by Hana Gammon (South Africa, Africa); Agnes Chew (Singapore, Asia); Rue Baldry (United Kingdom, Canada and Europe); and Himali McInnes (New Zealand, Pacific). The overall winner will be announced on June 27th 2023. (Source – Commonwealth Foundation Creatives for Facebook)

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“CREATIVE SPACE #19 OF 2022: THE ‘HEADKERCHIEF’; HERITAGE, FASHION, CELEBRATION, AND RESISTANCE” from the Antigua and Barbuda art and culture column by Joanne C. Hillhouse is in the running for the Caribbean Broadcasting Union Caribbean Media Awards – People Choice. Anyone can vote until June 12th 2023. Also in the running are six stories by Great Belize Productions. You can view or read before voting here. (Source – CBU email)

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We previously related that several Caribbean diaspora writers were on the Women Prize Discoveries longlist and now we can report that some of them have made the shortlist: Specifically Georgina Charles, described as a “grandchild of the Windrush generation”, Paige Cowan-Hall, “the child of second generation Jamaican immigrants”, and Riana Duce, whose paternal grandparents are from St. Kitts and Nevis “where her grandfather still lives”. Credit to her Caribbean roots, Duce said, in response to a question asked of the short listed writers, “My favourite author is Andrea Levy. Small Island taught me more about the Windrush generation – and with it my own family history – than school ever did. There isn’t a book Levy wrote that I don’t adore. Her voice, her wit, the intimacy and scope of her work, and her phenomenal characters will live with me forever. ” Per the Women Prize site, “The Discoveries programme, run by the Women’s Prize Trust in partnership with Curtis Brown literary agency, the Curtis Brown Creative writing school and Audible, aims to find and support aspiring female writing talent from across the UK and Ireland and culminates in the awarding of the Discoveries Prize.” (Source – Women’s Prize for fiction email)

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.

Carib Lit Plus (Mid to Late April 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).

RIP

To Harry Belafonte, who is US born with Jamaican roots and even spent part of his childhood there with his grandpartents. Belafonte’s musical career began in the late 1940s and his breakthrough album was Calypso in 1956 which sold by the millions with career-defining songs like the still popular “Banana Boat Song/Day-O” and “Mama look ah Boo-Boo Dey”, originally recorded by Lord Melody. While no Caribbean person would crown him King of Calypso (in a world in which Sparrow exists and, for Antiguans, the Monarch), it was a title, one he wore uncomfortably, assigned him in the US, given that he brought calypso into the American mainstream. Since Belafonte’s death on April 25th 2023, social media has also been rediscovering his activism including his substantial contributions to the US Civil Rights movement and involvement in making “We are the World” happen. Belafonte was also, of course, an actor, beginning in the 1950s with Hollywood classics like Carmen Jones and Island in the Sun through blaxploitation era pics like Buck and the Preacher and Uptown Saturday Night (both directed by and co-starring Bahamian-American Sidney Poitier, another recent loss to the culture) to most recently Spike Lee’s Blackkklansman.

Art and Culture

A production team from Trinidad and Tobago was in Antigua April 23rd – 26th to film Anthony N. Sabga awards for Caribbean Excellence arts and letters laureate Joanne C Hillhouse ahead of the June 2023 awards ceremony. Joanne, founder of the Wadadli Youth Pen Prize, was announced in March as the winner of the prestigius prize for her own writing and her contribution to the literary arts culture of Antigua and the Caribbean through her advocacy, activism, and action in this space. The team also filmed public health doctor Dr. Adesh Sirjusingh in Trinidad and Tobago – he is the Public and Civic Contributions laureate for 2023 – and agri-scientist Dr. Mahendra Persaud in Guyana – the science and technology laureate. Re the shoot in Antigua, I would like to express thanks to the team producer Robert Clarke, director Ryan Gibbons and audio engineer Kerron Lemessy. as well as to Marissa Walter and the staff and students of St. Andrew’s Primary, Barbara Andrea Arrindell and the staff of The Best of Books Bookstore, Ms. Mannix and her staff at the National Publi Library of Antigua and Barbuda, the owner and staff of Sips & Tips at the Northwalk Commercial Center, my family. (Source – Me)

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National Poetry Month is an American thing, established in 1996 by the Academy of American Poets, has been embraced by poets in other places – we just call it Poetry Month over here. Let’s see how we are marking the month in Caribbean spaces. At the Poets of the Caribbean blog, they’ve shared “Dis Poem” by Mutabaraka for National Poetry Month; Zora, a platform on Medium, in “Seven Young Black Women Writers to Celebrate and Support during National Poetry Month” mentioned Aja Monet who is Brooklyn-born with Caribbean roots; and I have been sharing pieces from my 2021 Medellin virtual reading on the Poetry Month 2023 playlist on my AntiguanWriter YouTube channel. The next video is set for premiere on Saturday 22nd 2023 at 10:00 a.m. AST meaning that people can watch it with me and comment live. (Source – various)

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Ghanaian born British writer with Caribbean roots Margaret Busby, editor of Daughters of Africa and New Daughters of Africa and Britain’s first female Black publisher has been named the new president of English PEN. ‘Busby said: “For some four decades, I have admired and supported the work of English PEN, and to be able to play a part in helping that work continue is a privilege.” As president of English PEN she looked “forward to helping enable the full potential of literature worldwide, with equality of opportunity for all”.’ From the Guardian UK. (Source – Twitter)

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In other PEN News, a reminder than US-based Jamaican writer Marlon James is a guest chair of the 2023 PEN World Voices Festival in New York. He will be having a fireside chat with fellow Booker Prize winner Ben Okri on May 13th 2023. Haitian-descended Roxane Gay will be in conversation with R F Kuang. (Source – PEN gmail)

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Art week (previously written about here on the blog) began April 16th in Antigua and Barbuda. At this writing, I’ve visited the exhibition at the airport and visited Edison Liburd‘s art gallery, announced as a stop on the art hop. While this is no longer so, it was nice to visit his new location in All Saints and see some of his works in progress and finished pieces. Speaking of, here are some pieces from the exhibition (one of two main exhibitions on mainland Antigua, not to be confused with the Barbuda activities) in the arrival area of the V. C. Bird International Airport.

From left to right the artists are Stephen Murphy, Nicoya Henry, and Argent Javan, and the images are lifted from their respective social media.

ETA: The other major art week exhibition is at Boom, a restaurant and spa spot that was a gun powder magazine in English Harbour back in colonial times. Here’s a teaser but definitely go check it out for yourself if you’re in Antigua – it’s worth the visit.

Art from left to right are by Murphy, Emile Hill, and Carol Gordon.

ETA: This artversation on ABS TV was also a part of Art Week.

ETA: This CREATIVE SPACE of me on a Barbuda art hop during Art Week. With special thanks to Codrington Express Ferry Service.

(Source – I checked out both shows, watched the ABS live after being cued by Facebook, and travelled to Barbuda)

Accolades

Ayanna Lloyd Banwo’s When We were Birds has won the 2023 Bocas book prize; read about it here.

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A Caribbean writer has again made the Women’s Prize short list after Trinidad and Tobago’s Lisa Allen-Agostini (What the Devil Knead) did so last year. From 16 longlisted writers, Fire Rush by Jamaica-born British based Jacqueline Crooks is in the top six. The judges describe it as “a brilliant celebration of Black womanhood…a story about dub reggae, friendships, love, and loss which spans London, Bristol, and Jamaica”. Here’s the announcement.

Other shortlisted writers/books are Black Butterflies by Priscilla Morris, Pod by Laline Paull, Trespasses by Louise Kennedy, The Marriage Portrait by Maggie O’Farrell, and Demon Copperhead by Barbara Kingsolver. The Women’s Prize for Fiction is one of the United Kingdom’s most prestigious literary prizes. It is awarded annually to a female author of any nationality for the best original full-length novel written in English and published in the United Kingdom in the preceding year. It has been issued for the last 28 years. Past winners include African American writer Tayari Jones for An American Marriage, Nigerian wrier Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie’s Half of a Yellow Sun, British writer of Jamaican descent Zadie Smith’s On Beauty, and Jamaican British writer Andrea Levy’s Small Island. (Source – YouTube)

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Summer Goodwin of Christ the King High School has won the Antigua and Barbuda Sailing Week Harper’s art competition for 2023. It is described in the Daily Observer as a “bold image depicting the coral reef being protected by a sea goddess/mermaid.”

