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Call for Papers: 33rd Annual West Indian Literature Conference

26/3/2014

Date: October 2-4, 2014
Location: UWI Cave Hill, Barbados
Theme: Literature, Culture and the Environment
Deadline for abstracts: May 17, 2014

Description: “Living landscapes have their own pulse and arterial topography and sinew which differ from ours but are as real – however far-flung in variable form and content – as the human animal’s … the vibrancy or pathos in the veined tapestry of a broken leaf addresses arisen consciousness through linked eye and ear in a shared anatomy that has its roots in all creatures and all things” (Wilson Harris “Living Landscapes”)

The physical contours of the Caribbean have been so radically transformed by colonial conquest, plantation and state-sponsored “development” from the seventeenth to the present century that establishing a historically informed sense of place is inevitably fraught. Our interactions with the world around us are not only written on the environment, but in the textual and spatial expressions of our imagination. The relationships across landscape and language, location and representation are significant to a Caribbean cultural praxis that contemplates notions of displacement and territory, routes and rootedness, performance and personhood. In order to examine the social and cultural implications of the diverse interplay of environment and cultural/literary text, the 33rd Annual Conference of West Indian Literature invites papers and panel proposals on topics that are relevant to the conference theme.

Issues to be addressed might include: ecocriticism and environmental poetics; territorialising identities; geography and cultural iconography; literary cartography and Caribbean spaces; performing places, cultivated spaces; visual and scribal representations of the Caribbean; revisiting Sylvia Wynter’s “Plot and Plantation” paradigm; and inscribing the exotic on the “blank slate of the Caribbean archipelago” [OR Debunking the romanticization of Caribbean culture as a site of the exotic?].

Abstracts should not exceed 250 words in length, and should include (1) a title, (2) name, status and institutional affiliation of the presenter(s), (3) a contact email address, and (4) a mailing address. Please also let us know if you require any special equipment. Papers will be a maximum of twenty (20) minutes in length.

Abstracts or proposals for panels comprising three papers should be emailed by May 17, 2014 to [email protected]; [email protected] or[email protected].

AllSPICE 2014 Set For JUNE 9-14th - Call for Submissions

25/3/2014

Since 2004, each June the Institute of Caribbean Studies brings the nation's capital a Taste of the Caribbean through the literature, music and other arts. This year, AllSPICE will provide another delightful sampling of the gourmet delights from the arts and humanities. Feast on a veritable cook-up of written word, spoken word, dance and drama.

This year, we will produce a banquet of activities from literature to music to art, all signifying the crossings of Caribbean identity in America.

From dance, to literature, to music to orature, the canon has demonstrated that there are many voices who signify our experiences --- from Paule Marshall, through Michael Thelwell, through Aime Cesaire, Derek Walcott, Lorna Goodison, Rosa Guy to Malcolm Gladwell and Colin Channer. These travellers are among the many who cultiavte the ingreadients of the American melting pot. They cook up life with creativity. Lorna Goodison says "from root to leaf tip my every part has been employed to meet human need."

In bringing the Caribbean Arts and Humanities to Washington DC, we aim to create a stew -- a callalloo of sound and sight -- that will awaken the sense of the heart and serve up the SPICE of life. Through literature of the written word, the spoken word, of story and of song and dance, we will observe our impact on the weft and warp of the American fabric and indeed we shall be enlivened by the SPICE of Life!

BOOK FESTIVAL: Short Stories and Poems
As writers, we know how hard it is to get our work recognized, and as authors of work influenced by the Caribbean it is that much harder. This Festival seeks to share and celebrate the work of upcoming Caribbean writers, as well as established ones. It will be a platform for us to support each others' work and to highlight the influence we have had on other cultures.

We are seeking submissions of literature, fiction or creative non-fiction, from anyone who wants to be a part of this celebration. Caribbean writers have a unique voice and ICS would like to highlight the great stories and poetry that reflect those roots. In honour of Caribbean American Heritage Month, we would like to focus on integration of Caribbean nationals into American culture, so our theme this year will be: Losing and Rediscovering Caribbean Identity Abroad.

Applications are due by April 13. Five pieces will be chosen for showcasing on our website and at our book reading on June 11 at the PORTICO Book Store in Washington, D.C. You may submit two poems or one short story. The short story should be no more than 3,000 words, and the poem no more than 500 words each. The author should also include a short bio with their submission.

Please send all submissions or questions to Shanza Lewis at [email protected].

