In the first of a two-parter, Jacqueline Bishop has interviewed Puerto Rican poet Loretta Collins Klobah for the Bookends section of the Jamaica Observer.
Loretta talks about her collection Ricantations, and how Hurricane Maria inspired the title poem. She also discusses the situation for people still affected by the disaster:
The Cambridge Literary Review is looking for submissions on the theme of manifestos - an exploration of, comment on or example of “manifesto" in any style, any genre, any length (though if you are planning on submitting anything over 5,000 words this should be discussed first with an email pitch). The publication is especially keen to see submissions from BAME writers.
Please send submissions by 22 June 2018 to: cambridgeliteraryreview@gmail.com.
The Caribbean Nobel laureate Derek Walcott paid humorous tribute to Harris in a poem called "Guyana", whose "surveyor", his brain sucked "pith-dry" by the sun, is "dumbstruck by a stone". His admirers have included Anthony Burgess, CLR James and the US poet Kathleen Raine as well as younger authors with Caribbean links - Caryl Phillips, Pauline Melville and Fred D'Aguiar. Yet despite a steady output of novels, essays and international honours, he remains little known to a wider public.
Mr. Harris wrote 26 novels in all. He is generally included among a group of Caribbean writers (Guyana is often considered a Caribbean country because of its demographics and history) who explored themes of identity, colonialism, myth and more in lyrical, far-ranging prose.
We learn only now that novelist Wilson Harris (1921-2018) passed, several weeks ago, in Chelmsford, England. With him passes, very nearly, generations of highly political, English-language Caribbean literature. George Lamming, of Barbados, remains frail but has spent a life on the Left; V.S. Naipaul, raised in Trinidad, is active and as always, on the Right.
This feature appears in the Times Literary Supplement:
He’s got these curious hooded eyes, he never looks at you straight. And this wonderful sing-song voice, this vatic, musical accent. He’s very impressive. But I don’t want to give you the wrong impression because he’s not like John Berger: it’s obvious that he never set out to be impressive. I can only say about his presence that when he said to me about my son, “You have a wonderful little boy”, I felt it was some kind of blessing.
Widely considered to be a pioneering voice in English literature, with a beguiling intellect and masterful grasp of language, Harris began his career in Guyana as a land surveyor. The job took him on jaunts to the country's fascinating interior, where he grew close the indigenous people who lived there. The knowledge they shared with him and the majestic backdrop of the Amazon rainforest would go on to feature in many of his novels.
The judges of the 2018 Forward Prizes for Poetry have shortlisted debut Caribbean poet Shivanee Ramlochan for her collection, Everyone Knows I Am a Haunting (Peepal Tree Press) for the Felix Dennis Prize for Best First Collection. This is the third nomination for a Peepal Tree author in so many weeks, as Leone Ross was nominated for both the Jhalak Prize and Saboteur Award. If Shivanee wins, she will pick up a sweet £5,000 in prize money.
Jacqueline Crooks has compiled a playlist for her latest collection, The Ice Migration.
Jacqueline Crooks talks about Windrush and The Ice Migration on local channel London Live! Check out the interview in full online.
Photo by Jakob Owens on Unsplash
