Sharon Leach gives us a to-be-read pile with a difference:
I write to excavate what I know, but I read to find out what I don't. Without reading, therefore, there is no writing. For someone who makes their living by words, like me, reading is not just for pleasure; it is oxygen. Reading is breathing in, writing is breathing out.
Peepal Tree writer Opal Palmer Adisa has launched Volume 2 of Interviewing the Caribbean.
Interviewing the Caribbean is an online journal that celebrates Caribbean artists everywhere—and to invite you to participate. Each issue will feature works from Caribbean artists at home and in the Diaspora.
This issue is dedicated to Jamaican novelist Garfield Ellis (1961–2018), Jamaican master ceramic artist Gene Pearson (1946–2018) and St. Lucian novelist Garth St. Omer (1931–2018).
Shara McCallum has recorded her poem 'Why Madoman Shouldn't Read the News' to promote the anthology Here: Poems for the Planet.
Here: Poems for the Planet is an environmental poetry anthology from Copper Canyon Press, which lifts up the voices of Shara McCallum and 126 fellow poets writing about and for the imperiled earth. Pledge before Friday 21 December to get a copy of the book hot off the press this spring.
Gideon Coe welcomed Anthony Joseph onto his Late Night Book Club to discuss writing, Lord Kitchener and Kitch.
Mia Leonin here reads “Madwoman’s Geography” and “From the Book of Mothers” by Shara McCallum. In the process of discussing these poems, we cover incredible ground. Are women permitted public rage? What is it in writing motherhood that is so challenging? Leonin touches on the risks of writing motherhood, the need to thrive in the wise wilderness of the unconscious, and what can only be referred to as McCallum’s songs.
Ann Margaret Lim's Heroes Day column for the Jamaica Gleaner opens:
Heroes Day always gets me thinking about our past and present and how interlinked they are. There are present-day heroes, but somehow I keep going back to our ancestors and thinking that many of them were unsung heroes, and as a poet, I believe in telling their stories and giving them a chance to be seen, heard, and remembered.
She includes excerpts from 'On Reading Thistlewood's Diary'.
In an interview with Scroll.in, Kiran Shiva Akal (son of Savi Akal Naipaul) talks about his new Chai Rum. He also mentions his mother's book and his relationship with V.S. Naipaul.
Image: Chai Rum
Savi Naipaul Akal exudes poise and presence. And charm. Buckets of charm. For our interview at her home in Valsayn, east of Port of Spain, she leads me to a table covered with a crisp white tablecloth weighed down by homemade cakes and finger sandwiches. The huge floral arrangement sitting in the middle stems from her own garden.