This year’s theme was “Society, Coral Reefs, the Sea and You”. More than 70 entries were received. (Source – Daily Observer by Newsco)

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“Hurricane Watch: New and Collected Poems by Olive Senior,” Carcanet Press, “has been shortlisted for the Raymond Souster Award! The award, from the League of Canadian Poets, is for the best new book of poetry by an active League member. The prize was established to honour Raymond Souster, an early founder of the League of Canadian poets. The winners of the League Awards will be announced at a ceremony on Thursday 4th May – you can read more about the awards here.” (Source – Nature Island Literary Festival on Twitter)

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Barbadian writer Callie Browning has a bestseller on her hands. The Girl with the Hazel Eyes is number one in Black and African American literary fiction on Amazon. “My first ribbon” she said on Twitter, with the crying emoji. Consider this your reminder to check out “Callie Browning has “done everything wrong” and That’s All Right: The Bajan Author on the Secrets to Her Success (Guest Post)” here on Wadadli Pen. (Source – Callie Browning on Twitter)

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First awarded in March 2017, the Jhalak Prize and its sister award Jhalak Children’s & YA Prize, founded in 2020, seek to celebrate books by British/British resident BAME writers. This year’s announced Bocas fiction winner When We were Birds by Ayanna Lloyd is on the 2023 longlist.

(Source – Twitter)

Events

With my story “Evening Ritual” being in the ne 2023 abridged German translation of New Daughters of Africa, I thought I’d share some of the events in case, unlike me, you happen to be in the area. Like this April 28th discussion on empire at the University of Cologne and this one on June 20th at the Orangerie Theatre in Cologne.

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Haitian-American writer Edwidge Dandicat’s Create Dangerously: The Immigrant Artist at Work has been adapted for the stage. Writer and director is Lileana Blain Cruz, a Drama League and Obie award winning, and Tony nominee. The play will be staged at Colony Theatre in Florida from May 4th – 28th 2023. This from artist director Michel Hausman: “Create Dangerously is a dream come true for Miami New Drama. We have the opportunity to work side by side with Miami native, Lileana Blain-Cruz, a Tony nominated artist, hailed as the future of the American theater. From the company’s founding it was my mission to collaborate with Lileana since we were both Artistic Fellows at New York Theater Workshop. Now, we have the opportunity to do so with a spectacular artist whom we admire and adore, a Haitian Miamian and National Book Award Winner, Edwidge Danticat. Her work is piercing, unbelievable, and like open heart surgery. Create Dangerously is a celebration ALL about the immigrant artist, an experience our company knows and feels deeply.” (Source – Edwidge Dandicat on Facebook)

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We’ve already told you, but here’s your timely update that Bocas is coming up and is once again live. This year there’s a decided focus on new and emerging writing talent from the Caribbean at the Trinidad-and-Tobago-based literary festival which will run from April 28th to 30th. Venue is the National Library in Port of Spain and a whopping 80 (!) events are planned. Booked authors include Kevin Jared Hosein, Sharma Taylor, and Cherie Jones – all of whom have been having breakthroughs in the last couple of years with major book deals, media attention, and prize listing.

“Seeking out and promoting new literary talent is something the NGC Bocas Lit Fest has become known for,” says festival and programme director Nicholas Laughlin. “It’s maybe the most exciting aspect of what we do, and we’re thrilled to have such a diverse and accomplished lineup this year. These are writers we’ll all be talking about in a decade — just as we’re right now celebrating authors like Ayanna Lloyd Banwo, who first shared her writing in an earlier Bocas New Talent Showcase years before she published her acclaimed novel When We Were Birds.” (Source – Bocas email)

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Domfesta, the Dominica Festival of the Arts, is held every May. Activities, scheduled but not organized by the Dominica Cultural Division will include…

(Source – Facebook DM)

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Carolyn Cooper previews the return of Calabash, May 26th – 28th, in Jamaica, with an Anansi spin. “Unlike Anansi, the founders of the Calabash International Literary Festival – Colin Channer, Justine Henzell and Kwame Dawes – did not selfishly hide the magical packey’s table full of nice eatables. They invited the world to share the literary feast they themselves conjured up. Since 2001, the festival has brought together a stellar cast of writers from the Caribbean and all across the globe to celebrate the power of the word. Both spoken and sung! Nobel Laureates have shared the Calabash stage with aspiring writers on the open mic. It’s an egalitarian festival.” – Jamaica Observer. (Source – Calabash Festival on Twitter)

Fun fact: I’ve been on the Calabash stage but not as an invited author (that’s still a dream) but as one of those writers scrambling (read: talking themselves into stepping) to the open mic. It was one of those feel the fear, do it anyway moments. I read from The Boy from Willow Bend and years later I realized the young writer signing us up was/would go on to be multi-multi-award winning author Marlon James. The author I was really excited (read: nervous) about meeting in real time, though, was Colin Channer and I had my fangirl moment. Channer’s Waiting in Vain was a favourite of my book club at the time and a personal favourite. It was one of those books that brought Caribbean books out from behind the glass cabinet (where they were kept at my local library) into easily accessible spaces while still, I like to think, having the respect of the academy. I was in Jamaica, along with a small contingent of Antiguan and Barbudan writers, in 2007, thanks to funding from the Commonwealth which we got together and applied for – and which I was subsequently invited to report on for a Commonwealth publication.

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.

Carib Lit Plus (Early to Mid April 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).

Art and Culture

“Folk historian Joy Lawrence (The Way We talk and Other Antiguan Folkways, Colours and Rhythms of Selected Caribbean Creoles) and antiguahistory.net have noted that ducana is even docona/dokono/odokono (sweet mouth/thing) by name in the West African languages of twi and ga-adangme.” – CREATIVE SPACE #8 OF 2023 – THE WORLD ON AN ANTIGUAN & BARBUDAN PLATE AND E BANG GOOD

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Bocas, the literary festival sponsored by the National Gas Company of Trinidad and Tobago, has announced, for the first time since pandemic lockdown, the return of its roving storytelling caravan. Its Dragonzilla mascot and professional storytellers will entertain and inspire the nation’s children at ten locations throughout Trinidad and Tobago. The Caravan is running throughout the month of April and is set to conclude at this year’s (also a return to live) Bocas Literary Festival. (Source – Bocas email)

RIP

Rest in peace to Antigua’s first calypso king, Samuel ‘Styler’ Ryan.

According to the Daily Observer by Newsco, Ryan died at 85 at his home in St. Thomas in the US Virgin Islands. Originally from Montserrat, he won the crown in 1957 with “Water wet me bed” – “It was a song about his hard upbringings in Montserat where his adopted mother would throw water in his bed to wake him up to help her bake bread.” Styler continued to make music during his time, reportedly travelling the world singing calypso with Milo and the Kings, and in his later years, as a solo artist, turning to gospel music. But in Antigua and Barbuda he is most remembered as calypso royalty, who returned for one last run of the stage some years ago

I believe this show was in the 2010s at the ARG but stand to be corrected on that. (Source – Daily Observer by Newsco)

Opportunities

December 31st 2023 – The Caribbean Writer – submission deadline for volume 38 for writers and visual artists – submitted entries are eligible for several literary prizes. The theme is “Legacies: Reckoning and Resolve”. Contributors may submit works of fiction, nonfiction, poetry, essays or one act plays which explore the ideas resonating within the region and its diaspora. The Caribbean should be central to the work, or the work should reflect a Caribbean heritage, experience or perspective. Prospective authors should submit all creative works: drama, fiction and poetry manuscripts, through the online portal ONLY. Submit Word files only (no PDFs). Note that TCW no longer accepts hardcopy submissions. Individuals may submit poems (3 maximum), short stories and personal essays on general topics as well as on the theme. The maximum length (for short stories and personal essays) is 3500 words. Only previously unpublished work will be considered. The term “previously published” covers print and electronic publication —including on social media platforms, and self-published items. The Caribbean Writer does not accept simultaneous submissions (items being considered for publication elsewhere). Artists interested in having their  artwork considered for use by TCW should submit electronic files in vertical format as PNG or JPEG files with a resolution of 300 dpi or greater. The journal also accepts black and white art (line drawings, sketches, block prints, etc.). (Source – Opportunities Too on Wadadli Pen<–Click for more opportunities)

Events

Having reported and shared some thoughts re Antigua and Barbuda art week, I return to share specifically what’s happening on the sister island, Barbuda. Running mostly con-current with the Antigua programme April 16th – 23rd, activities will include a heritage awareness race, community dance class, art hops, and steelband performances. Read more in the press release:

pressr1Download

(Source – Barbuda based Jamaican artist Artst Yaadie email)

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The PEN America World Voices Festival line-up and schedule have been announced and their are some Caribbean writers in the mix. Jamaica’s Marlon James is Festival guest chair. He will discuss a novelist’s journey to and from their second novel. James will also sit for a fireside chat with poet and novelist Ben Okri. American author of Haitian descent Roxane Gay will be in conversation with R. F. Kuang about her new novel Yellowface. (Source – PEN America email)

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Antigua’s Carnival – and notably panorama, excluded from last year’s programme – is set to return to a full programme in 2023.

