A & B Writings in Journals, Showcases, and Contests (H – N)

This page has grown fairly quickly, so I’m breaking it up in to four pages. For A – G, go here, for O – T, go here, for U – Z, go here. and for books, go here. This is exclusively for creative pieces by Antiguans and Barbudans accepted to established literary journals, festivals (and other notable literary platforms), and contests (not pieces posted only to personal blogs) as I discover (and in some cases, re-discover) them. Primarily, the focus is on pieces accessible online (i.e. linkable) because those are easiest to find; but it is not limited to these. It is intended as a record of our publications and presentation of creative works beyond sole authored books. Naturally, I’ll miss some things. You can recommend (in fact, I welcome your recommendations), but, as with all areas of the site, additions/subtractions are at the discretion of the admin.

HECTOR, LEONARD ‘TIM’ – Excerpt from “The Art of Carnival and the Carnival of Art” (non-fiction, previously published in The Outlet newspaper) – in Carnival is All We know: an Anthology Celebrating 50 Years of Antigua’s Carnival and the Creativity of Our Writers & Artists (edited by Joanne C. Hillhouse and published as a supplement in the Daily Observer) – 2007

HENRY, E.T. – Christmas Stringband (visual art – greeting card),

“Calypso Dancers”, and John Bull painting (visual art – painting) – in Carnival is All We know: an Anthology Celebrating 50 Years of Antigua’s Carnival and the Creativity of Our Writers & Artists (edited by Joanne C. Hillhouse and published as a supplement in the Daily Observer) – 2007

HILLHOUSE, JOANNE C. – “Happy New Year” in Dappled Things: A Quarterly of Ideas, Art, and Faith, issue Mary, Queen of Angels 2022 – January 2023

HILLHOUSE, JOANNE C. – “Ixie and Izzy” in Moko: Caribbean Arts and Letters – December 7th 2021

Excerpt: Grey was a palomino, pale and freckled and blonde, an unusual breed for the island but here nonetheless, as anomalies are everywhere. Perhaps it was their differentness that made them such good companions. The horse had waited patiently through the night. Now, she snuffed and fidgeted, as she rarely did, and when that didn’t get Ixie’s attention, she neighed. Ixie looked over to see a man standing, watching.

HILLHOUSE, JOANNE C. – Presentation on Jamaica Kincaid and King Obstinate during the Antigua and Barbuda Conference – October 2021

HILLHOUSE, JOANNE C.  – Presenting on “‘The Art of Writing Children’s Books” at Write the Vision’s 2021 Aspiring Authors and Writers Virtual Literary Event – October 7th 2021

HILLHOUSE, JOANNE C. – “Ah Write!”, “She Lives There”, “She Works”, “Ghosts Lament”, “When We Danced”, “Ode to the Pan Man”, excerpt from With Grace, “Da’s Calypso” (poetry, fiction) – Festival Internacional de Poesia de Medellin (samples “Una Oda al Pan Man” [An “Ode to the Pan Man”], “‘El Lamento de las Fantasmas” [“Ghosts’ Lament”], “Ella viva Alla” [“She lives There”], “Ella Trabaja” [“She Works”], “El Calipso de Da” [“Da’s Calypso”], and “Escribo!” [“Ah Write!”] also published on the Festival site and “El Lamento de las Fantasmas” [“Ghosts’ Lament”] and “El Calipso Da Da” [“Da’s Calypso”] p. 279-282 in the official festival publication ‘Revista Prometeo Numero 115-116’ Agosto de 2021 Revista Prometeo 115-116 (JCH in Revista Prometeo)- August 10th 2021

HILLHOUSE, JOANNE C. – “Times A-Changing” (fiction) – CREATIVE SPACE #15 of 2021 in the Daily Observer newspaper

Excerpt: “The already narrow road was made narrower by the line of cars. There were always cars there, even when the bars up and down both sides of the road were officially closed due to Lockdown.”

HILLHOUSE, JOANNE C. – “Antigua, at Night” (poetry) – in BIM: Arts for the 21st Century Volume 10 – 2021

HILLHOUSE, JOANNE C. – “Carnival Hangover” (fiction) – in intersectantigua.com – 2020

HILLHOUSE, JOANNE C.  –   reading excerpt from “Rhythms” (poem, Vol. 18, The Caribbean Writer) and “Ode to the Pan Man” (poem, Vol. 27, The Caribbean Writer) – (virtual) lit conference and journal launch of The Caribbean Writer – 2020

HILLHOUSE, JOANNE C. – – reading excerpts from award winning teen/young adult novel Musical Youth as part of St. Lucia’s Caribcation Caribbean Author Series – 2020

HILLHOUSE, JOANNE C. – Lost! A Caribbean Sea Adventure read during the Read2Me virtual series out of Trinidad and Tobago  – 2020