BOOK BAG: Reading at PORTICO
Our book reading this year will take place at the PORTICO Bookstore in Washington, D.C. We are seeking authors in the area who have recently published or are in the process of publishing new works. It will be a chance to engage with the Caribbean community and those who are interested in Caribbean Literature. If you would like to be considered for this opportunity please email [email protected]

Get more information at the AllSpice 2014 website.

Book Walk (part 2)

25/3/2014

BOOK WALK/TOUR (2)

The last stop on the proposed Book tour was “Round House,” a heritage site and home of the renowned poet, Kamau Brathwaite. I should point out that the work of acclaimed contemporary Barbadian writers is being celebrated on the tour as well.

One such writer is award-winning Robert Edison Sandiford. His short story, “Reckoning,” is set near the Constitution River. As the title suggests, Colin, the main character, comes to an understanding of his irresponsible attitude towards his daughter whose name he cannot even remember. This change comes only after he suffers a beating at the hands of two unknown teenagers. What is important is the moral choice Colin makes when he takes this punishment in the place of an otherwise vulnerable couple. Colin sees how the man attempts to shield his wife, and by extension, their children.

Not too far away is the historic Empire Theatre where Frank Collymore played the leading role in various drama presentations. Austin Clarke speaks with the greatest delight of his Saturday matinee experiences at the Empire Theatre in Vol. 2 # 1, a Bim issue dedicated to “Colly.”

We’re now at the Waterfront Café where Linda M. Deane is inspired to write the poem, Boats With Names That Rock: “In the Careenage boats pull us from their loose mooring/crossing our drinks and long talk with their careless wuk-up/ They call to mind funky café’s and second-hand bookshops/ the kind you find over ‘n away in small chic towns…” The poem as it continues is as intriguing as the names of the boats the poet lists: Remember Me, I.O.U, The Other Woman, Killin’ Time. Deane copped the Frank Collymore Literary Endowment Award as well as the Prime Minister’s award in 2004.

Further along we’re back with Lamming’s In the Castle of My Skin. The writer is describing an incident where a large merchant ship is torpedoed in the harbour during the Second World War: “The city shook like a cradle and the people scampered in all directions. The war had come to Barbados.” The ship sinks slowly with its cargo of food and the people are sure that the Germans are conspiring to starve them. Amusingly, one onlooker keeps rolling up his pants leg making as if to jump into the water, ready to take on the Germans and swearing what and what he would do to them. Only one thing stops him: if only he had on his bathing suit.

Depending on which route we take, we’re now on Tudor Street, where Hilton A. Vaughan, with poetic insight, memorializes a young woman in his poem, To A Tudor Street Shop Girl: “You, too, seek beauty. Past the unlovely smells/ The aching days, the sweet but tawdry nights/ Past all the impatient shoppers’ shouts and fights/ Past smirks and saucy words and titters, bells/ Still ring for you in some fair land where dwells/ your gay young dream of interweaved delights./ The Prince still waits you there…” On this occasion, we cannot help but reflect on Vaughan’s well-loved poem, “Revelation,” celebrating the beauty of black women.

John Wickham’s short story, “Meeting in Milkmarket” presents us with a colourful picture of Suttle Street: “all sorts of spices spread a perfume in the air and the girls of the town, their mouths filled with gold and curses, slutted and strutted along the narrow wet streets.” The story, however, is primarily an evocation of class difference in the Barbadian society and its destruction of the innocence and close friendship of two schoolboys.

When the young George is attracted to the sister of his friend, he has to bear the cruel taunts of the other boys: “George like a barefoot girl.” Years later the two grown men have a brief and awkward meeting. George is well off. His friend is not. The writer’s statement is poignant: “The simple hardships of poverty and self-denial are nothing to the despair that follows when the hope raised by a sudden resurrection of the heart suffers its inevitable swift extinction.”

Literature is still one of the most engaging forms of creative expression and remains a mirror that perhaps best reflects the experiences and dreams of a people. This Book Walk/Tour is the initiative of Writers Ink Inc. and Arts Etc., writers themselves who passionately desire to bring to the attention of the public, the Barbadian literary heritage that already exists and continues to be in the making. See you on the tour!

Book Walk

25/3/2014

BOOK WALK TOURISM
I’m not too fond of the term “cultural industries.” My instinct tells me that the realm from which the imagination, creativity and the arts originate is one free from the taint of merchandise— contrary to the meaning implied by the term above. From a practical viewpoint, however, creativity to whatever degree does not exclude the need to survive. Lucre may be filthy, but necessary.