(Source – Daily Observer by Newsco)

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Calabash is back.

Here is the programme. (Source – Calabash International Literary Festival on Facebook)

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Previously reported but a reminder that the Virgin Islands Literary Festival is April 13th – 16th 2023. This is the 9th iteration of the festival which is a collaboration between The Caribbean writer literary journal, a project of the University of the Virgin Islands, and the festival and book fair itself. This year’s them is “Carrying: Recognition and Repair” and the headliner is African-American author Charmaine Wilkerson (Black Cake). The release I saw said to sign up at Eventbrite.com – sorry I couldn’t find a direct link.

ETA here’s a promo

(Source – JR Lee email)

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Bright Hill Press Word Thursdays Onlines will feature two Windward Caribbean writers on April 13th 2023. Celia Sorhaindo is from Dominica. Her Radical Normalisation was published by Carcanet Press in 2022. Virginia Archer is a Saint Lucian poet and artist with a number of self-published poetry collections. The event will begin at 7 p.m. EST on zoom and facebook live. (Source – JR Lee email)

Accolades

Three Caribbean diasporic people – Lavar Munroe, David Scott, and Shara McCallum – are 2023 Guggenheim nominees. McCallum is singled out in the poetry category; she is a poet and professor at Pennsylvania State University. She is from Jamaica. Bahamian-born Munroe, a Baltimore-based artist, falls into the fine arts category. Scott is founder and editor of the Small Axe journal, among other things, and substanially professor and chair of the anthropology department of Columbia University. His win is in the anthropology & cultural studies section of the list – which is 171 persons long. Per release, “Chosen from a rigorous application and peer review process out of almost 2,500 applicants, these successful applicants were appointed on the basis of prior achievement and exceptional promise.” (Source – Tilting Axis on Facebook)

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Not sure I’ve mentioned this before but shout out (again, if I have) to Jamaican writer, US based Marcia Douglas who has been named as one of 10 writers to win one of this year’s $50,000 Whiting Awards.

Marcia Douglas’s latest novel is The Marvellous Equations of the Dread. She is also the author of the novels, Madam Fate and Notes from a Writer’s Book of Cures and Spells as well as a poetry collection, Electricity Comes to Cocoa Bottom. Since 1985, the Foundation has supported creative writing through the Whiting Awards, given annually to ten emerging writers in fiction, nonfiction, poetry, and drama. The awards, of $50,000 each, are based on early accomplishment and the promise of great work to come. (Source – Twitter)

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Twenty-eight writers from 19 countries have been culled from the 6, 642 entrants to the Commonwealth Short Story competition for the recently announced shortlist for the 2023 prize. “This year’s shortlist is a concert of voices from across the Commonwealth, showcasing the richness of its writing traditions, histories, and perspectives. These stories brim with the energy and urgency of the present moment,” said judges chair Bilal Tanweer.

Here they are:

In case you missed the Caribbean writers, here they are:

from the Bahamas – Alexia Tolas
from Guyana – Cosmata A. Lindie
from Jamaica – Demoy Lindo and Kwame McPherson
from Trinidad and Tobago – Deborah Matthews

(Source – Commonwealth Foundation Creatives on Facebook)

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The 2023 OCM Bocas Prize for Caribbean literature category winners have been announced. In Poetry, the winner is Sonnets for Albert by Anthony Joseph, published by Bloomsbury Publishing in the UK. In fiction, the winner is When We were Birds by Ayanna Lloyd Banwo, published by Doubleday Books. In non-fiction, the winner is Love the Dark Days by Ira Mathur, published by Peepal Tree Press.

Anthony Joseph is of Trinidad and Tobago and based in the UK; Sonnets for Albert is the recently announced winner of the T S Eliot Prize and was previously shortlisted for the Forward Prize for Poetry.

When We were Birds was highly anticipated since its sale was announced and it has been critically acclaimed by the likes of the New York Times and NPR. The author is also UK based, and also of Trinidad and Tobago.

Ira Mathur, author of Love the Dark Days, is by contrast in Trinidad and Tobago but originally of somewhere else, India in this case. She is a long running, award winning columnist for The Guardian. Love the Dark Days is listed among the UK Guardian’s best memoirs of 2022.

The overall OCM Bocas Prize winner will be revealed during the 13th NGC Bocas Lit Fest, which runs from April 28 to 30. Past winners of the prize are, of Trinidad and Tobago, Celeste Mohammed (fiction, Pleasantview, 2022), Kevin Adonis Browne, (non-fiction, High Mas: Carnival and the Poetics of Caribbean Culture, 2019), Jennifer Rahim (fiction, Curfew Chronicles, 2018), Robert Antoni (fiction, As Flies to Whatless Boys, 2014), Monique Roffey (fiction, Archipelago, 2013), and Earl Lovelace (fiction, Is Just a Movie, 2012); of St. Lucia, Canisia Lubrin (poetry, The Dyzgraphxst, 2021), Vladimir Lucien (poetry, Sounding Ground, 2015), and Derek Walcott (poetry, White Egrets, 2011); of the British Virgin Islands, Richard Georges (poetry, Epiphaneia, 2020); of Jamaica, Kei Miller (fiction, Augustown, 2017) and Olive Senior (fiction, The Pain Tree, 2016).

As far as publishing houses go, it’s been mostly international and pretty mixed in terms of big and small, popular and more elite presses. No clear favourites, though Peepal Tree has taken the main prize twice and no regional houses, though both Peepal Tree and Akashic have strong records of publishing Caribbean titles. Here’s the breakdown: Farrar, Straus Giroux, US (1 – White Egrets), Haymarket Books, US (1 – Is Just a Movie) Simon & Schuster/Penguin, UK (1 – Archipelago), Akashic, US (1 – As Flies to Whatless Boys), Peepal Tree Press, UK (2 – Curfew Chronicles, Sounding Ground), Cormorant Books, Canada (1 – The Pain Tree), Vintage of Penguin Randomhouse, UK (1 – Augustown), University Press of Mississippi, US (1 – High Mas), Outspoken Press, UK (1 – Epiphaneia), McClelland & Stewart, Canada (1 – The Dyzgraphxst), and Ig Publishing, US (1 – Pleasantview). A win this year would be a third for Peepal Tree, a first for any of the other publishing houses; it will be a seventh win for Bocas’ home base Trinidad and Tobago, and, of course, a first for any of the named authors. (Source – Bocas on Facebook)

Books and Other Reading Material

The We read Jamaica Kincaid project has been mentioned before here on the blog and I thought I’d share the latest companion newsletter which explores and breaks down the latest read, Lucy.

“Lucy was Jamaica Kincaid’s fourth book and second novel published by Farrar, Straus and Giroux in 1990. It marked the return of her fiction first appearing in The New Yorker. It did not restore any amiability to her working relationship with editor Robert Gottlieb who had rejected A Small Place out of hand. Leslie Garis “who often writes on the arts” noted in her October 1990 New York Times profile of Kincaid (gifted link) that a change Gottlieb wanted to make to what became Lucy was enough to keep him on her shit list. (Otherwise known as “not on speaking terms”.)” This is an excerpt; click the link to read the whole thing. (Source – antiguanwriter at gmail dot com inbox)

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Joy Lawrence continues to do yeoman’s work with her histories covering individual communities in Antigua and Barbuda with the publication, late in 2022 (sorry for the late announcement) of The People’s Point: an Antiguan Waterfront Community: with Reference to Villa.

It follows Barbuda and Betty’s Hope: The Codrington Connection, The Footprints of Parham: The History of a Small Antiguan Town and Its Influence, and Bethesda and Christian Hill: Our History and Culture. This latest has now been added to Antiguan and Barbudan Writing and Antiguan and Barbudan Non-Fiction. (Source – Antiguan and Barbudan bookseller The Best of Books)

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»Emily?«
Verons Nichte, die im Laufe des Tages schon wieder gewachsen zu sein schien, stürmte gerade zur rechten Zeit herein, um ihr beim Wegräumen der letzten Einkäufe zu helfen. Wahrscheinlich hatte sie zuerst dieses Buch versteckt, in das sie ständig schrieb. Als ob Veron nicht wüsste, dass sie es zwischen Matratze und Rahmen versteckte. Veron ließ sich auf einen Stuhl fallen.

EXCERPT “Abendritual” (“Evening Ritual” by Joanne C. Hillhouse in German)

Go to Jhohadli to read about the abridged German translation of Margaret Busby (ed.) New Daughters of Africa. The original text includes 200 writers from across the African diaspora and the abridged version Neue Töchter Afrikas contains 30 writers, including from the Caribbean Joanne C. Hillhouse (Antigua and Barbuda), Andaiye (of Guyana), Marina Salandy-Brown (Trinidad and Tobago), Verene A. Shepherd (Jamaica), and Zadie Smith (who, while British, is descended from a Jamaican mother). It goes on the market this April with a formal launch to be held in Cologne in June. (Source – me)

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.