HILLHOUSE, JOANNE C. – “Grandmother and Child”, “Waste Not”, “Weather Patterns” (poetry) – Skin Deep magazine Is this the End? (UK) – 2020

HILLHOUSE, JOANNE C. – readers sharing an excerpt from With Grace at the Barnes Hill Reservoir Park Black History Month event (fiction) – 2019

HILLHOUSE, JOANNE C. – “Development” and “Summer One” (poetry) – Angles of Light series on Chapel FM (UK) – 2019

HILLHOUSE, JOANNE C. – “Ode to the Pan Man” during Antigua and Barbuda Independence literary arts showcase (poetry) – 2019

HILLHOUSE, JOANNE C. – excerpt from Musical Youth during Antigua and Barbuda Independence literary arts showcase (fiction) – 2019

HILLHOUSE, JOANNE C. – “The Night the World Ended” (fiction) – The Caribbean Writer Volume 32 – 2018

HILLHOUSE, JOANNE C. – “A Life in Mas“(non-fiction) – Moko: Caribbean Art and Letters – 2018

HILLHOUSE, JOANNE C. – “Papa Jumbie” (flash fiction)- Akashic Books’ Duppy Thursday series – 2017

Excerpt: “… he choops to heself. Only picknee believe in jumbie. Dead na speak an’ Papa dead long time.”

HILLHOUSE, JOANNE C. – “The Other Daughter” (fiction, included in a test question in the Denmark Ministry of Education’s 2019 English Evaluation Written Exam for upper secondary and higher preparatory students. Plus there’s analysis and breakdown on the Danish version of study net – 2019) – Adda (the Commonwealth Writers online literary magazine) – 2017

Excerpt: “The day we went uphill, my corn-rowed head level with Mom’s melon-sized chest, my inquiries about where we were going were met with silence and a determined tug on my arm as I dragged my feet.“

HILLHOUSE, JOANNE C. – “Little Prissy Palmer” (flash fiction) – The Machinery – 2017

HILLHOUSE, JOANNE C. – “The Bamboo Raft” and “Election Season” (poetry), and “Zombie Island” (fiction) – Interviewing the Caribbean Vol. 2 No. 1 – 2016

HILLHOUSE, JOANNE C. – “Game Changer” (fiction) – Moko: Caribbean Arts and Letters, Vol. 9 – 2016

HILLHOUSE, JOANNE C. – “When we Danced” (also winner of the Caribbean Writer’s 2014 Flash Fiction Prize) (flash fiction) and Election Season ll (poetry) – The Caribbean Writer Volume 29 – 2015

HILLHOUSE, JOANNE C. – “What’s in a Name?” (fiction) – BIM: Arts for the 21st Century Volume 7 – 2015

HILLHOUSE, JOANNE C. – “Children Melee” (poetry) – Moko: Caribbean Arts and Letters Issue 3 – 2014

Excerpt: “Peanuts roasting
 Music pumping
 Obsti prancing about in pigtails”

HILLHOUSE, JOANNE C. – “To Market, Snapshot” (flash fiction) – Susumba’s Book Bag Issue 1 – 2014

HILLHOUSE, JOANNE C. – “Civi-li-za-tion” (poetry) – Artemis Volume XXl- 2014

HILLHOUSE, JOANNE C. – “Summer 1‘ (poetry, also published in Tongues of the Ocean) & “Something Wicked” (fiction, Story of the Week) – The Missing Slate – 2013/2014

Excerpt (from “Something Wicked”): “Essie is flamboyant as ever; her full and curvy frame hugged up by a red bustier straight out of a burlesque show, black leather pants, and dangerously (sexy, she would say) red heels that still only bring her up to Claudette’s chin. Claudette is also in black, tall and svelte in a black strappy ankle-length maxi dress, black combat boots and a black beaded cloche hat someone like Louise Brooks might have worn during the jazz era; her red-red lip stick and the red beading in the fitted cap, the only pop of colour. Essie had given the whole get-up an eye roll when she’d picked her up. Claudette had done her own mental eye roll at the way her friend, enviably comfortable in her own skin, still doesn’t get the concept of size-appropriate clothing.”