It is with the above in mind that I am associating Barbadian literature, in this article, with Tourism, our chief money-earner. Creative writers are not among the “eminent persons” invited to come up with ideas for the revival of the country’s economy, but this writer is suggesting that a literary tour of the designated heritage area could be a brilliant move, reaping financial benefits for all involved.

A literary walkabout tour could begin at “Woodville,” Chelsea Road, just off Bay Street. This is the home of Frank A. Collymore, artist, actor and editor of the seventy-year old Bim, our region’s foremost literary publication. Interestingly enough, and as if she sensed some such possibility all along, Ellice Collymore has left her husband’s work area untouched. The visitor is able to see first-hand where Colly put together the poetry and fiction of our now renowned Caribbean writers.

In addition, several of Colly’s drawings are still intact and provide the source of several of his humorous or satirical poems. In The Antlered Arrowmart, for example, the persona employs the most grandiose verse in courting his lady-love, only to end with the lines: “That’s how they wooed in days gone by/ When style adorned the simplest lie.” Colly’s satire also extends to the society in which he lived, as is seen in his more familiar “Ballad of an Old Woman.”

Within five minutes after leaving “Woodville,” we are at Pebbles beach, a second home, as it were, for the boys in George Lamming’s classic novel, In the Castle of My Skin. Lamming deals with the 1937 riots and the severe hardships resulting from class and race prejudice. But there is also humour in the novel. Young Bob, his head full of visions of brave King Canute, falls for a trick played by his friends:

Bob arched his back and we heard the syllables stumbling past his lips, “Sea, come no further. Sea, come no further.” His voice went out like the squeak of an insect to meet the roar of the wave. “Come no further,” said Bob, shivering with fear, “come no further.” The wave come forward like a thundering cloud, crashed and shot like a line of lightning over the footprints that were the only sign of our fugitive king. We collapsed in the grape vine, sick with laughter.

Just a bit further on, we take a right turn a hundred yards or so on to Beckles Road. Here is the “Almshouse” to which Austin “Tom” Clarke refers in his short story, “Leaving This Island Place.” We reflect again on the social stigma associated with such institutions. Contrasts abound: the young YMPC cricketers in dapper grey flannel and the ragged dying inmates, one of whom is the persona’s father; the canon and the pauper; the splendid blue-and-gold of the Harrison College tie and the stench and hopelessness of the Almshouse opposite.

Our next stop is a happier one: a “heritage” house with its walls painted in bright yellow. What catches the attention more readily is its rounded shape at the front, like an arm ready to embrace its visitors. This is the home of renowned poet, Edward Kamau Brathwaite, the most recent winner of the Frank Collymore Literary Endowment Award. Kamau was born and grew up in this house on Bay Street. The influence of the sea in his backyard seems inescapable and years later during his travels, he pens the following lines in his poem, “South:”

“… today I recapture the islands’/ bright beaches: blue mist from the ocean/ rolling into the fishermen’s houses./ By these shores I was born: sound of the sea/ came in at my window, life heaved and breathed in me/ then/ with the strength of that turbulent soil…We who are born of the ocean can never seek solace/ in rivers: their flowing runs on like our longing…

This book walk could be an informative and stimulating experience for locals and visitors, with individuals performing dramatic readings and re-enacting high points of the works. Plaques and other forms of memorabilia could be placed at each stop commemorating the writers. (To be continued)

BIM Lit Fest Returns: May 15 - 17

25/3/2014

The Bim Literary Festival & Book Fair: A True Cultural Experience
The inaugural Bim Literary Festival and Book Fair took place in May 2012. Its theme was “Words Need Love Too,” a sentiment borrowed from a poem by Barbados’ best-known poet, Kamau Brathwaite.

Organized by Writers Ink, a collective of Barbados’ leading novelists and poets, that first festival featured literary giants: Nobel Laureate Derek Walcott, Alba Prize winner George Lamming and Giller Award winners Austin “Tom” Clarke and Lorna Goodison. Among the renowned local writers who participated were Linda M. Deane, Margaret Gill, Anthony Kellman, Karen Lord, Philip Nanton, Esther Phillips, and Robert Edison Sandiford.

The aim of any literary festival is to engage people with reading, writing and literature. The Bim Lit Fest, as it’s already affectionately known, gives writers and readers, editors and agents, that all too rare opportunity to get together, lime, and interact one-on-one. It’s an opportunity for them and the public to talk about books, why they matter and why they love them. That this can happen in a place like Barbados, long a stimulating destination for the intellectually passionate and creatively curious, is merely as it should be.

