News from Authors

CODE and the Bocas Lit Fest have announced the finalists for the 6th Annual CODE Burt Award for Caribbean Young Adult Literature, and our very own Diana McCaulay is among them!

The CODE Burt Award for Caribbean Young Adult Literature recognises excellent, engaging and culturally-relevant books in English for youth aged 12-18, written by Caribbean authors.

Publisher Ian Randle chairs an international judging panel which has selected the top three from six shortlisted submissions of both published books and unpublished manuscripts.

T&T Newsday features a very interesting interview with Ishion Hutchinson, written by our very own Andre Bagoo. The article explores his writing practice (he wakes at 6am to write on a desk made from an old red door), his visit to Port of Spain to take part in the inaugural Derek Walcott Festival, and how he will always find Portland, Jamaica home.

Read the article in full.

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.

Read more.

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.

Longlist

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. 

Pick up the book.

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.