HILLHOUSE, JOANNE C. – “Carnival Blues” (fiction, also published as “Something Wicked” in The Missing Slate), “Is Like a Like It” (screenplay excerpt), “Music” and “Ode to the Pan Man” and “On Seeing Euzhan Palcy’s Rue Cases Nègres”  (poetry) – The Caribbean Writer Volume 27 – 2013

HILLHOUSE, JOANNE C. – “All Fall Down” (fiction) and “Feather in Her Ear”, “Another Garden”, “Prison for Two”, and “Corporal Punishment” (poetry) – Womanspeak: a Journal of Art and Writing by Caribbean Women Volume 7 – 2013

HILLHOUSE, JOANNE C. – “The Cat has Claws” (flash fiction) – Akashic Book’s Monday’s are Murder online noir series – 2013

HILLHOUSE, JOANNE C.  – “Caribbean Woman” (poetry, subsequently published in Dancing Nude in the Moonlight: 10th Anniversary Edition and Other Writings – 2014) – The Columbia Review – 2013

HILLHOUSE, JOANNE C. – “She Works” (national contest selection 2009), “She Lives There”, and “Development” (also published in Tongues of the Ocean) (poetry, all subsequently published in Dancing Nude in the Moonlight: 10th Anniversary Edition and Other Writings – 2014) – Womanspeak: a Journal of Literature and Art by Caribbean Women Volume 6 – 2012

Excerpt (She Works):
“A thin row of cane stalks marks
The boundary of the land
She carries a bath heavy with clothes in her hands”

HILLHOUSE JOANNE C. – “Mango Season” (poetry, subsequently published in Dancing Nude in the Moonlight: 10th Anniversary Edition and Other Writings – 2014) – The Caribbean Writer Volume 26 – 2012

HILLHOUSE, JOANNE C. – “Differences” (poetry, subsequently published in Dancing Nude in the Moonlight: 10th Anniversary Edition and Other Writings – 2014) – Theorizing Homophobias in the Caribbean: Complexities of Place, Desire, and Belonging – 2012

HILLHOUSE, JOANNE C. – “Teacher May” (fiction, subsequently published in Dancing Nude in the Moonlight: 10th Anniversary Edition and Other Writings – 2014) – Poui: Cave Hill Journal of Creative Writing Number XII – 2011

HILLHOUSE, JOANNE C. – “At Sea” (flash fiction, subsequently published in Dancing Nude in the Moonlight: 10th Anniversary Edition and Other Writings – 2014) – Munyori – 2011

HILLHOUSE, JOANNE C. – “Ghosts Lament” (poetry, subsequently published in Dancing Nude in the Moonlight: 10th Anniversary Edition and Other Writings – 2014) – SX Literary Salon – 2011

Excerpt: “…as someone beats a pan; a skanking Marley jam…”

HILLHOUSE, JOANNE C. – “Somebody” (fiction; subsequently published in Dancing Nude in the Moonlight: 10th Anniversary Edition and Other Writings – 2014) – St. Somewhere – 2010

HILLHOUSE, JOANNE C. – “Scenes from a Caribbean Childhood” (poetry) – Anansesem – 2010

HILLHOUSE, JOANNE C. – “Country Club Kids” (fiction) and “Tongue Twista” (poetry,  both subsequently published in Dancing Nude in the Moonlight: 10th Anniversary Edition and Other Writings – 2014) – The Caribbean Writer Volume 24 – 2010

HILLHOUSE, JOANNE C. – “AfterGlow” (fiction) – Tongues of the Ocean – 2009; subsequently published in So the Nailhead Bend, So the Story End – 2012 and Dancing Nude in the Moonlight: 10th Anniversary Edition and Other Writings – 2014

HILLHOUSE, JOANNE C. – “Venus Ascending” (poetry, subsequently published in Dancing Nude in the Moonlight: 10th Anniversary Edition and Other Writings – 2014) – Mythium: the Journal of Contemporary Literature and Cultural Voices – 2009

HILLHOUSE, JOANNE C. – “The Arrival“, “Prospero’s Education“, and “Da’s Calypso” (poetry, all subsequently published in Dancing Nude in the Moonlight: 10th Anniversary Edition and Other Writings – 2014) – Calabash – 2008

Excerpt from “Da’s Calypso”:

“He na min school pon
Shakespeare,
but he understan’ well
de ingenuity o’
wan pun,
weave imagery o’
everyday life
inna song –”

HILLHOUSE, JOANNE C. – “Friday Night Fish Fry” (fiction, subsequently published in Dancing Nude in the Moonlight: 10th Anniversary Edition and Other Writings – 2014) – published in Sea Breeze and read at the Breadloaf Writers Conference – 2008

HILLHOUSE, JOANNE C. – “Cold Paradise” and “Portent” (fiction) and “Benediction before the Essences: A Prayer, Caribbean Sunset, Caribbean Spirit, The Sea” (poetry, all subsequently published in Dancing Nude in the Moonlight: 10th Anniversary Edition and Other Writings – 2014) – Women Writers – 2008

HILLHOUSE, JOANNE C. – “Soca Night” (fiction, subsequently published in Dancing Nude in the Moonlight: 10th Anniversary Edition and Other Writings – 2014) and excerpt from Oh Gad! (fiction, a novel subsequently published by Simon & Schuster, 2012) – in Carnival is All We know: an Anthology Celebrating 50 Years of Antigua’s Carnival and the Creativity of Our Writers & Artists (edited by Joanne C. Hillhouse and published as a supplement in the Daily Observer) – 2007