Carib Lit Plus (Mid to Late December 2022)

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).

Obits.

Brazilian and world football legend, regarded as the greatest to ever do it Edson Arantes do Nascimento, better known as Pelé (1940-2022) has passed. He is the only man to have won three World Cups – 1958, 1962, and 1970, and his legend usurped the game.

News of his failing health due to colon cancer broke during this year’s World Cup earlier in December 2022. On December 29th 2022 news broke of his passing and the world mourned the man who had been named athlete of the century in 1999 by the International Olympic Committee and named one of Time magazine’s 100 people of the 20th century. A few tributes – this one from Scottish actor Robert Carlyle – “I’ll never forget the 1970 World Cup, the first one i truly remember. There began my lifetime love affair with the beautiful game. Brazil.. magical. This man.. sublime. One of the all time greats.. RIP Pelé”; this from Jamaican PM Andrew Holness – Pelé is the reason “so many Jamaicans are such avid Brazilian fans and whose name is synonymous with the “beautiful game” of football, a man many Jamaicans claim ownership of, and the leading player in football history”; this from US tennis legend Billie Jean King – “a true ambassador of the beautiful game has died…he was joyful and had that something special.” Former US president Barack Obama tweeted that Pelé “understood the power of sports to bring people together.” (Source – Twitter)

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Trinidad and Tobago calypso legend Leroy “Black Stalin” Calliste (1941 – 2022) died on December 28th 2022. He is a five-time calypso king perhaps best known for “Black Man feeling to Party”. More in this report from TTT Live Online:

Another of his crowd pleasers is “The Caribbean Man”.

(Source – Twitter)

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Haitian writer Odette Roy Fombrun (1917 – 2022) died on December 23rd 2022. Her extensive resume includes opening Haiti’s first kindergarten, and writing and publishing mystery novels, text books, magazines, and more. She lived in exile for 29 years, beginning in 1959, and was socially and politically active on her return – including setting up the Foundation Odette Roy Fombrun in 2007. Per the Haitian Times, “Known for proposing ‘konbitisme’ as a way to rebuild Haiti, the writer, educator, and youth advocate sought to improve Haiti’s education system and her ideas helped shape several generation of Haitians.” Her historical works include L’Ayiti des Indiens (Port-au-Prince: Deschamps, 1992) and Le Drapeau et les Armes de la République (Port-au-Prince: Deschamps, 1989). (Source – Haitian writer M J Fievre on instagram)

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Francine ‘Singing Francine’ Edwards (1943 – 2022), calypsonian out of Barbados and Trinidad and Tobago, has died. Among her popular songs are the seasonal “Hurray Hurrah”, an example of parang soca, which she helped pioneer.

The late calypso singer, who used her music to advance social concerns of particular interest to women, has been quoted as saying, “I never became involved in the calypso art form. I was born into the calypso art form.” (Source – Daily Observer by Newsco)

Accolades

Some awards news (via Trinidad Express) “Trinidadian Ayanna Lloyd Banwo, author of the acclaimed debut novel When We Were Birds, is the winner of a 2023 Eccles Centre and Hay Festival Writer’s Award. Presented to two authors each year, the award includes £20,000 to support a current writing project and a year-long residency at the British Library in London, with access to curatorial expertise and the library’s extensive Americas collections.

Jamaican poet Shara McCallum was named the winner of the 2022 Hurston/Wright Legacy Award for Poetry for her book No Ruined Stone. Founded in 2001, the Hurston/Wright Legacy Awards honour black writers in the United States and around the globe for literary achievement, in the categories of poetry, fiction, debut fiction, and non-fiction.” (Source – JRLee email)

Books and Other Reading Material

Antiguan and Barbudan lawyer, gender advocate, and photographer Annetta Walker is a contributor to the coffee table book ILẸ WA: An Homage to Home. It is a product of We are Soul – an alternative music and art community-based online platform.

There are 41 contributors from countries like Rwanda and France, Australia, the United Kingdom, Mozambique, South Africa, Nigeria, Ethiopia, Eritrea, Ghana, Jamaica, Burkino Faso, Congo etc. Of her involvement, Annetta said, “Back in 2020 I was approached by We Are Soul to be part of a creative project. I was given a live brief to create photos that captured the spirit of my home, culture and connection…After several photoshoots with friends and family, we finalised 3 images to be published in a photo book titled “ILE WA” (Our Land in Yoruba) …The ILẸ WA project aims to inspire us to continue uplifting our community and culture and evoke joy, creativity and free expression. The project also resonated with my personal politics and advocacy as 100% proceeds from the ILE WA publication will help support the We Are Soul Soul Purpose Campaign in collaboration with CWEENS an NGO based in Nigeria that provides financial, psychological and legal support to young women and children who are victims of domestic violence and sexual abuse. This is literally a mirror of the work I do at The Directorate of Gender Affairs …So I am happy to share that I am a published photographer and the proceeds from the book go to support survivors of domestic violence.” (Source – Annetta Walker on Linkedin)

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Still Standing: The Ti Kais of Dominica by British anthropologist Adom Philogene Heron and photographer Dominica born and raised, since resident in the US, Marica Honychurch, with a foreword by Lennox Honeychurch, launched December 2022. It looks at the history and importance of the ti kai to the heritage of the island. (Source – Daily Observer by Newsco)

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The Adventures of a Black Edwardian Intellectual: The Story of James Arthur Harley is a new book by Royal Society of the Arts, Royal Historical, and British Library Fellow Pamela Roberts. I’m not sure if she is Antiguan but the book was launched at the Antigua and Barbuda High Commission in London.

That’s Roberts, far right, standing next to Claire Hynes, a UK based lecturer and writer of Antiguan and Barbudan descent, who led the conversation with her about the book at the event. The book is about James Arthur Harley, born 1873 in All Saints village, Antigua, to a white landlord father and Black seamstress mother. Per the book summary on Amazon, he attended “Howard, Harvard, Yale and Oxford universities, [and] was ordained a priest in Canterbury Cathedral and was elected to Leicestershire County Council. He was a choirmaster, a pioneer Oxford anthropologist, a country curate and a firebrand councillor…Navigating the complex intertwining of education, religion, politics and race, his life converged with pivotal periods and events in history: the birth of the American New Negro in the 1900s, black scholars at Ivy League institutions, the heyday of Washington’s black elite and the early civil rights movement, Edwardian English society, and the Great War. Based on Harley’s letters, sermons and writings as well as contemporary accounts and later oral testimony, this is an account of an individual’s trajectory through seven decades of dramatic social change.” I’m not yet sure where to enter the author and the book as far as our bibliography goes, so I will hold on updating when I have time to do some more research. (Source – Claire Hynes on Twitter)

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 The Halfway Tree by True Nicks is a December release from Jamet.te Publications.

True Nicks is from Trinidad & Tobago. (Source – Jamet.te Publications newsletter)

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“The tourism industry represented for him, the new plantations by the sea,” said St. Lucian poet John Robert Lee in an interview with Jamaican writer and artist Jacqueline Bishop for her Bookends series in the Jamaica Observer. That full interview is one of the December 2022 additions to the 46th Reading Room and Gallery here on Wadadli Pen. The RR and G includes content curated for your reading and viewing pleasure. (Source – in-house)

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Veteran Jamaican journalist Earl Moxam has published Vantage Point Jamaica.

It is about his 30 years on the ground – breaking news and exposing key stories. (Source – Earl Moxam on Twitter)

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This is the second edition of The Spectator, a publication in Antigua and Barbuda.

The previous edition was published in November 2021. The 68-page second edition dropped December 2022 and includes a range of arts and culture pieces written by Ato Lewis, Barbara Arrindell, John Greene, Vellie Benta, Zahra Airall, Marissa Benjamin, and editor-publisher Petra Williams.

(Source – Petra Williams on Linkedin)

Art and Culture News

Bookstagrammer If This is Paradise is, at this writing, just about ready to kick off her #WereadJamaicaKincaid campaign.

Anyone can participate and the mission is to read all of Jamaica Kincaid’s full length, single authored works. They start in January with AT THE BOTTOM OF THE RIVER (1983).
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The discussion home base will be on Discord. To join, sign up for the Reading Jamaica newsletter.
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This Critical Conversation, initially streamed on November 29th 2022, brings together artists and activists from Africa, the Caribbean, and the Pacific to discuss the power and importance of art to the global conversation on climate change. The event features a series of innovative performances. Featuring: Diana McCaulay of Jamaica, Ina-Maria Shikongo, Audrey Brown-Pereira, Kendel Hippolyte of St. Lucia, and Okalani Mariner.

