As you can see from the photo, I’m really proud of Who’s Your Daddy?:And Other Stories, my latest collection which will be released by Peepal Tree Press in the next few weeks. Who’s Your Daddy? brings together many of the themes from my first collection, Uncle Obadiah and the Alien, and also pushes my work in some new and exciting directions.I’m thinking about “Cry to Me” and “Sunday Morning Coming Down,” where I’m not only signifyin’ on two reggae choons, but I’m exploring the themes of eroticism and domestic violence respectively. Also in “Bobby Bijani and the Rolling Calf” I wanted to see if Jamaican/ Caribbean magical realism could survive in South Florida, and to include another Asian character (as I had done in Uncle Obadiah and the Alien) because the Asian experience is a part of the Caribbean matrix.
Of course, there are the recurrent themes from Uncle Obadiah and the Alien: gender issues, the dilemmas of fatherless boys, and the disruptive effects of the Jamaican Diaspora on family and community life.
Who’s Your Daddy took me ten years to write and some of the stories have appeared in several journals: "Third Time" in Avocado Magazine; "Who's Your Daddy?" in Small Axe - A caribbean platform for criticism; "Beeline and Babylon" in The Caribbean Writer; "Coward Men Keep Sound Bones" in Asili :the Journal; "I Want to Disturb my Neighbor" in Julie Mango Online Journal of Creative Expressions & revised in Iron Balloons: Fiction from Jamaica's Calabash Writer's Workshop, and "Sister Faye and the Dreadlocked Vampire" in OBSIDIAN : Literature in the African Diaspora. Some of the stories even helped me to win an award or two.
In other words, Who’s Your Daddy? presents the “best” work that I’ve written in the past decade, and I’ll be reading from this collection at Calabash 2009 on May 22-24, 2009.
Drop by and see me, nuh?
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14 comments:
Really wish I could drop by for the reading. Another time, I'm sure..
1000 congratulations, Geoffrey!
Congratulations G!
Really happy about your new book coming out.
Wish so too, my brother. But I know I will make it to Paris one day.
Khotso,
Geoffrey
Thank you & Welcome, Mystic saint!
Give 1000 thanks, Nicolette!
Big congratulations, Geoffrey--I'm looking forward to finally meeting you at Calabash.
Me, too, Nicholas!
Geoff: If I could, I would come to Calabash! It would be a great lime, and I would be so glad to cheer you, and 'introduce' you to Wayne as my cousin! Enjoy the plaudits and big congrats.
Give thanks, Pam.I can hear you cheering from Florida.
1Love,
Geoffrey
Congratulations! I expect I will enjoy this as much as I enjoyed your first story collection. It looks great.
Richard, I've lived a little more and learned even more. Uncle Obadiah will always have a special place in my heart, but I really like Who's Your Daddy?
was just looking to order on amazon.ca and they say not released yet. strange!
when's the release date
Delays, delays...
I'll have to announce when it is in the book stores.
Peace,
Geoffrey
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