HILLHOUSE, JOANNE C. – “Rhythms” (fiction) and “Ah Write!” (poetry, later published, 2010, in PEN America: a Journal of Writers and Readers) (both subsequently published in Dancing Nude in the Moonlight: 10th Anniversary Edition and Other Writings – 2014) – The Caribbean Writer Volume 18 – 2004

HILLHOUSE, JOANNE C. – “Martin, Dorie, and Luis: a Love Story” (fiction, subsequently published in Dancing Nude in the Moonlight: 10th Anniversary Edition and Other Writings – 2014) – Jamaica Observer Literary Arts – 2004

HILLHOUSE, JOANNE C. – “Philly Ramblings 8” (poetry, subsequently published in Dancing Nude in the Moonlight: 10th Anniversary Edition and Other Writings – 2014) – Ma Comère: Journal of the Association of Caribbean Women Writers and Scholars Volume 3 – 2000

HILLHOUSE, JOANNE C. – “Bitter Memories” (fiction) and “Hope Springs Eternal” and “Old People” (poetry, subsequently published in Dancing Nude in the Moonlight: 10th Anniversary Edition and Other Writings – 2014) – Collective Soul – 1998

HILLHOUSE, JOANNE C. – reading excerpts from unpublished manuscript Closed for Repairs (fiction) and “Second Middle Passage” and “Apocalyptic Dance” (poems) while a participant in the Caribbean Fiction Writers Summer Institute at the University of Miami – 1995

Excerpt: “A sister pimping her soul
A baby with a gun in his hand
Love gone cold”

HILLHOUSE, JOANNE C. – reading from novel Oh Gad! published by Strebor/Atria/Simon & Schuster (USA) in 2012 at the Callaloo Creative Writing Workshop participant readings showcase at Brown University, Rhode Island (USA) – 2012

HOLDER, ZURI – “The Scary Night” (fiction, 2011 award winning Wadadli Pen story) – Anansesem (the Wadadli Pen special issue) – 2011

HUNT, SIENA K. MARGRIE – “Nuclear Family Explosion” (fiction, 2004 award winning Wadadli Pen story) – Anansesem (the Wadadli Pen special issue) – 2011

HUNTE, JOSEPH ‘CALYPSO JOE’ – “Bum Bum” (calypso lyrics – 1970 Carnival road march tune)  – Carnival is All We know: an Anthology Celebrating 50 Years of Antigua’s Carnival and the Creativity of Our Writers & Artists (edited by Joanne C. Hillhouse and published as a supplement in the Daily Observer) – 2007

ISAAC, D. GISELE – Excerpt from In Search of a Road (fiction, unpublished-in-progress novel) – Carnival is All We know: an Anthology Celebrating 50 Years of Antigua’s Carnival and the Creativity of Our Writers & Artists (edited by Joanne C. Hillhouse and published as a supplement in the Daily Observer) – 2007

ISAAC-GELLIZEAU, DOTSIE – Home (poetry) – national contest selection (no word of announced publication) – 2009

Excerpt:”Her soul and heart rejoiced
Upright and locked position”

JACKSON, ANNETTA – “Unlearning Anti-Blackness” – in intersectantigua.com – 2020

Excerpt: “It is Sunday, May 4th, 2014 and I am in my bathroom with blue handle scissors cutting off 6 years’ worth of permed hair from my head. My afro is like a mushroom and my face looks like a boy. I had been growing my hair out for a few months and my biological mother had been washing my scalp with red stripe and aloe. I got tired of battling with the two textures, so I cut it off.”

JACKSON, NAOMI – “Her Kind: On Losing and Finding My Mind” – in Harper’s – 2023

Excerpt: “Now I am reacquainted with myself as a writer, which is to say that I am reacquainted with myself.”

JACOBS, OGLIVIER ‘DESTROYER’ – “Message from Gorkie” (calypso – from his album The King and The Patriot) – Carnival is All We know: an Anthology Celebrating 50 Years of Antigua’s Carnival and the Creativity of Our Writers & Artists (edited by Joanne C. Hillhouse and published as a supplement in the Daily Observer) – 2007

JAMES, S. E. – (fiction) Excerpt from the chapter Carnival in her book Tragedy on Emerald Island – Carnival is All We know: an Anthology Celebrating 50 Years of Antigua’s Carnival and the Creativity of Our Writers & Artists (edited by Joanne C. Hillhouse and published as a supplement in the Daily Observer) – 2007

JARDINE, AKILAH – (fiction) Excerpt from the chapter Blue Devils in her book Living Life the Way I Love It – Carnival is All We know: an Anthology Celebrating 50 Years of Antigua’s Carnival and the Creativity of Our Writers & Artists (edited by Joanne C. Hillhouse and published as a supplement in the Daily Observer) – 2007