This is among the content in our Wadadli Pen Reading Room and Gallery. (Source – Diana McCaulay)

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Haitian-American writer M J Fievre’s children’s book The Ocean lives Here is being turned in to a symphony in Miami. Composer Ethan Soledad is working with the Greater Miami Youth Symphony at the Frost School of Music on the project. The Ocean lives Here was released in February 2022 and was #1 on Amazon’s list of Children’s Exploration Fiction and Haitian Travel Guides. Main character Imane goes through a magical red-blue door inside her house – one she imagines holds adventure and fun but which her mother keeps firmly closed. There, she discovers her family’s Haitian culture. In announcing the symphony, Fievre specifically thanked the Adrienne Arsht Center for the Performing Arts and indicated that the symphony will premiere during a free family fest on April 15th 2022. (Source – MJ Fievre on Instagram)

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, and The Jungle Outside). All Rights Reserved. Subscribe to the site to keep up with future updates. Thanks.

Carib Lit Plus (Early to Mid November 2022)

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).

Opportunities

The last Jhohadli Writing Project of 2022 is December 2nd 2022. Participate virtually. Also see Opportunities Too.

jwp-december-2022Download

Wondering if the JWP is for you? Participants this year have included someone hoping to learn more about the business of writing while considering a self-publishing journey (“I learned quite a bit about the writing process”), someone revising a Caribbean-set novel who wanted the perspective of a Caribbean editor (“strengthened my pages”), someone hoping to overcome the fear and lack of confidence keeping them from writing (“I feel my confidence building”), and a newcomer taking her first writing workshop who said she felt comfortable and participated fully in the environment created. Your goals are your own, but I really try to meet participants where they are. People have participated from the Caribbean and the US; so, as a reminder, it’s virtual, you can participate from anywhere. (Source – me)

Art and Culture

An Antiguan and Barbudan designer, Danielle McCoy, had a hand in the creation of the Nigerian uniform worn during the Winter Olympics earlier this year.

Per this Essence article, the outfits were produced by a brand known as ActivelyBlack. It was one of the top designs according to major tastemakers, alongside well established international brands like Ralph Lauren and Puma. Danielle worked with Jordan Jackson, both of AmenAmen Studio on the look. (Source – N/A)

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Barbadian songstress and international superstar Rihanna is now part of the Black Panther universe with her contribution of “Lift me Up” to the blockbuster’s sequel’s soundtrack. It’s haunting melody is a reminder that the second film arrives without its titular lead played by Chadwick Boseman who died of cancer between this and the previous film. RIP to him. Take a listen.

(Source – Twitter)

ETA – In further Black Panther news, via Variety, the sequel to the seminal Marvel cinematic universe film, Wakanda Forever, took in US$180,000,000 domestically (i.e. in the US). It is the second biggest domestic debut of the year after the latest Dr. Strange, another MCU film. I checked Box Office Mojo, and this is already the 9th top grossing film of 2022. Wakanda Forever‘s international take for its opening weekend was $330,000,000. Why do we care about this at Carib Lit Plus? The Caribbean representation, of course, with Guyana born British actress Letitia Wright (Shuri) and Tobago born US actor Winston Duke (M’baku) revived their star-making roles. Also Haiti is trending. Comments from Twitter:

*Spoiler alert*

“Two scenes in the #BlackPanther movie are set in #Haiti! Actual footage of Cap-Haïtien made it to the big screen. Haitian Creole and even our local transportation, tap taps, are in the movie. An important character is named after our national hero, Toussaint…Historically, major cinematic films that have portrayed #Haiti have emphasized zombies, poverty, demons, just pure darkness. They’ve silenced our glorious past & our present beauty. #BlackPanther has begun to shift the narrative.”

“Cap-Haitien, Haiti just popped up as a location in Black Panther: Wakanda Forever and they are speaking Kreyol!”

“Shoutout to black panther for their representation of Haiti in the movie.”

The shoutouts are plentiful and have even moved off twitter, with karukerament.com blogging about “How Black Panther 2 introduces the Caribbean to the World (afro)”. The post celebrated the uncharacteristic positive representation of the island: “Listen, if you had told me that one day I would watch an MCU movie without the need for subtitles because the dialogues are in Haitian Creole, I would never have believed you. Never. And not only did they aim for the authenticity of the language, but they also linked the history of Ayiti to the history of Wakanda. They tied the history of the first black Republic to the history of the only black nation that was never colonized. They did not create a hierarchy. They just put them together as two equal parts of the Afro world. We are what we are, we don’t need to hide it and no one can take it away from us.”

(Source – Facebook)

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A biopic of reggae legend Jamaica’s Bob Marley is in the works. Kingsley Ben-Adir, a British actor with a Trinidadian mother and white British father, has been cast to play him. Ben-Adir was last seen playing Malcolm X (whose mother, Louise Little, was Grenadian by the way) in One Night in Miami. Variety also reports that the screenwriter (Zach Baylin) and director (Reinaldo Marcus Green) behind King Richard, about Richard Williams, the father of tennis greats Venus and Serena, a role that recently won Will Smith his first Oscar, are attached. (Source – Twitter)

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Late calypso giant Rupert ‘Swallow’ Philo’s family has donated instruments – a full set of steel pans and drum set – to Nelvie N. Gore Primary School. This is the former primary school of Willikies, Swallow’s home village. One of his dreams was the establishment of a music department at his alma mater and Vernon ‘Dr Solo’ Benjamin advocated for the department to be named in his honour. (Source – Daily Observer newspaper, Antigua)

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A reminder to check out my CREATIVE SPACE column especially the 2022 series, the most recent of which focussed on collaging with St. Lucian sister Catherine-Esther and Kelsey.

(Source – me)

Events

Peepal Tree Press has collaborated with the Out of Many Festival to bring Book Club events in October and November. Still to come are The Merchant of Feathers with Tanya Shirley on November 18 and Prophets with Kwame Dawes on December 2. (Source – JRLee email)

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I’m seeing reports around social media about the BVI Lit Fest, like this one from Jamaica born Barbados based writer Sharma Taylor, whose debut novel What a Mother’s Love don’t teach You landed this year.

“Had the absolute pleasure of recently participating in the 2nd annual BVI Lit Fest in beautiful Tortola www.bvilitfest.com The Governor, Premier, Dr. Richard Georges and his team at the H Lavity Stoutt Community College were amazing hosts! Book lovers, please put this event in your calendar as a ‘must attend’ event for next year! I met some awesome writers there!”

Sharma is pictured to the left of the image taken from her facebook page.

The BVI Literary Festival ran from November 3 – 6 2022 in Tortola after being founded (virtually) in 2021 as part of the Department of Culture’s Culture and Tourism Month activities and operates in collaboration with the H. Lavity Stoutt Community College. This year’s line-up included well known Caribbean writers like Trinidad and Tobago’s Andre Bagoo, USVI based editor of The Caribbean Writer literary journal Alscess Lewis-Brown, the USVI’s Tiphanie Yanique, Grenada’s and the Virgin Islands (British and US’) Tobias Buckell, Jamaica’s Kei Miller, and BVI poet laureate himself Richard Georges. (Source – Sharma Taylor’s Facebook)

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Montserrat’s Alliouagana Festival of the Word returns with book launches, movie screenings, and activities for the children.

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The featured films are The Fab 4 & The Silent Retreat, written by Jamaican-Canadian Diane De La Haye and directed by UK born Sint Maarten based filmmaker Peter Sagnia

and

Deep Blue, written and directed by Antigua and Barbuda’s Howard Allen

Festival dates are November 17 – 19. (Source – Nerissa Golden on Linkedin)

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Spilling Ink’s Poetry in the Park returns with an art and open mic event on November 26th. Featured artist is Laikan whom I wrote about in a recent CREATIVE SPACE and whom you can listen to on my Spotify list. Venue is the 90s Restaurant and Lounge on High Street in St. John’s, Antigua, 6:30 – 10:00 p.m. If you want to really dig in to the archives, check out my CREATIVE SPACE on Spilling Ink. (Source – Laikan on Instagram)

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November 13 – 20 is the Miami Book Fair. This is the 2022 schedule. As usual, there will be a strong Caribbean presence, primarily through the Read Caribbean programme. Highlights include a pre-event, on November 12, “Original Roots: The Sound & Story of Jamaican Tradition” featuring Jamaican poet laureate Olive Senior, “Our Beautiful and Corrupted Islands”: Pamela Mordecai, Mc. Donald Dixon & Celeste Mohammed on November 19, “Out of Many, One People”: Olive Senior, Dionne Irving & Jonathan Escoffery on November 19, and Zain Khalid, Leila Mottley & Elizabeth Nunez: A Conversation on November 20. The Miami Book Fair dates back to 1984 and is today considered one of the most comprehensively programmed book fairs in the US. This year includes participation by authors both in-person and virtual (e.g. Trinbagonian author of Bocas winning Pleasantview Celeste Mohamed has announced that she will be part of Miami Book Fair online activities the named Read Caribbean panel discussion, an interview with fellow Trini writer Tracey Baptiste, and a podcast interview with Marva Hinton). (Source – Celeste Mohamed on Instagram)

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Antiguan and Barbudan artist Heather Doram has a show coming up.

