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Geoffrey Philp's Blog Spot features interviews, podcasts, readings, essays, and upcoming literary events in Miami and Jamaica/ Caribbean.
Recent Posts Tagged With 'caribbean authors'
Book Review: How to Leave Hialeah by Jennine Capo Crucet
An Open Letter from Marisella Veiga to Jennine Capo Crucet Dear Jennine, Initially, because you are a Cuban American woman fiction writer, I was interested in reading your first short story collection, How to Leave Hialeah. Then, your having wo...
A Tribute to Mervyn Morris, O.M.
A Tribute to Mervyn Morris, O.M. by Fragano Ledgister Mervyn Morris has been the face of Jamaica’s academic and scholarly poetry for more than four decades. His voice and pen, more than any others’ has come to define a large part of th...
Joanne C. Hillhouse: Musings on The Boy
Joanne C. Hillhouse’s writing has been described as “honest” and “real,” also “poetic” and “lyrical.” Born, raised, and resident in Antigua, Joanne’s culture – its people, language, music, issues, and more – shines throug...
In My Own Words: Robert Edison Sandiford
What writing has meant to me (of late)In response to “Best thing about writing? Money” by Alison Flood in The Guardian of March 3, 2009, profiling novelist Colm Toibin and asking question of other international writers.“No man but a blockhea...
A Look Back @ the BBC's Caribbean Voices (Part 2)
From the BBC web site:If a good newspaper acts as a nation talking to itself, then Caribbean Voices distinguished itself as a sounding board for the British colonies in Caribbean.It was a weekly programme where poets, playwrights and prose writers - ...
Am I a Writer? (Part Tres)
"But why do I have to read the work of all these writers to learn about rhythm and metaphor or character and plot? I don't want you to change my style." This is the third most common question and statement that I encounter in my creative writing work...
A Look Back @ the BBC's Caribbean Voices
Modern West Indian literature was born on the BBC's Caribbean Voices. The careers of many writers whose names are now synonymous with Caribbean writing, Sam Selvon, Derek Walcott, Andrew Salkey, and V.S. Naipaul began with the pioneering efforts of U...
Black English
“Purify the dialect of the tribe.” --T.S. EliotBlack English is more than hip talk, Jamaican lilt, a Rastafarian chanting the name of Jah by a surrogate Babylon in a Caribbean stream or river. It’s the English language’s own with syntax a...
Introduction to Derek Walcott @ CABA: Carole Boyce Davies
Carole Boyce Davies was born in Trinidad. She was recruited to build the African-New World Studies Program at FIU, she served as its director for three successful three-year appointments, which moved the program to international recognition. Boyce-Da...
Derek Walcott @ Caribbean American Book & Art Fair
Every time that I think Derek Walcott has nothing new to teach me, he surprises me. For given his age, it is easy to think that the old man has joined the ranks of those stale, Caribbean intellectuals and artists who continue to mouth the same old pl...
New Book: Sovereignty of the Imagination by George Lamming
The new book by the illustrious Caribbean novelist/thinker George Lamming has just been published here, said Jacqueline Sample, president of House of Nehesi Publishers (HNP).Sovereignty of the Imagination, with its main essays “Sovereignty of the I...
Three Poems by Jennifer Rahim
Jennifer Rahim is Trinidadian. Her first collection of poems, Mothers Are Not the Only Linguists was published in 1992, followed by Between the Fence and the Forest (Peepal Tree, 2002). She also writes short fiction and criticism. She currently teach...
The West Indian Literature Conference: ‘Quiet Revolutions’
Most of the leading critics and several scholars in the field of Caribbean literature will assemble in Guyana this week for an international conference on West Indian literature hosted by the University of Guyana. The activities of this meeting wil...
In My Own Words: Martin Mordecai
Born in Jamaica, Martin Mordecai has had many lives, including journalist, diplomat, civil servant, and publisher. His current incarnation is that of aspiring writer. He aspires in Toronto, having gone there in the mid-1990s with his family to liv...
Derek Walcott's Square
So poetry made this happen--take that, W. H. Auden! clipped from www.google.comIn the heart of the town of Castries, there is a small square with a long history dating back to the 18th century. It used to be the Place d’Armes when the island was u...
Derek Walcott: Gros Islet
The connection between our writers and our landscapes grows even more tenuous because of the yearly migrations and the lack of publishing possibilities in the Caribbean.And given the ecological disasters about which John Maxwell writes (http://www.ja...
Derek Walcott's First Home
I'm following the Repeating Islands blog which is on a tour through the Caribbean and each island. They are now in St. Lucia, home of the great poet, Derek Walcott.clipped from repeatingislands.wordpress.comOur literary tour through Castries, St. Lu...
Give Thanks: Kamau Brathwaite
A writer learns her craft by toil, failure, and providence. But mostly from failure. For writing is a solitary discipline--learning to create a poem, short story or poem from a fleeting phrase, an ephemeral image or an indelible experience. And she m...
Letter to a Young Writer: Pam Mordecai
Pamela Mordecai has published four collections of poetry, Journey Poem; De Man, a performance poem; Certifiable; and The True Blue of Islands and, with her husband Martin, a reference work, Culture and Customs of Jamaica.Her first prose work, Pink Ic...
Upcoming Readings: Pam Mordecai
On Wednesday, March 4 at 7:00 p.m. at Pages Bookstore, 1135 Kensington Road NW, Pamela Mordecai reads at an event sponsored by the Canada Council and the Creative Writing Research Group at the University of Calgary. The reading is free and open to th...
In My Own Words: Ralph C. Thompson
On one of his visits to Jamaica Derek Walcott said to me, “Thompson, every time I come to Jamaica I feel your anger about the state of politics in Jamaica and the corruption contaminating the society. Why don’t you reflect this indignation in ...
Inaugural Issue of tongues of the ocean
The inaugural issue of tongues of the ocean is now live, and the first two poems of the issue may be viewed at http://www.facebook.com/l.php?u=http://tonguesoftheocean.org%2F This issue features:An interview, conducted by Nigel Beale, with Derek W...
My Pentateuch: Monique Roffey
I guess my five top books of all time aren’t just great novels, but ones which taught me something about how to write. All have given me great pleasure as a reader, but also they are benchmarks in my writing life, they have impressed me and show...