JARDINE, ARTHUR ‘BUM’ (youngest member of Brute Force, the first recorded steelband) – “The Man and His Pan and My Travels with Brute Force” (non-fiction from memoir in progress The Man, His Pan, and The Conflict), “Pan Rhapsody” and “Song for Fundu” (poetry) – Carnival is All We know: an Anthology Celebrating 50 Years of Antigua’s Carnival and the Creativity of Our Writers & Artists (edited by Joanne C. Hillhouse and published as a supplement in the Daily Observer) – 2007

JARVIS-GEORGE, TAMEKA – “Woman to Woman” (fiction) – Tongues of the Ocean (special issue – Artists and Writers of Antigua and Barbuda edited by Joanne C. Hillhouse) – 2014

JARVIS-GEORGE, TAMEKA – “Ugly” (poetry) – featured in/providing narrative structure for film of the same name

JARVIS-GEORGE, TAMEKA – “Dinner” (poetry) – featured in/providing narrative structure for film of the same name

JENNINGS, HUDLE – (visual art – illustration for Shakeema Edwards’ “The Curse of the Kumina” and for Devra Thomas’ “Sand and Butterflies” (2011 Wadadli Pen art and fiction) – Anansesem (the Best of Wadadli Pen special issue) – 2011

JOSEPH, CLIFTON – “That Night in Tunisia”  – performed in the documentary Dark Arts in the Plastic Hallway – 2009

JOSEPH, CLIFTON – “I Remember Back Home” & “Slo Mo ” (poetry) – performed at the Words Aloud 4 Spoken Word Festival in Canada – 2007

Excerpt: “It wasn’t all bright smiles, sea sand, sun and
fun/Back home had its share of oppression in the sun/
Back home had its share of dreams burnt in the sun”

JOSEPH, JAMAL – “Returning to Natural Roots” (visual art) – intersectantigua.com – 2020

KINCAID, JAMAICA – 2021 Langston Hughes Festival – Evening Ceremony Honouring Jamaica Kincaid – 2021

KING, X-SAPHAIR – “Turmoil Within” and ” Strength through Pain” (visual art – painting) – Tongues of the Ocean (special issue – Artists and Writers of Antigua and Barbuda edited by Joanne C. Hillhouse) – 2014

KINSELLA, MARIE – “Drum Man @ Boy”, “Two Pan Drummers”‘, and “The Joy of Pan” (visual art – painting) – Tongues of the Ocean (special issue – Artists and Writers of Antigua and Barbuda edited by Joanne C. Hillhouse) – 2014

LAKE, EDGAR O. – “Little Richard’s Second Coming” (poetry) – Calabash – 2007

Excerpt: “But, the Faithful wait for the King of Pommade, Tuti
The Monarch of Mascara, pre-Pink Floyd, Tuti-Fruti
He’s turned his back on Hollywood – protesting!
He’s the King of Rock-and-Roll – will take it back –
“This Little Light of Mine – Say What?”
The tired Daughters of the Carolinas toss their curls
Little Richard’s seen the fork in the road – and took it

Praise his name!”

LAKE, EDGAR O. – “Walcott Reads to Brodsky’s Godmother” (poetry) – Calabash – 2007

LANGLEY, CHARLES – “Black Woman Cry” (poetry) – Tongues of the Ocean (special issue – Artists and Writers of Antigua and Barbuda edited by Joanne C. Hillhouse) – 2014

LAWRENCE, LISCIA – “The Day I saw Evil” (fiction, Wadadli Pen award winning story) – Anansesem (the Wadadli Pen special issue) – 2011

LAVELLE, ARDIS – “PreSchool Days” (poetry, 2011 Wadadli Pen award winning story) – Anansesem (the Wadadli Pen special issue) – 2011

LI, DENISE – “Carnival 1988” (visual art – drawing) – Carnival is All We know: an Anthology Celebrating 50 Years of Antigua’s Carnival and the Creativity of Our Writers & Artists (edited by Joanne C. Hillhouse and published as a supplement in the Daily Observer) – 2007

LI, SARAH ANN – “Lucky Dollar” (fiction, 2005 Wadadli Pen award winning story) – Anansesem (the Wadadli Pen special issue) – 2011

LIBURD, EDISON – “Mysteries and Contradictions”‘ – (visual art, cover art) – The Caribbean Writer Volume 29 – 2015

