John Lyons has written a piece for the Betjeman Poetry Prize website. It is written to encourage youngsters to get involved in writing poetry. You can read it here.
John also published one of his poems in the Betjeman Poetry Prize newsletter, which can also be read online.
The photo above was taken at Esther Phillips' first public reading as Poet Laureate of Barbados on 15 February, 2019 at the EBCCI, University of the West Indies. Esther is pictured with writer George Lamming.
Photo courtesy of UWI.
Poet Malika Booker has joined Manchester Metropolitan's Manchester Writing School.
Malika has joined Manchester Writing School as Lecturer in Creative Writing.
Booker is an international writer of poetry, radio and theatre and was the inaugural Poet-In-Residence at the Royal Shakespeare Company.
Her first poetry collection ‘Pepper Seed’ was longlisted for the OCM Bocas Prize and shortlisted for the Seamus Heaney Centre prize in 2014.
Thanks to Rommi Smith, who found this lovely profile of our very own Una Marson at the BBC. Una was the author we highlighted this year for International Women's Day, and continues to be an appealing historic figure to many. Her poetry is a highlight of the Caribben Modern Classics series.
Vic Motune writes, 'Just how important a figure she was is illustrated in a 1942 photograph as she prepares for a broadcast. Sitting next to her is the famous British poet T. S. Eliot while literary giant George Orwell peers over Marson’s shoulder.'
Two contributors to the INSCRIBE Writers anthology Filigree: Contemporary Black British Poetry have been nominated for the Jhalak Prize: Roy McFarlane and Raymond Antrobus.
The 2019 longlist is:
Roma Agrawal, Built : The Hidden Stories Behind Our Structures (Bloomsbury)
Akala, Natives: Race and Class in the Ruins of the Empire (Two Roads)
Raymond Antrobus, The Perseverance (Penned in the Margins)
To celebrate St. Patrick's Day, why not explore Edgar Nkosi White's book of essays and memories: Deported to Paradise. Montserrat, of course, has many people with Irish roots, who will most likely be celebrating this weekend.
About the book
The Association of Caribbean Women Writers and Scholars has begun a YouTube channel, to promote the organisation to young and emergent scholars and writers.
Vahni Capildeo has written the essay 'Dancing Duppy: Notes from two workshops by Anthony McNeill' for Axon Journal.
3 March 2019's The Sunday Observer Bookends column ran an #InConversation between Peepal Tree authors Jacqueline Bishop and Shara McCallum, discussing the latter's poetry, absent fathers, and 'passing' as a mixed race Black woman.
