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.
Awards
Stephanie Ramlogan, author of Case of the Missing Eggs, is the winner of the 2020 Brooklyn Caribbean Literary Festival’s Elizabeth Nunez Caribbean American Writers Prize; and Hadassah K. Williams of Trinidad and Tobago, author of Vizay, is the winner of the award for Writers in the Caribbean. The finalists, after the original long list announcement, include several TnT writers, and two writers apiece from Dominica and Jamaica. Details here. Also the BCLF is in progress, virtually, at this writing with participation from Nunez, Richard Georges, Donna Hemans, John Robert Lee, Katia D. Ulysse, Ifeona Fulani, Vladimir Lucein, Monique Roffey, Elizabeth Acevedo, Imam Baksh, Lasana M. Sekou, Lisa Allen-Agostini, Lauren Francis-Sharma, Shivanee Ramlochan, Karen Lord, Vashti Bowlah, Curdella Forbes, Kei Miller, Christian Campbell, Merle Collins, Ingrid Persaud, Celia Sorhaindo, and Naomi Jackson. Full participant list here. The festival ends on September 13th 2020.
Old News
This article is actually from last summer (Daily Observer newspaper, July 5th 2019) and I haven’t been able to find more recent news re the Copyright Tribunal it reports on, but I just wanted to keep the report somewhere for the record. Given that it relates to intellectual property issues, this seems as good a place as any. 
Books
This one’s more of a literary magazine: Crop Over Unapologetic. Crop Over is Barbados’ Carnival and most Carnivals were cancelled in 2020 due to COVID-19. Coordinator of the lit mag project Nailah Imoja said in her Reflections, “With the Covid-created cancellation of Crop Over 2020, the NCF’s official months-long event, arose the fear that artists and artistes of all disciplines would be left with no avenue for self expression at one of the most significant times (specifically artistically-speaking) in our cultural calendar. Then came GineOn!…And the Freedom Festival was born….Crop Over Unapologetic is the literary aspect of Freedom Festival.” Selections for the publication were made by Adonijah, Shakirah Bourne, Sara Venable, and Andre Harewood; and selected writers (not exclusively Bajans) include Robert Edison Sandiford, Robert Gibson, Linda Deane, Sonia Williams, Opal Palmer Adisa, and others. Download the issue here.
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The paperback edition of global anthology New Daughters of Africa debuted this September, following the March 2019 debut of the hardback edition.
Publication of this book, edited by Margaret Busby, made it possible for publisher Myriad Editions to team up with SOAS University of London and International Students House to launch a £20,000 MA bursary for a female African student. The first recipient of the Margaret Busby New Daughters of Africa Award will take up her place at SOAS next year. Myriad has also partnered with The Black Curriculum to donate 500 copies to UK schools. The anthology – described by the Financial Times as “a groundbreaking book…marvelous and also necessary” – is taking its place on several BLM reading lists.
Opportunities
Remember to check the Opportunities and Opportunities Too pages for …well, opportunities. But also …
The 2021 Commonwealth Short Story Prize is open for submissions. It is awarded for the best piece of unpublished short fiction with prizes for each Commonwealth region and one main prize. All Commonwealth citizens free to enter. Read more.
Events
Earlier this year pre-COVID-19 lockdown, a member of Wadadli Plus film production company launched his book and there’s video. Parental advisory for very graphic sexual content. The video is from the Public Library Author of the Month series. Congrats to the author and to the library for the series spotlighting books made in Antigua and Barbuda. Details of the book, Kameshia Grey Sex Tales from 1735 by Kevroy Graham, can be found on the Antiguan and Barbudan Writing and Fiction pages.
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2020 is a milestone year for the NGC Bocas Lit Fest: the tenth year of Trinidad and Tobago’s national literature festival, which has grown into the Anglophone Caribbean’s biggest annual literary celebration. It will go down in history for another reason: it’s the first-ever entirely virtual and online version of the festival, with 80 participating writers and speakers (including Trinidad and Tobago’s Shivanee Ramlochan, Barbados’ Karen Lord, part of a panel dubbed back to the future with fellow Caribbean speculative fiction heavy weights like Nalo Hopkinson and Tobias Buckell, sessions on social justice that will include TnT’s Lisa Allen-Agostini and Vahni Capildeo, the latter a Forward prize winning UK based poet, rising stars like Andre Bagoo and 2020 Bocas prize winner Richard Georges, of the BVI, and living literary legends like Haitian-American Edwidge Dandicat, and other likes Dominica’s Celia Sorhaindo, Barbados’ Nailah Folami Imojah, Trinidad by way of Barbados Ingrid Persaud, Trini’s Ayanna Gillian Lloyd and Monique Roffey, St. .Lucians John Robert Lee and Vladimir Lucein, Grenada’s Jacob Ross, Puerto Rico’s Loretta Collins Klobah) and a programme of free events livestreamed via the Bocas website and social media.
All festival events are free and accessible to all, with no tickets or registration. The programme will be streamed live at www.bocaslitfest.com, facebook.com/bocaslitfest, and youtube.com/bocaslitfest
As with all content on Wadadli Pen, 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/Perdida! Una Aventura en el Mar Caribe, and Oh Gad!). All Rights Reserved. If you enjoyed it, check out my page on 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.
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