MARTIN, COLIN ‘WANGA’ – selected images (visual art – costumes: Bush Doctor, reminiscent of the old time medicine; Calabash and Can Cup, one time household utensils; Cane Cutters, referencing the sugar plantations that once dominated; Can Can and Hot Pants, referencing past fashions; and Perry Grey Ghost, referencing an old time folk character) from Reveller’s Mas Troupe’s 2003 presentation ‘Ole Time Something Come Back Again’ and ‘Spirit of Carnival’ (designed for 2005 Antigua Carnival Queen finalist Kimmorna Otto, to her ReggaeSoCalypso theme) – in Carnival is All We know: an Anthology Celebrating 50 Years of Antigua’s Carnival and the Creativity of Our Writers & Artists (edited by Joanne C. Hillhouse and published as a supplement in the Daily Observer) – 2007

MCDONALD, HILDA – “Dawn and Evensong” – KYK-OVER-AL No. 22: Anthology of West Indian Poetry, edited by A. J. Seymour (p. 47) – 1957

MEADE, SHANNON – “I, Atlas” (fiction) – intersectantigua.com – 2020

MEADE, SHANNON – “My Old Foe” (poetry) – intersectantigua.com – 2020

MEDICA, HAZRA – “Discretely Antiguan and Distinctly Caribbean ” (non-fiction) – Tongues of the Ocean (special issue – Artists and Writers of Antigua and Barbuda edited by Joanne C. Hillhouse) – 2014

Excerpt: “Near twenty years ago and entirely by chance, I discovered my first Antiguan novel.”

MEDICA, HAZRA – “The Greeting” (fiction) – Poui: Cave Hill Journal of Creative Writing XIII- 2012

MEDICA, HAZRA – “Ode to a Night in Ale” – finalist in the Wergle Flomp Humor Poetry Contest – 2010

MEDICA, HAZRA – “The Banana Stains” – Highly Recommended in the Commonwealth Broadcasting Association Short Story Contest – 2008/9

Excerpt: “I see my father motioning for me to come to him. His face is grim- the inspector had not been kind to him. On the drive home I think of Mr. Massiah and his stained clothing. Mr. Massiah has calloused hands. His hands make me think of the banana trunk in my dream.”

MENTOR, KEILLIA – “Mongoose in a Hole” (fiction, 2011 award winning Wadadli Pen story) – Anansesem (Wadadli Pen special issue) – 2011

MERANTO, JENNIFER – “‘Carnival Mask”‘ (visual art – photography) – originally shot 1996; silver prints  – in Carnival is All We know: an Anthology Celebrating 50 Years of Antigua’s Carnival and the Creativity of Our Writers & Artists (edited by Joanne C. Hillhouse and published as a supplement in the Daily Observer) – 2007

MINGS, KIMOLISA – “Little Red Hoodie” (fiction) – Tongues of the Ocean (special issue – Artists and Writers of Antigua and Barbuda edited by Joanne C. Hillhouse) – 2014

NANTON, ERROL ‘BUMPY’ – “‘Dance of the Masks” and selections from Dynamics’ 2007 mas which revisited the best of Antigua’s Carnival over 51 years (visual art – costumes; 2001’s presentation ‘Dance of the Masks’  grew out of Nanton’s fascination with the tribal masks of Africa) – Carnival is All We know: an Anthology Celebrating 50 Years of Antigua’s Carnival and the Creativity of Our Writers & Artists (edited by Joanne C. Hillhouse and published as a supplement in the Daily Observer) – 2007

NICHOLAS, NNEKA – “Naima” and “Forgiveness” (fiction) – in intersectantigua.com – 2020

NICHOLSON, KEMAL OSMEL – “Ma Belle” (fiction, 2006 Wadadli Pen short story award winner) – Anansesem (the Wadadli Pen special issue) – 2011

NICHOLSON, LIA – “Tekin’ Ahn Dey” (fiction, 2004 Wadadli Pen short story award winner) – Anansesem (the Wadadli Pen special issue) – 2011

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, Oh Gad!, With Grace, Lost! A Caribbean Sea Adventure, and The Jungle Outside). All Rights Reserved. Please do not repost artist images without permission and credit. If you enjoyed this post, check out myJhohadli  page and/or Facebook, and help spread the word about Wadadli Pen, my books, and my freelance writing-editing-coaching-workshop services. You can also subscribe to the site to keep up with future updates. Thanks.

Antigua and Barbuda Literary Works Reviewed V

This picks up where the previous Antigua and Barbuda Literary Works Reviewed pages left off (use the search feature to the right to dig them up).  As with those earlier pages, it features reviews about A & B writings that I come across as I dig through my archives or surf the web. You’re welcome to send any credible/professional reviews that you come across as well. They’re not in any particular order, I just add them as I add them; some will be old, some will be new. It’s all shared in an effort to underscore Antigua and Barbuda’s presence in the Caribbean literary canon.