(Source – Facebook)

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Caribbean book and lifestyle influencer Book of Cinz is reporting a successful staging of her first reading retreat in the nature isle, Dominica. Round two will be held in October 2023 and interested readers of Caribbean lit can already sign up here. Meanwhile, her next virtual book club meet-up to discuss Irish Trinidadian author Amanda Smyth’s novel Fortune will be on November 29th 6-8 p.m. (Source – Book of Cinz newsletter)

Books

I-ROY by Eric Doumerc, with various contributors, is a book about the prolific and talented Jamaican deejay, Roy Samuel Reid, 1942-1999. He enjoyed a hugely successful recording career in the 1970s but died of heart failure relatively young after two decades of declining health and output. Belated recognition has come following the selection of his song ‘Sidewalk Killer’ to feature in the 2004 video game Grand Theft Auto San Andreas and this timely re-appraisal reviews his life’s work and achievements in sound and lyrics. (Source – JRLee email)

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UK based Trinidad and Tobago writer Ayanna Lloyd Banwo’s When We were Birds dropped this year. It is described as “a mythic love story” and has been widely acclaimed. In addition to the print and ebook editions, there is also an audio version using the voices of Trinidad actors/readers, sourced with assistance from the UTT’s theatre programme, Wendell Manwarren and Sydney Darius. “I wouldn’t have it any other way,” said the writer. (Source – N/A)

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US based Jamaican children’s book writer Renaee Smith has announced a couple of new titles, bringing her total book count to 10 – seven of them children’s books. The new titles are Dorianne the Baker, written with Nella Perrier and Freddie learns the Value of Money. This book is an introductory book for children ages 5-12 that teaches them the value of money. It introduces the basic financial concepts of saving and budgeting, from earning money from chores to spending money earned in stores. 

This seems to be the fifth in a Freddie series of books. (Source – Renaee Smith email)

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ESPJr. of Trinidad and Tobago have uploaded a number of early readers – such as the Ready Set Hatch! storybook, Spanish language edition, and colouring book; The Most Magnificent, about the sentient (in the story) seven magnificent houses along Trinidad and Tobago’s Queen’s Park Savannah; Alex the Awesome & the Crazy Quest for the Golden Pod, about a secret agent agouti; and the Agriman series of adventures. All written by Jeunanne Atkins, storyteller and co-founder of ESPJr with former teacher Andrea Alkins. (Source – N/A)

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Caribbean book influencer ifthisisparadise on instagram has announced a Jamaica Kincaid read-a-long for 2023 – 2024.

Jamaica Kincaid was born Elaine Potter Richardson in Ovals, Antigua so this is exciting news and I had to share. They’ll be reading in publication order beginning with At the Bottom of the River (1983), and continuing, I assume, with Annie John (1985), Annie, Gwen, Lilly, Pam, and Tulip (1986), A Small Place (1988), Lucy (1990), The Autobiography of My Mother (1996), My Brother (1997), Talk Stories (2001), My Garden (Book) (2001), Mr. Potter (2002), Among Flowers: A Walk in the Himalayas (2005), See Now Then (2013), Party: A Mystery (2019) – I’ve bolded the ones I’ve read and linked the ones I’ve reviewed. Maybe a chance to read the ones I haven’t? (Source – Karukament newsletter)

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Of Rivers and Oceans is Dominican author, Anella Shillingford’s second poetry collection after 2019’s Bonfire. It was launched at the Portsmouth Branch Library in September 2022. A press release from the author described the publication as “a celebration of heritage, history, healing, and home.” (Dominicanewsonline.com) (Source – N/A)

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Young participants in the Antigua and Barbuda Film Academy, a development arm of the Motion Picture Association of Antigua and Barbuda have published a book of stories they worked on during the pandemic. The book is called Love Friendship & Betrayal: An Anthology of Lessons Learned and the authors are Joel Lewis, Noah Yeboah, Destiny Simon, Delicia Howell, Shenika Bentick, and Sheneilla Somerset. Abigail Piper is credited as development editor. The publisher is Dr. Noel Howell’s I & I Books. The authors also acknowledged, in their preface, the contribution of Wadadli Pen founder Joanne C. Hillhouse whose services to the project included workshop facilitation and copy editing. “Once we started the in-person workshops with Ms Joanne Hillhouse, I was re-energized. … I realized that writing is more than physically putting pen to paper. We were able to use all our senses and feelings to create emotions that our readers can relate to. This workshop opened my eyes to various aspects of writing.” wrote Destiny. Shenika also wrote that the workshops, “helped boost my own self-confidence and helped me in writing this story.” Delicia commented on how the process helped her deal with real life issues. “As I developed the plot and addressed these fears, I realized that some of them were my own fears expressed in different situations. This type of self-reflection was new to me and I was able through these fictious characters to better deal with my own insecurities.” The stories were originally intended to be productions but due to the lockdown plans were changed, with participants working with each other remotely to develop their scripts for publication. Sheneilla said, “The zoom meetings and workshops were very helpful and assisted me with the many corrections and rewrites I had to do. I also learned many new things about writing. I had fun creating characters and putting them in situations that created conflict and drama. Receiving feedback from a professional writer was eexciting and encouraging. The critique sessions with my writing partner also helped me to stay focussed and motivated.” The book’s summary focusses on the in-between status of teenagers who are neither teens nor adults but young people dealing with feelings like fear, pain, and loneliness, using the literary arts as a vehicle. These same teens scripted the 2022 short film, also produced by Dr. Howell, Don’t hit me Pickney. Film and book were released during a red carpet event at the Dean William Lake Cultural Centre on October 31st 2022. (Source – me)

ETA – report of the book launch in the Daily Observer –

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Accolades

Trini writer, British based, Anthony Joseph was named to the short list of the T S Eliot Prize alongside nine other poets. Per The Guardian, “He is shortlisted for Sonnets for Albert, an autobiographical collection that weighs the impact of growing up with a largely absent father.” The winner will be announced on January 16th 2023. (Source – JRLee email)

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Jamaican artistes Spice, Koffee, Skillibeng, Popcaan, Shenseea, and Sean Paul are contending for the Best Caribbean Music Award in the UK’s MOBO (Music of Black Origin awards).

Last year’s winner of this award is Shenseea, above right, wearing Antiguan and Barbudan designer Shem Henry, pictured left, whom I wrote about in CREATIVE SPACE.

MOBO is celebrating its 25th anniversary. (Source – Antigua and Barbuda’s Daily Observer newspaper)

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The winners of Dominica’s Independence Literary Competition are Arrundell Thomas (Dominica between Sentences), English poetry; Ian Jackson (Orvince Gone), short story; and Jules Pascal (Bondye ka Mété), kweyol poetry.

(Source – Nature Island Literary Festival on Facebook)

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Antiguan and Barbudan writer Gayle Gonsalves has received additional awards for her novel My Stories have No Endings: an Independent Press Award distinguished favourite & Next Generation Indie Book Award grand prize, second place, fiction, and winner, multicultural fiction. See more re recently awarded Antiguans and Barbudans. (Source – Gayle Gonsalves on social media)

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I thought I had posted the Bocas children’s lit prize long list but maybe that was a fever dream. Here’s the short list.

I write Rhymes: A Novel by Nadine Johnson
Zo and The Forest of Secrets by Alake Pilgrim
The Whisperer’s Warning by Danielle Y C Mclean
The Land Below by Aarti Gosine

(Source – Bocas Lit Fest on Facebook)

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Twelve young artists from Barbuda participated in the second annual Barbuda Youth Art Workshop and Competition in October 2022; three took home top prizes. Four on scene judges plus viewers via social media weighed in on favourite art works. Kyrollos Greaux (art: Under the Sea – the Big Coral Race) won in the 10-12 age group, Trinity Whyte (art: Postcard from Barbuda) won in the 13-15 age group, and Makaida Whyte (art: The Sound of Music) won the 16-18 age group. Each winner received EC$500.

(Source – Antigua and Barbuda’s Daily Observer newspaper)

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Jamaica-born Brits (pictured) Yvonne Bailey-Smith’s The Day I feel off My Island and Leone Ross’ This One Sky Day were this year shortlisted for the Diverse Book Awards. It is a UK based awards recognizing books featuring characters not typically or widely represented. (Source – Myriad Editions email)

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Shabier Kirchner of Antigua and Barbuda has been invited to join the Motion Picture Association of America. While I am not sure if any Antiguans and Barbudans have been a part of the Oscar-voting body in the past, I can say that either way it’s a rare opportunity and Kirchner is one of only 10 cinematographers in the 2022 class.