Once again falling under the patronage of the Prime Minister’s Office, the 2014 Bim Lit Fest is already recognized as an event—an occasion—of national significance. This year’s festival will be staged from 15-17 May in historic Bridgetown, whose surroundings are part of our World Heritage Site. The theme is “Crossings: Breaking Borders.”
In order to flesh out our theme, we’re planning stimulating panel discussions that explore the migration to Panama and its impact; the question of identities and ethnicities; the ‘crossing’ of sexualities and the fragile line between sanity and insanity.
In addition, some of our most renowned Caribbean authors will be reading their work from a boat berthed in the Careenage, while the Saturday Children’s Festival in the Square is expected to be a huge attraction.
While this bi-annual festival also provides an avenue for writers and publishers to market their work, it attracts visitors to the island who want a true cultural experience. Wherever you come from, whether reader or writer, we look forward to seeing you in Independence Square by the Careenage 15-17 May.

Download the Festival Programme.
bimlitfest.org

Casting Call - March 28 at PBCJ 1 - 4pm

19/3/2014

PBC Jamaica is seeking a presenter/interviewer for a new TV programme about literature. See the flyer below for more information.

Pepperpot: Best New Stories from the Caribbean

19/3/2014

"Pepperpot" received a very favourable advanced review (see below) from Booklist for their upcoming April issue. Booklist is one of the main trade publications in the US.

This wonderful anthology of fresh voices from the Caribbean is a commingling of minds in every sense: Six Partners Commonwealth Writers and the British Council invited Brooklyn’s Akashic Books and Leeds, England’s Peepal Tree Press to the Kingston Book Festival in 2013, and “over a few beers, we (Johnny Temple from Akashic and Jeremy Poynting from Peepal Tree) agreed that we work together.” This vivid collection includes writers from Antigua and Barbuda, the Bahamas, Barbados, Belize, Jamaica, and Trinidad and Tobago. The diverse textures of the stories by 13 established and new authors weave a tapestry of the islands, water, sand, ocean breeze, and rum. Vivid settings serve as backdrops for a dazzling display of personalities. The Commonwealth Prize–winning story, “The Whale House,” by Sharon Millar, sets the tone: “Sometimes after heavy rain, stones clatter lightly on the roof as the soil shifts and moves behind the house. Her parents’ ashes are buried here in the rocky, flinty, soil, but Laura and Mark scatter the baby’s ashes in the ocean . . . .”

— Mark Eleveld

Finalists for Inaugural Burt Award for Caribbean Literature Announced

19/3/2014

Unique initiative aims to develop the love of reading amongst Caribbean youth

Port of Spain, 16 March 2014 — CODE is proud to announce the finalists for its inaugural Burt Award for Caribbean Literature.

The shortlisted titles are (in alphabetical order):

Island Princess in Brooklyn by Diane Browne, Jamaica (published by Carlong)
All Over Again by A-dZiko Gegele, Jamaica (published by Blouse & Skirt Books)
Barrel Girl by Glynis Guevara , Trinidad and Tobago (manuscript to be published)
Musical Youth by Joanne Hillhouse, Antigua and Barbuda (manuscript to be published)
Abraham's Treasure by Joanne Skerrett, Dominica (published by Papillotte Press)
Inner City Girl by Colleen Smith Dennis, Jamaica (published by LMH Publishing)

The finalists were selected by a jury administered by The Bocas Lit Fest and made up of writers, literacy experts and academics from the Caribbean and Canada.

“In the Caribbean, as in much of the world, demand for relevant, entertaining books that speak to young people in their own language is constantly growing,” said CODE Executive Director Scott Walter. “With the Award, we’re hoping to help address this demand by supporting the development of new titles that reflect the lives of their readers, while providing opportunities for promising writers to emerge and regional publishers to prosper. Our ultimate goal is for young people across the Caribbean to have access to good books they will enjoy so they can develop the love of reading and become lifelong learners.”

The three winners of the first edition of this annual Award will be announced on April 25th, 2014 at a Gala to be held as part of the NGC Bocas Lit Fest in Port of Spain, Trinidad and Tobago. A First Prize of $10,000 CAD, a Second Prize of $7,000 CAD and a Third Prize of $5,000 CAD will be awarded to the authors of the winning titles. In addition, publishers of the winning titles will be awarded a guaranteed purchase of up to 2,500 copies, ensuring that the books get into the hands of young people through schools, libraries and community organizations across the Caribbean. Winning publishers also commit to actively market an additional minimum of 1,200 copies of each winning title throughout the region.

