Come January 26, 2014, Jamaica will once again have a Poet Laureate, an honorary title that has not been awarded in over 50 years. But unlike Jamaica’s two previous Poets Laureate: Tom Redcam and J.E. Clare McFarlane, who were named by the Poetry League of Jamaica; the current Poet Laureate of Jamaica programme is a joint initiative of the National Library of Jamaica and the Entertainment Advisory Board.

The Poet Laureate will be expected to celebrate and propel Jamaican poetry to new heights, and will be nominated by his/her fellow countrymen through a nomination form available on the National Library of Jamaica’s website, starting this Sunday, November 10, 2013.

The Poet Laureate in addition to being recognized for his/her outstanding accomplishments as a Jamaican poet, will also undertake public poetry events to stimulate a greater appreciation for Jamaican poetry, promote poetry as an art and medium for entertainment and for recording and disseminating cultural heritage. The Poet Laureate is not mandated to reside in Jamaica but must be available for a minimum of four public events annually.

Nominees for Poet Laureate of Jamaica must have at least three (3) published works of poetry, not including anthologies; and must be a Jamaican; defined as a Jamaican citizen, naturalized citizen or of Jamaican parentage.

The Poet Laureate will be selected by a committee from public nominations and will serve for three years. The nomination form will be available, starting Sunday, November 10, 2013 at www.nlj.gov.jm/poetlaureate. Completed forms can be emailed to [email protected] or mailed to the National Library of Jamaica at 12 East Street, Kingston. Nominations for the 2014/2017 Poet Laureate closes at midnight on Friday, December 13, 2013, and Jamaica’s first Poet Laureate in over 50 years will be announced on January 26, 2014.

For further information on the Poet Laureate programme, including the composition of the selection committee, see the website at www.nlj.gov.jm/poetlaureate

CaribLit friend, David Parrish is offering our readers a free copy of his book, T-Shirts and Suits: A Guide to the Business of Creativity. The book is an enterprise guide which was specifically written and designed for entrepreneurs in the creative, digital and cultural industries. 

It was originally published in the UK and is also published in translations in seven other countries: China, Colombia, Taiwan, Spain, Lithuania, Thailand and Chile.

Download the free ebook here  or from David's website: www.tss-ebook.com.

The Department of Literatures in English (UWI, Mona) is pleased to announce the launch of Black Sand, a collection of new and selected poems by Edward Baugh, on Sunday December 1, 2013 at 11:00am, at the Neville Hall Lecture Theatre (N1), Faculty of Humanities and Education, UWI Mona. 

Edward Baugh has one of the most instantly recognisable voices in Caribbean poetry with his dry wit, poise and elegance. Exhibiting a constant capacity to surprise by the range of his concerns, he has few rivals in formal accomplishment.

Black Sand brings together poems selected from Baugh’s two previous collections, A Tale from the Rain Forest (Sandberry Press 1988) and It was the Singing (Sandberry Press, 2000), with a collection’s worth of new poems.

The Caribbean Review of Books, the Trinidad-based quarterly magazine of Caribbean literature and arts, resumes publication this month, supported by the Bocas Lit Fest. Published online at www.caribbeanreviewofbooks.com, the CRB reviews new and recent Caribbean books alongside interviews with writers, original poems and fiction, and essays on literature and culture. It is free to all readers, with no subscription fee.

The original CRB was published from 1991 to 1994 in Mona, Jamaica. In May 2004, the magazine was revived by a team of writers and editors based in Port of Spain. The last print edition was published in 2009, and in 2010, the CRB was relaunched as an online magazine.

With the November 2013 issue, the CRB begins a partnership with the Bocas Lit Fest, Trinidad and Tobago’s annual literature festival.

“The alliance makes perfect sense,” says CRB editor Nicholas Laughlin, who is also the programme director of the Bocas Lit Fest. “Both magazine and festival have the same fundamental aims: to build a readership for books from and about the Caribbean, bring new writers to a broader audience, and provoke conversation about literature and its place in society.”

Though supported by the festival, the CRB will maintain its editorial independence. “The CRB’s literary coverage will obviously inform the festival, and the festival programme will turn up writers and books that the CRB ought to cover,” Laughlin adds.

The November 2013 CRB will be published online to coincide with NGC Bocas Lit Fest South+Central, a programme of events hosted by the festival in San Fernando and Chaguanas on 16 and 17 November.

In the nine and a half years since the CRB was revived in 2004, the magazine has reviewed several hundred Caribbean books, and published writing by such literary luminaries as Derek Walcott, Martin Carter, and Lorna Goodison, as well as celebrated younger writers like Kei Miller, Vahni Capildeo, Marlon James, Shara McCallum, and Christian Campbell. Novelist and poet David Dabydeen has written, “I think CRB is the mostimportant development in the region, in literary criticism, for generations.”

Pensamanto Tropical, an arts centre in Bahia State, Brazil, is accepting applications from "artists and non-artists" for residencies in January and February 2014. Areas of investigation range from visual arts and design to philosophy and anthropology. Details here:

http://pensamentotropical.com/pause_en.html