Kirchner has won awards from the New York Film Critics Circle, the Los Angeles Film Critics Association Awards, and the British Academy Television Craft Awards for his work on the Small Axe anthology. (Source – Bert Kirchner)

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Dr. Noel Howell, medical practitioner and filmmaker, who works with the young people of the Antigua and Barbuda Film Academy, while announcing the release of student production Don’t Hit Me Pickney announced that it had received an award as best student production at CommFestt, a film festival in Canada.

See Playwrights and Screenwriters (the Antigua-Barbuda Connection) for this and more productions from Antigua and Barbuda. (Source – Dr. Noel Howell/ABFA/MPAAB)

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The Antigua and Barbuda Film Academy presented awards to four people at the October 31st 2022 premiere local screening of CommFestt award winning student film Don’t hit me Pickney and launch of book of student stories Love, Friendship, and Betrayal: An Anthology of Lessons Learned – executive produced and published, respectively – by Antigua-born, US-based pediatrician and filmmaker Dr. Noel Howell. Wadadli Pen founder Joanne C. Hillhouse who has worked with the AFA as an editor and workshop facilitator was the night’s first awardee, her plaque for her commitment to the advancement of literacy in Antigua and Barbuda.

Meanwhile, for their contributions to the development of film production in Antigua and Barbuda, producers and former heads of the Motion Picture Associstion of Antigua and Barbuda Howard Allen, Dr. Alvin Edwards, and Bert Kirchner were awarded as well. Kirchner is the country’s film commissioner and is responsible for bringing a number of film and commercial productions to Antigua and Barbuda. Dr. Edwards, an ophthamologist, has been involved in production of high profile arts events like Romantic Rhythms in addition to producing films like Once in an Island and publication of its companion book. Allen is part owner with his wife of HaMa, Antigua and Barbuda’s pioneering filmmakers and still the most prolific producer of features (The Sweetest Mango, No Seed, Diablesse, The Skin, Deep Blue). The event was hosted by the Motion Picture Association of Antigua and Barbuda of which the Film Academy is a part. (Source – me)

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November 1st was Antigua and Barbuda’s 41st anniversary of Independence, and at that day’s Ceremonial Parade a number of national awardees were announced as per normal. They included members of the arts community. I don’t have the full list (at this posting and I have never understood why the official list is so hard to find) but per reporting in the Daily Observer newspaper, among them are calypsonian Oliver ‘Destroyer’ Jacobs and pannist Patrick Johnny Gomes. Jacobs, a veteran of the field both on stage and with his pen is now GCH – meaning Grand Cross, the Most Precious Order of Princely Heritage, and Gomes is MH – Most Precious Order of Princely Heritage.

(photo credit Nathaniel Edwards/Facebook)

Jacobs, whose respected position within the Antigua and Barbuda calypso fraternity translated in to classics but not crowns told Observer that this honour is “not for me alone, it’s for all the calypsonians who never won a crown and kept on going.”

(Destroyer back in 2007, I believe, accepting a National Vibes Star Project award)

(Source – Daily Observer newspaper)

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, and The Jungle Outside). All Rights Reserved. Subscribe to the site to keep up with future updates. Thanks.

Carib Lit Plus (Mid to Late January 2022)

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).

RIPs

Eduardo Pyle, leader of the Antigua and Barbuda soca monarch band and longstanding member of the calypso monarch band in over two decades of involvement in culture and the arts, has died. “For Eduardo, what mattered most was the delivery of the most impeccable quality of the music during our annual summer festival,” said chairman of the festivals commission Maurice Merchant. (Source – Newsco’s Daily Observer)

Events

The Brooklyn Caribbean Literary Festival’s menu of programmes includes a reading group, Unruly Islands: Uprising and Revolts, in collaboration with the the Center For Fiction. See their website for information on this and other programmes. (Source – BCLF email)

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Antiguan and Barbudan writer and bookseller, and Wadadli Pen team member, Barbara Arrindell is one of the resource people for an upcoming seminar entitled ‘The Journey of a Book’. Click here to register. (Source – email)

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I mentioned, in the late November 2021 Carib Lit Plus that the BCLF short story awards event was upcoming. Now here’s the video.

“Well, the thing is publishers respond to readers, to the market, and, so this is really a job for all of us. For the writers and the readers. And it’s a job for the readers to bring that attention because if the publishers see that there are readers for our work…it begins with us.” – Elizabeth Nunez, sharing this excerpt from the video, from the author for whom the BCLF short story prizes are named, to remind us all to #buyCaribbean #readCaribbean (Source – N/A)

Publications

We’ve mentioned Sea Turtles before but St. Kitts-Nevis writer Carol Mitchell has two other Big Cat books – Kay and Aiden’s The Tram Bell and The Stolen Trumpet. A graphic novel series based on the adventures of a pair of twins.

Illustrations are by London artist Alan Brown. Mitchell, in addition to being an author, is a publisher (Caribbean Reads Publishing). (Source – N/A)

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Catching up on some late 2021 releases. Like this one from Antigua and Barbuda.

Written by former aerodome superintendant Growing with VCBIA: VC Bird International 1965-2008 is the story of Antigua and Barbuda’s former international airport “beginning with the first airplane of the historic Lindberg of Pan Am fame, which landed pretty close to what would become our present airport, this avid aviator carries us on a journey …Starting with the Americans who sought to establish air and sea bases throughout the region for World War II activities which were then converted to civil airport use controlled by local government….Throughout the book the theme of building and growing is emphasized.” (from a review by Makeda Mikael in the November 26th 2021 edition of the Daily Observer). This one was added to the Antigua and Barbuda Writings and Antigua and Barbuda Non-Fiction databases late last year. (Source – Newsco’s Daily Observer)

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Belonging: Fate and Changing Realities is Herman Ouseley’s (Lord Ouseley’s) compelling account of his extraordinary life experiences. This vivid memoir describes how he coped with all challenges and, along the way, learnt how to develop methods to convince and persuade powerful people to use their influence to help eliminate the adverse effects of institutional discrimination, prejudice and bigotry. Over nearly six decades dedicated to public service, he became a ‘somebody’ at times, as he challenged the ‘great and the good’ in pursuit of equality and cohesion. He reflects upon contemporary Britain, knowing that there is still a struggle to achieve responsible and accountable leadership. The release date is listed as September 2021. Published by Hansib. (Source – Hansib email)

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Get Up!: A Collection of Inspiring and Encouraging Commands is the latest book from relatively new Antiguan and Barbudan author Stancel C. Roberts who last year released An Island Girl’s Inspiration from Above. Both are motivational books. Roberts is a staff auditor with the government, and also, per her linkedin, a motivational speaker and lecturer at the Antigua State College. (Source – N/A)

Shout Outs

To Peepal Tree (producer) and Malika Booker (host) of New Caribbean Voices podcast. It’s been keeping me company this night in January with conversations with writers like Anton Nimblett and the several poets (Tanya Shirley, Ishion Hutchinson, Vladimir Lucien featured) featured in the rare poetry collection unearthing the experiences of British West Indians fighting in the first World War. I have written in CREATIVE SPACE about some of our experiences in World Wars 1 and 2 and think not nealry enough is known or understood about our role in these major battles (Hollywood white washes the Black and Brown people from their historical war films). But we were there.

Published in 2018, this book was a collaborative project, co-commissioned by 14-18 NOW, BBC Contains Strong Language, and the British Council.

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To two Antigua-Barbuda sites of interest which are in the running for the top Caribbean attraction as voted by readers of USA Today (you can vote too, by the way). Normally we don’t do tourism-centric posts around here but the two named sites (Nelson’s Dockyard and Wallings Nature Reserve) have historical and/or cultural value and have been covered either on this blog or on my own Jhohadli blog. Specifically, CREATIVE SPACE #4 of 2019 – What’s happening at Wallings?, and Nelson’s Dockyard: On Becoming a World Heritage Site and CREATIVE SPACE #18 of 2021 – Clarence House and the Complicated Landscape of Our Colonial Past.

“Image 33: Nelson’s Dockyard 2” P. 55, The Art of Mali Olatunji: Painterly Photography from Antigua and Barbuda by Mali Olatunji and Paget Henry.

