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.

READING ROOM Vlll

Like the title says, this is the eighth reading room. Use the search feature to your right and the term ‘reading room’ to find the others. Seven came before, pack-full-0 good reading: poetry, fiction, non fiction, and some visuals too. Good reading makes for good writing. So use the reading rooms like your personal library and enjoy. And remember, keep coming back; they’re never finished. As I discover things, things get added. And don’t be shy about sharing your thoughts re not only what you read here but also possible additions to the reading room.

This one is uncategorizable (yeah, yeah, yeah, I know that’s not a word; not the point). It’s the PEN World Voices
online anthology 2014 and I’m sharing the whole thing because I still can’t believe that I got a chance to be a part of this wonderful and prestigious activity. For me a highlight will just be sitting in the audience and listening to the greats read and discuss; but getting the chance to do my own salon style reading was pretty damn cool too. I want you to get the chance to experience some of what I did by sharing some of the other writers who participated via these anthology excerpts. It covers poetry, fiction and non-fiction and includes a piece of my Amelia and all of my Ah Write! as well as, from other Caribbean writers, who I’m happy to say I got along really well with, Barbara Jenkins and Sharon Leach.

INTERVIEWS

Elizabeth Nunez being interviewed on NPR about my book Oh Gad!

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Elizabeth Nunez being interviewed about her book, the memoir Not for Everyday Use.

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What is the last book you read?
“The Prophet by Kahlil Gibran. – Jus Bus. Read more of this Texas born, Antiguan-Barbudan raised producer-artiste’s interview with Luxury Locations. And just a reminder about this interview with him right here on Wadadli Pen.

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Opal Palmer interviews Jacqueline Bishop in Moko.

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Jack Neely interviews Nikki Giovanni for New Millennium Writings.

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“This was my main problem when I was just starting out: I was trying to say something. When I began to write, I was deeply self-conscious. I was writing stories hoping they would say something thematic, or address something that I was wrestling with philosophically. I’ve learned, for me at least, it’s a dead road. It’s writing from the outside in instead of the inside out.
But during my very early writing, certainly before I’d published, I began to learn characters will come alive if you back the f*ck off. It was exciting, and even a little terrifying. If you allow them to do what they’re going to do, think and feel what they’re going to think and feel, things start to happen on their own. It’s a beautiful and exciting alchemy. And all these years later, that’s the thrill I write to get: to feel things start to happen on their own.
So I’ve learned over the years to free-fall into what’s happening. What happens then is, you start writing something you don’t even really want to write about. Things start to happen under your pencil that you don’t want to happen, or don’t understand. But that’s when the work starts to have a beating heart.” – read more of this Andre Dubus lll interview.

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Loved so much about this interview, but, I’m biased, as I love all things Edwidge Dandicat…well, all things Edwidge Dandicat’s writing…don’t know her personally at all. Among the things I liked in this Guernica interview, the phrasing of the questions (How did you find her? – about Dandicat’s main character); the insight that Dandicat reads and re-reads to re-immerse herself in the world of the story and the sense she has of eavesdropping on her characters because I do that too; the judgments about certain writing choices e.g. English or Creole – I’m not an immigrant (she contextualizes it as a problem of immigrants writing in English) but I can relate to this: “people think it’s primarily a commercial choice. But for many of us, it’s a choice that rises out of the circumstances of our lives. These are the tools I have at my disposal, based on my experiences” – yep; her take on book reviews and categorizations and the burdens put upon fiction and her point that “fiction is not journalism or sociology or anthropology. Every story is singular. The way we get depth is by putting a bunch of singular stories together to tell larger more complex and sometimes even contradictory stories”… and more… I also find her description of her book as a hybrid between a story collection and a novel interesting and her references to books like it will be added to my reading list because one of my current writing projects seems to be veering into this hybrid territory. Anyway, reading interviews with great writers is always a master class for me, and Edwidge is one of the best in my opinion. Check out the full interview here.

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Michael Anthony, a Caribbean favourite, talks about his favourite meal, his favourite calypso, and more in this interview.

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New Orleans writer and journalist Missy Wilkinson about how being a journalist fuels her fiction and being a shape-shifter. Found this very relatable. Read the whole thing at Grab the Lapels.

VISUAL

Sandra Sealey talks about her journey as a writer.

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This Pinterest link is all visuals of Caribbean writers of fiction for children, teens, young adults. The clip, lifted from the site, features Tamarind publisher sharing in a very personal way why such diverse books are absolutely essential.

FICTION

“She breathes deep like she learned from the weekly yoga classes she paid for but eventually dropped. Deep breathing makes her dizzy. Too slow. Too many text messages buzz in the time it takes to exhale.” – from Empty by M. M. De Voe. More here.

