In Angela Barry’s imminently to be published novel, The Drowned Forest (out on the 23rd June), a hurricane turns the lives of all the main characters upside down and divides the novel into a before and an after. Each of the characters is affected in different ways, and Angela Barry’s vivid writing makes us share their respective terrors.
George Lamming was a giant of Caribbean letters and one who invited white Britain to think hard about its relationship to the Caribbean in ways we have hardly begun. In In the Castle of My Skin (1953) he wrote the classic novel of growing up under the Union Jack in the 1930s and the discovery of racial pride in the Black struggles for radical change in both the USA and in Barbados, whose impetus would carry forward the demands for national independence, which are still being expressed in his native Barbados in its rejection of colonial monarchy for republican status.
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.
