Shara McCallum recently joined hosts Erin Redfern and Farnaz Fatemi at The Hive Poetry Collective radio show. In season 4, episode 15, Shara McCallum reads from and discusses her book No Ruined Stone, a finalist for the 2022 Rilke Prize. The show explores this riveting alternate history that spans Scotland and Jamaica, colonialism and self-determination, the literary tradition and the individual poet.
Date: Friday 20 May 2022
Time: 5-7pm BST, 1-3pm AST, 12-2pm EST
Price: Free
Book online
Nii Ayikwei Parkes is the special guest at the next meet-up for our online book club. We will be focusing on his latest poetry collection, The Geez (pronounced 'gaze').
Writing in The Conversation, John Kinsella talks about his process for collaborations, including his collections in dialogue with Kwame Dawes (of which the most recent is unHistory).
In its editorial 'The Guardian view on Trinidad writers: women take the lead', The Guardian writes about the increasing number of success stories from Trinidad's women writers. This amounts to a 'show of strength for a small island', they write.
Monique Roffey has written in The Guardian about the 'lit-boom' for Trinidadian women writers.
Amanda Smyth's novel Fortune has been included on the Walter Scott Prize shortlist. She wrote for the Irish Times about the inspiration and influences behind the book.
The Poetry off the Page project is delighted to be hosting its first conference, Taking the Mic: Black British Spoken Word Poetry Since 1965, co-convened by Dr Deirdre Osborne FRSA, Dr Emily Kate Timms, and Josette Bushell-Mingo OBE at Central School of Speech and Drama on 18 November 2022. This will be a free in-person event with possibilities for remote attendance.
Outstanding poets Pamela Mordecai and Olive Senior (current Poet Laureate of Jamaica) will take part in the 2022 NGC Bocas Lit Fest, Four Days to Change the World, an entirely online festival requiring no tickets or registration.
Sunday 1 May, 2022
8 pm Trinidad and Tobago time (AST)/7 pm Jamaica time
Fierce as an Island
Entries for the 10th anniversary edition of the SI Leeds Literary Prize will be accepted from 18 April – 2 May. We are proud to once again support the prize for Black and Asian women writers based in the UK.