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“And you!” Adele said “I raised my quivering arms on high; I laughed and laughed into the sky…. Edna St. Vincent Millet. You were so romantic!” – from Time Capsule by Carol J. Arnold. Read more.

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“We pushed north, praying for the aurora borealis, a whale breaching, something. An eagle dropped fish entrails on the deck. We studied the water’s flotsam for glass floats and fished out styrofoam cups.” – from The Famous Writer by Norma Shainin. Read more.

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“Najua had been in the room one night and Kate had asked Seth if people went to heaven when they died. Seth hadn’t hesitated to tell her yes, and to go on to say what he remembered from his childhood Sunday school lessons: heaven was a place of pure eternal happiness and joy, where no one suffered and no one got sick or hurt. He’d felt a twinge of guilt as he told his girl what he did not himself believe, but Najua smiled and nodded her reassurance that he was doing the right thing, her dark eyes moist and full of admiration. At the time, he’d taken it for more than that; he’d thought she might be falling for him too.” – Hush Little Baby by Vic Sizemore. Read the full.

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‘Cerberus closes both eyes, dreaming of the old man’s future, death waiting in the threshold to cradle him as it will never cradle Cerberus. He twitches in his sleep, wakes to the sound of Alma’s footsteps running through the front door, across the hardwood floor, out of breath, “Hi, Cerberus,” passing him like a warm, Aegean breeze.’ – from Cereus Sleeps by B. K. Loren. Read the full.

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“He is looking at her, has no wings to flick and she has none to fly off with and she knows from one moment to the next that nothing can get her out of the situation without leaving some sort of residue.” The tension is palpable and, unfortunately, if you’re a woman, all too relatable in Doro Boehme’s Thief Knot, Fastening at Canopic Jar.

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Coo Yah by Tammi Browne-Bannister, an Antiguan writer who now resident in Barbados, captures the shifting, dark poetry of a hurricane lashed landscape.

POETRY

Esther Phillips reppng for Barbados on the BBC’s Poetry Postcards.

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Alone by Maya Angelou. May she rest in peace.

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“Nothing understands the ecstatic wine
of this music like your body” – from Shostakovich: Five Pieces by Pamela Uschuk. Read also her poem Learning the Theremin.

NON FICTION

An interesting and important conversation and one of relevance to writers like us, far far far off the map of mainstream publishing. NPR’s To Achieve Diversity in Publishing, a Difficult Silence beats Silence.

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‘The hit or miss nature of words is well suited to navigating in the dark, and this story proves that words have great power even if the speaker knows they only have a 50% chance of being true. And even when the speaker knows they are 100% untrue, pragmatic words get a person past the gatekeeper and into the circus. Or, words can be thrown out into unknown territory like hooks on a line. Our friend Judith, who spoke Hebrew and Dutch before learning English advised my husband, “If you want to find your way in a foreign language, you must guess a thousand times a day. Be bold—guess!” Words infused with longing and thrown like dice—left, right, or straight ahead—can get you home.’ – from The Resiliency Gene by Ellen Graf. Read the full.

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Martin Scorcese on the difference between plot and story. You know, I just finished watching his film Shutter Island before posting this and, though he references other filmmakers, it’s as illustrative as any of them of the point he makes in this short clip. Watch and learn.

BLOG

From Shakirah Bourne’s Get Write! – On Dialect: How Caribbean People Supposed Tuh Talk In A Story, Eh?

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So when did you begin falling in love with books? Read Kamy Wicoff’s blog here – and feel free to share your responses in the comments section below.

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One writer’s journey to publication. She Writes.

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Antiguan and Barbudan Leonard Tim Hector is one of the greats of Caribbean thought (i.e. among those who researched, observed, analyzed, and offered insight to our lives, in his case, various areas of our lives – politics to sports to the arts). JAmerican writer Geoffrey Philp acknowledges as much in his preamble to a re-posting of a Hector piece on Caribbean literature and why it matters. Read here.

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Writers Read by Jeff Goins.

*NEW* REVIEWS
A section for books I haven’t necessarily read as yet but, thanks to these reviews, now kind of want to.

Annie Paul reviews Jamaican writer, and fast Wadadli Pen patron, Diana McCaulay’s Huracan.

As with all content (words, images, other) 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,  Fish Outta Water, 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 WadadliPen and my books. You can also subscribe to and/or follow the site to keep up with future updates. Thanks. And remember while linking and sharing the links, referencing and excerpting, with credit, are okay, lifting whole content (articles,  images, other) from the site without asking is not cool. Respect copyright.