‘Her work presses all the right buttons in the academic psyche (“postcolonial”, “black”, “gender”, “feminist”, “transcultural”, “postmodern”). But for general readers, her greatest attraction lies in the sheer beauty, the power and intensity, of her writing.’ – from Jamaica Kincaid: Looking Back In Anger in Caribbean Beat Magazine

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“Walter’s paintings alone comprise eleven categories, including the Alphabet series of small-scale paintings given titles such as A for Ape, Q for Queen, and so on, and which represent ideas and objects from Walter’s world. With its devotion to nature and expressive pictures, this visual lexicon is similar to that of Frederic Bruly Bouabre. Another series, Flora and Fauna, depicts plants, fish, and animals accompanied by their taxonomic names, these reveal his obsession with the mysteries of nature.” – Frank Walter’s work discussed in Raw Vision

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“The collection’s true beauty is (for me) not necessarily in its images of women / womanhood, but in the lyrical language and in the broader philosophical wisdom it presents.”- Charmaine Valere on Jamaica Kincaid’s At the Bottom of the River

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“If I had to liken it to another work, Unburnable comes closest to Toni Morrison’s Song of Solomon, a longtime favourite of mine, and stands upright alongside Jamaica Kincaid’s The Autobiography of My Mother and Austin Clarke’s The Polished Hoe” – D. Gisele Isaac in Essential, Issue No.5 April/May 2006

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“An interesting thing about Considering Venus is that Lesley’s sexuality is never defined. It’s just love between two women–with no barriers. Isaac has written a lovely book, with just the right fusion of prose and poetry make it a joy to read.” – Sistahs on the Shelf writing on Considering Venus

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‘This remarkable book, which elegantly blends commentaries and interpretations of “painterly photographs”, as the authors dub their work, is a feast for the imagination and a fountain of aesthetic thought. The photographs are made and not merely seen. The photographs are not only precise imitations of the real but deep penetrations of it, in search of Truth—the truth of the imitations of imitations.’ – Teodros Kiros at Fusion Magazine writing on The Art of Mali Olatunji: Painterly Photography from Antigua and Barbuda

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“… it’s also moving to observe Gomez come to other realizations in the process of seeking what are often elusive answers.” – re Melissa Gomez’s Silent Music at straight.com

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Antigua and Barbuda writers Tammi Browne-Bannister and Joanne C. Hillhouse had their stories from Akashic’s Mondays are Murder online noir series reviewed in the February 28th 2016 edition of Trinidad and Tobago’s Sunday Guardian. Of Barbados-based Browne-Bannister’s portrayal of male rage in Stabs in the Dark, Shivanee Ramlochan writes, “she fully embodies the rage and thwarted virility of the unnamed male narrator, not sparing him from the beast he becomes on the page. The author delivers a portrayal of the murderer in language that is pared down, the better to let the full weight of his brutality weigh in the storytelling.” Of Hillhouse’s The Cat has Claws, she writes, “…Hillhouse keeps the secrecy taut in her storyline, baring just enough suggestion to hold her reader captive…” Read the full reviews here

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“Connoisseurs will find it delicious, and everyday readers will see it as difficult and always just out of reach.” – at Repeating Islands, re Jamaica Kincaid’s See Now Then

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“In this young adult novel from Antiguan Joanne C. Hillhouse, second-place winner of the inaugural CODE Burt Award for Caribbean Literature, music is both the food of love and a furnace for self-expression. Hillhouse speaks directly to young readers, but with concerns of colourism, class clashes, and society’s skewed expectations for boys and girls. There are no missteps in this tender coming-of-age romance, only an enthusiasm for love and life that reverberates triumphantly…” – Caribbean Beat, March/April 2016 re Musical Youth

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“I would want to say that as political and economic history this book by Paget Henry does have its equal and perhaps its betters, but as analysis of cultural development or underdevelopment, it is unsurpassed by any I know.” – Tim Hector on Peripheral Capitalism and Underdevelopment in Antigua by Paget Henry (article: Antiguan makes Great Contribution to Overcoming Underdevelopment: Paget Henry, originally published in the Outlet in 1985, republished in the Antigua and Barbuda Review of Books Volume 8 Number 1 Fall 2015)

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“This is a profound examination of the human condition, as a child, in an island, colony, an independent colony, not as maudlin tale, but as wonderful lyricism.

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a lyrical prose which uniquely and superbly captures the rhythm, the cadences, the magic, the nuances, the tones and shades of Antiguan English speech.” – Tim Hector on Jamaica Kincaid’s Annie John, reprinted in the Antigua and Barbuda Review of Books Volume 8 Number 1 Fall 2015

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“The Star Side of Bird Hill is worth it for Phaedra alone, and for Jackson’s evocative, lyrical writing — she makes Barbados come to life, and she’s comfortable with both humor and pathos.” – NPR re Naomi Jackson’s The Star Side of Bird Hill

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Shivanee Ramlochan wrote this about Musical Musical Youth (Joanne C. Hillhouse) on the Paper Based blog:

“Brimful with resonant notes on first-time courtships; adolescent discovery; tightly-knit friendships and the rewards of discipline, Musical Youth deserves multiple encores — this is one young adult pick you’ll want to savour several times over.”

