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.
This small Caribbean island, the larger of the two-island state it forms with Tobago – with a combined population of just 1.4 million – has long punched far above its weight, producing the groundbreaking historian CLR James, as well as two Nobel laureates.
The article goes on to mention a number of new and established writers of note, including Peepal Tree's Trini writers Monique Roffey ('last year’s Costa prize-winner'), Amanda Smyth ('whose novel Fortune is in the running for the Walter Scott prize for historical fiction'), Jennifer Rahim ('polymath with a new novel due out next year') and Merle Hodge ('the first black Caribbean woman to land an international publishing deal'). The legacy of New Voices and the ongoing support of NGC Bocas Lit Fest are also acknowledged.
