Blogger Reflections Award

Guyana Gyal has tagged me for the Blogger Reflections Award and I truly give thanks for this because her blog has been a source of endless pleasure for me. With this award, however, comes the responsibility of tagging five other bloggers who meet these criteria:

"This award should make an individual reflect upon five bloggers who have been an encouragement, a source of love, impacted you in some way, and who have provided a Godly example. In other words, five dear bloggers whom, when you reflect upon them, you are filled with a sense of pride and joy...of knowing them and being blessed by them.”

There are many blogs that I read which would meet these guidelines, and every morning before I begin working on my own writing, I open Google Reader to see what I have in store. Basically my subscriptions fall into these categories:

Blogs by published writers

Blogs by professional bloggers who offer tips about blogging

Blogs from Jamaica and the Caribbean

Blogs from writers who offer personal or spiritual insights

This amounts to about forty-eight blogs, but I can mention only five. Again, the dilemma of choice. So, my method in choosing these five has been through a process of elimination and how much pleasure I derive from their writing:

Rethabile Masilo writes beautiful poetry that is influenced by his homeland of Lesotho. He is also relentless in discovering African writers and African inspired writing. Rethabile writes about music, politics, and religion, but more than anything else, I look forward to Rethabile's stunning poetry.

Marlon James is a Jamaican writer whose work I have featured on my blog. Marlon has written a novel, John Crow's Devil, and his blog displays the kind of fearlessness I wish I could sometimes demonstrate. I always look forward to Marlon's lucid writing and his further adventures as a writer traversing the American and Caribbean landscape.

Inspirations and Creative Thoughts is a brilliant blog by Sadiq Alam and he features quotes from many faiths. Sadiq shows a deep respect for many religions and he is also a talented poet whose writing displays a spiritual depth that I admire.

One of my deep interests and a subject that I wish I could spend more time exploring is art, and specifically, Caribbean art. The Bookman brings me art from Trinidad, the Caribbean and from many other parts of the world, and offers me insights into art that otherwise I would not have encountered. The Bookman speaks intelligently about art without getting lost in jargon.

Do you want to play? Do you really want to know what it's like to be a writer? Do you want to know what it's like to be a writer from the Caribbean? If you read Nalo Hopkinson's blog, you will learn about the joys, trials, travails, and triumphs of writing.

I hope each the five bloggers mentioned here will pass this on, and this they choose to do so, here's what Guyana Gyal passed on to me:

1. Copy this bit of the post.
2. Reflect on five bloggers and write a least a paragraph about each one.
3. Make sure you link this post so others can read it and the rules.
4. Leave your chosen bloggers a comment and let them know they’ve been given the award.
5. Place the award icon on your site.

I can't wait to see the results.

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