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Hazra Medica wrote this about Unburnable in the Antigua and Barbuda Review of Books Volume 8 Number 1 Fall 2015:

“Marie Elena John’s debut novel Unburnable is a tremendous surprise, and a welcomed addition to Antiguan literature, Anglophone Caribbean women’s writing, and Anglophone Caribbean writing in general. It is a surprise because its crafting belies the ‘greenness’ of its author. Its surprise is great because as a debut project, its tackling of massive/significant and underexplored themes and experiences in Antiguan/Caribbean literature is, for the most part, well-executed. Moreover, it is a welcomed addition because, among other reasons, it is a belated yet timely intervention into the conventional neglect and/or mistreatment of a number of Caribbean subjectivities and experiences by West Indian literature and literary criticism as well as West Indian and ‘Western’ historical narratives.”

Caribbean writers singled out in Commonwealth Short Story competition

Winners of the 2011 Commonwealth Short Story competition have been announced and there are two Caribbean-ers among them. The first is Barbara Jenkins of Trinidad and Tobago: Regional Winner from the Caribbean for her story Head Not Made For Hat Alone. “I wrote the story,” she’s quoted as saying, “after a particularly dystopian  morning on the road. Everything in the story is real – culled from a  number of experiences and observations. So perhaps the writing was a  sort of catharsis?”

I should note that I first came across Jenkins’ name recently when flipping through Volume 24 of the Caribbean Writer: on the page announcing the year’s prize winners her head-thrown-back-in-full-laugh picture as the Winner of the Canute A. Brodhurst Prize for Short Fiction was two slots above the picture announcing me as the Winner of the David Hough Literary Prize for a Writer Living in the Caribbean. Kind of cool to be two degrees of (no not Kevin Bacon but) separation away from a winner of the highly competitive Commownwealth Short Story Competition. I can think of only two Antiguans and Barbudans who made the cut in recent years, Hazra Medica, whose story, the Banana Stains, was among those Highly Commended in 2008 and Mary Geo Quinn  whose story, Joe, was similarly Highly Commended in 2002 Commonwealth Short Story Winners 2002.

Winning is kind of a big deal given the international scope of the competition as noted by the other Caribbean notable of 2011, Diane Brown, a Jamaican whose story, The Happiness Dress, won a Special Prize as a Story for Children. She said, “Winning this special prize for a short story for  children is a singular honour. This acknowledgement of the work of a  local writer of children’s fiction gives that writing an international  platform.”

Per a release from the Commonwealth, “a panel of international judges made the choices from over 2000 entries”. Overall 2011 winner was Philip Nash of the UK with his story Rejoinder. Best regional entries, in addition to Jenkins, were Martha by Basett Buyukah of Kenya, The Maoist by Nikesh Murali of India, and Ginger Beer by Sarah Bainbridge, New Zealand.

The winning stories – all 26 of them – will also be available in audio format. In fact, it may interest you, dear reader, to note that when I was formulating the structure for the Wadadli Pen competition back in 2003, I did a little piggy backing in terms of the word limit on the Commonwealth Short Story competition because like that competition I wanted entries to be a good and compact length for radio broadcast. So, audio recordings and distribution to media outlets of the winning entries have been part of our mission and action from day one. In fact, if you visit, Anansesem* – the Caribbean Children’s e-zine – you’ll hear some of the recordings that came out of our competition in the early years in  their special Wadadli Pen issue. If I could figure out how to do it, I’d post them here, too; and soon as I can figure out funding, we’ll do more of the same. Point is though rather than reinventing the wheel, I did take some cues re structure from the Commonwealth contest, adapting it, of course, to be its own thing relevant to our context in Antigua and Barbuda (and the Caribbean).

Anyway, that’s enough rambling. Congratulations to winners from the region, past and present, and, since the competition is an annual exercise, dare we say, future. Deadline for the next round of submissions is November 30th; details re eligibility will be posted at www.commonwealthwriters.org by October 18th according to this release posted to the Caribbean Literary Salon.

For the full list of winners and their stories, as well as back editions, go to http://www.commonwealthfoundation.com/Howwedeliver/Prizes/CommonwealthShortStoryCompetition/2011winners

THIS JUST IN: Commendation also went to Kathyann Husbands and Edwina Griffiths of Barbados, and Sonja Dumas of Trinidad and Tobago; for Love Honour and Obey, White Shoes, and Letting Cockroaches Live, respectfully.

*Please note Anansesem is currently in the process of being re-located to here.