Marina Salandy-Brown, founder of The Bocas Lit Fest says, “We are delighted to be working with CODE and William Burt in administering this exceptional prize that not only supports writers of an underserved genre in the Caribbean – young adult literature – but publishers too, and which addresses headlong the critical issue of marketing and distribution in our region.”

The Burt Award for Caribbean Literature was established by CODE – a Canadian charitable organization that has been advancing literacy and learning for 55 years – in collaboration with William (Bill) Burt and the Literary Prizes Foundation. The Award is the result of a close collaboration with CODE’s local partners in the Caribbean, The Bocas Lit Fest and CaribLit.

CODE’s Burt Award is a global readership initiative and is also currently established in Ethiopia, Ghana, Kenya, Tanzania and Canada.

For further details on the Burt Award for Caribbean Literature, go to www.codecan.org/burt-award-caribbean

or contact: [email protected] / Telephone: (868) 222-7099
www.bocaslitfest.com

WORD! - A Caribbean Book Fest - Call for Writers, Deadline: March 8, 2014

6/3/2014

Caribbean Cultural Theatre invites established and emerging writers of published works to participate in the third staging of WORD! - A Caribbean Book Fest at Medgar Evers College -City University of New York on Sunday, June 8, 2014. This coming together of authors and storytellers, readers and literary curious coincides with Caribbean American Heritage Month and is held in Brooklyn, NY - the world's largest Caribbean meeting place.

Creative writers and poets whose work may include, but not limited to, issues of identities, migration and assimilation, resistance, politics, gender and sexuality, oral narratives and storytelling, language, sports and pastimes in the Caribbean and its Diaspora. Young writers, first-time published writers, and those writing with a youth focus are especially encouraged to respond.

Interested writers should contact [email protected] with a brief outline of published work and/or work to be presented by March 8, 2014.

Geared at positioning the writer's work as part of a larger conversation on identity, aspiration, heritage and the immigrant experience, WORD! features a mix of workshops on publishing, readings by critically acclaimed and emerging literary talents, stimulating discussion, and performances by electrifying spoken word artists.

Call For Papers - Ananse Soundsplash 2014

6/3/2014

Theme: Rediscover, Retell, Renew
Ananse SoundSplash 2014 honours the contribution of Rt. Excellent Marcus Mosiah Garvey to the cultural integrity of “Africans at home and abroad” in the year of the 100th Anniversary of the founding of his Universal Negro Improvement Association and African Congress League. At the fourteenth annual Steve Biko Memorial Lecture held in Cape Town, South Africa, Dr Nkosazana Dlamini-Zuma, the first woman to head the Organisation of African Unity, said, “Africa must continue to rediscover and tell her own stories”. These factors have influenced the theme for Ananse SoundSplash 2014 and constitutes a continuation of the discussions at the 2013 festival under the theme “Reclaiming Memories, Repairing Lives”.

Proposals for oral presentations, lecture demonstrations, performances, exhibitions and workshops that support the theme REDISCOVER, RETELL, RENEW are invited under any of the following broad headings.

History as Legends
Storytelling and Reparation
Storytelling as Philosophy
Storyteller: Teacher, Entertainer, Healer
Ananse and Cultural Decolonisation
Social Identity and Storytelling
Rediscover, Retell, Renew

Abstracts should be no longer than 250 words.

Actual presentation should be 20 minutes duration.

Please submit abstracts entitled Ananse SoundSplash 2014 to [email protected] by March 30, 2014

Abstracts should have author(s) names, b) affiliation, c)title of abstract d) body of abstract e)email address. Papers will be expected in soft copy by October 15, 2014

Call for Papers: 33rd Annual West Indian Literature Conference

AllSPICE 2014 Set For JUNE 9-14th - Call for Submissions

Book Walk (part 2)

Book Walk

BIM Lit Fest Returns: May 15 - 17

Casting Call - March 28 at PBCJ 1 - 4pm

Pepperpot: Best New Stories from the Caribbean

Finalists for Inaugural Burt Award for Caribbean Literature Announced

WORD! - A Caribbean Book Fest - Call for Writers, Deadline: March 8, 2014

Call For Papers - Ananse Soundsplash 2014

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