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Ben Fox, founder at Shepherds.com who invited me to write a book recs post, subject of my choice. I used the opportunity to share some of my favourites from the CODE Burt Award for teen/young adult Caribbean literature. Click The Best Teen/YA Caribbean novels for readers everywhere to see which five I picked and why. (Also see what books I read – and reviewed – in 2021). (Source – Me)

Accolades

One Caribbean book which made it on to the Women’s Prize 2022 favourite books read, broken down by year of publication, as chosen by their readers, is Monique Roffey’s The Mermaid of Black Conch. (Source – Women’s Prize email)

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In addition to being a politician, Antigua and Barbuda’s Selvyn Walter was an art collector, writer (including popular column series like Not a Drum was heard and the book Bank Alley Tales), and founding member of the Grays Green based Halcyon Steel Orchestra which marked its 50th anniversary in 2021., and his creative pursuits are being recognized (posthumously) by the Sunshine Awards Organization. The US-based awards was founded in 1989 by Gilman Figaro Snr. Past awardees from Antigua and Barbuda are, in 1992, King Progress for best political commentary (Heaven Help Us), in 1999, female vocalist of the year Althea ‘Singing Althea’ Williams (Violence), in 2002, calypso monarch King Short Shirt named to the Hall of Fame, in 2003, soca artists Burning Flames (Children Call Een), in 2004, calypsonian Paul ‘King Obstinate’ Richards named to the Hall of Fame, in 2008, Rupert ‘King Swallow’ Philo, now deceased, named to the Hall of Fame in 2008 after winning best party calypso, best engineered recording, and best calypso in 1989 (Fire in the Backseat) and best social commentary in 1997 (CDC), in 2011, pannist Aubrey Lacua Samuel, in 2012, Dr. Prince Ramsey for music production and Rawdon Edwards for contribution to the performing arts, and, in 2015, Antigua State College principal Dr. Alister Francis (posthumously) for education. Other 2021 Sunshine Awardees are Barbados’ Ian Estwick, Nigeria’s Oluyinka Olutuye, Trinidad and Tobago’s Shakuntala Thilsted and Ainsworth Mohammed, St. Thomas’ Verne Hodge, and legendary Guadeloupean band Kassav. (Source – Newsco’s Daily Observer)

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A Trinbagonian writer has landed on the UK Observer’s list ‘Introducing our 10 Best Debut Novelists of 2022‘. “The class of 2022 reminds us that the novel is a form without limits or rules,” the publication writes of the list that includes Ayanna Lloyd Banwo’s When We were Birds, forthcoming in February from Hamish Hamilton. She and her book are described as “an important new voice in fiction, at once grounded and mythic in its scope and carried by an incantatory prose style…When We Were Birds is both a love story and a ghost story – the tale of a down-on-his-luck gravedigger and a woman descended from corbeau, the black birds that fly east at sunset, taking with them the souls of the dead.” She describes the Bocas Lit Fest in Trinidad as a turning point in her writing, an awakening followed by the MA programme at University of East Anglia in the UK where she has lived for the last five years. (Source – Facebook)

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The winners of the Caribbean Readers’ Awards 2021 have been announced. This is the second year of the Rebel Women Lit book club’s awards initiative; 500 votes were counted. Trinidad and Tobago’s Celeste Mohammed’s Pleasantview won best novel (adult); Jamaica’s poet laureate Olive Senior’s Pandemic Poems won best poetry collection; Curaçao’s Radna Fabias’ Habitus won best translation; Jamaica’s Kei Miller’s Things I have Withheld won best non-fiction book; and ‘Bomber and the Breadfruit Tree‘ was adjudged best RWL magazine piece. Congrats to all. (Source – RWL Facebook)

Opportunities

From Short Story to Novel Part 2 with Sharma Taylor is the first Bocas workshop of the year on January 29th 2022. Sharma’s first novel, What a Mother’s Love don’t Teach You, drops this year. She has been hugely successful as a short story writer winning the 2020 Wasafiri Queen Mary New Writing Prize, the 2020 Frank Collymore Literary Endowment Award, and the 2019 Johnson and Amoy Achong Caribbean Writers Prize; being twice shortlisted for the Commonwealth Short Story Prize and being a finalist for the 2020 Elizabeth Nunez Award for Writers in the Caribbean. Sharma will share her experience, tools and techniques in transferring the craft and technique of short-form fiction to a successful novel, building your career as an emerging writer. This seminar is suitable for writers who participated in Part 1 last year, as well as new participants.  Register here. (Source – Bocas email)

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Consider this one an opportunity to pay it forward. April 29th 2022 is the deadline to recommend writers for the Royal Society of Literature’s International Writers Programme, which is supported by the Authors’ Licensing and Collecting Society and the International Authors Forum. The RSL, founded in 1820, is the UK’s charity for the advancement of literature. Nominate writers for the International Writers Programme who are not resident in, nor citizens of, the United Kingdom, have published two outstanding works of literary merit (written or translated in to English). Twelve writers will be selected. Last year’s selectees were Don Mee Choi, Annie Ernaux, David Grossman, Jamaica Kincaid, Yan Lianke, Amin Maalouf, Alain Mabanckou, Javier Marías, Ngũgĩ wa Thiong’o, Claudia Rankine, Olga Tokarczuk and Dubravka Ugrešić. Make your nominations here. (Source – RSL email)

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The Poetry Channel on You Tube has extended an invitation to poets worldwide to contribute to the channel run by Indran Amirthanayagam (email him at indranmx@gmail.com). He hosts contemporary poets reading their work and wishes to present an archive of essential poems and without any language limitation. So you might hear poems in English, Spanish, Portuguese, French, Tamil, Uzbek, Haitian Creole and Arabic. The channel also features an occasional series called Speaking With Poets, which already includes programs with Mervyn Taylor and Martin Espada. If you would like to be featured, send poetry videos (one poem per video) – you can record yourself and send or the host can set up a zoom meeting. Indran Amirthanayagam also edits The Beltway Poetry Quarterly with Associate Editor Sara Cahill Marron, and welcomes poetry submissions. (Source – JRLee email)

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“I was nervous at first to do the exercises and to read my first draft out loud, but it was fun in the end.” – US based participant in the Jhohadli Writing Project, my (Wadadli Pen founder and coordinator, and author Joanne C. Hillhouse) workshops currently being offered online. This workshop series being offered once a month throughout 2022 is ideal for writers with works in progress. The identified participant said the January 2022 session helped, “Strengthened my pages.” Register on a month by month basis or for several months at a time. See Opportunities Too for Jhohadli Writing Project and Other Opportunities. (Source – Me)

News

Bocas, Trinidad and Tobago’s literary festival and related programmes, many of which have reach across the Caribbean, is under new management. Nicholas Laughlin replaces Marina Salandy-Brown as festival and programme director, while she steps in to the role of president of the board of directors. Laughlin, a poet, editor of the arts and travel magazine Caribbean Beat and co-director of the arts collective Alice Yard has been working alongside Salandy-Brown from the start, crafting the festival programme every year and leading the programming of the new virtual festivals since 2020.   Additionally, after a rigorous, multi-stage recruitment process, Jean-Claude Cournand is the new Chief Executive Officer. Cournand has been responsible for areas of Bocas Lit Fest youth programming since 2013 and through a partnership between Bocas and the 2Cents Movement, which he co-founded and managed, strategically helped to introduce the nation’s youth to spoken word and performance poetry. The huge popularity of the First Citizens National Poetry Slam is the culmination of their joint efforts. Read more here. (Source – JRLee email)

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Issue 13 of Cacique magazine features Antiguan-Barbudan (by way of Dominica) designer Miranda Askie. Cacique is the inflight magazine of InterCaribbean Airways. The issue which also includes an interview with Barbados’ Cherise Harris (known around these parts as illustrator of my children’s book With Grace) and book recommendations by Caribbean Reads publisher and author Carol Mitchell. It can be read in full online. And remember, you can also read my Miranda Askie feature in this 2021 edition of CREATIVE SPACE. (Source – linkedin)

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St. Lucian Poet John Robert Lee has posted an article on ways to revitalize and upgrade his country’s institutions and programmes to Jako Productions’ blog. Some interesting – and perhaps familiar – points. A Creative Arts Centre where cultural products are sold and which can also serve as an event space and restaurant, gallery, cafe, and artists meeting space. National gallery (Long overdue!) with retail space. Enhancement of library spaces and services. Supported and well maintained heritage spaces which can serve as cultural hubs. Strengthening of the government printery to produce cultural material. A vibrant performing arts space with creative arts training and certification opportunities. Needed as well, in addition to in-school instruction, is more public education (through traditional and social media channels) in the arts. There are, he points out, many practitioners who could be drawn on to serve as educators in their respective disciplines; it, and these other suggestions, just require a bit more initiative on the part of the powers that be. “The CDF needs to become more pro-active, more creative in their thinking, more truly supportive of the arts, and that across generations.” (Source – Jako Productions email)

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, Musical Youth, With Grace, Lost! A Caribbean Sea Adventure, The Jungle Outside, and Oh Gad!). All Rights Reserved. If you enjoyed it, check out my page on Amazon, WordPress, and/or Facebook, and help spread the word about Wadadli Pen and my books. You can also subscribe to the site to keep up with future updates. Thanks.