Jamaica Blog Awards: We got badges!

I know what some of you are thinking: "Badges? We don't need no stinkin' badges!"
So,vote for me & "Shoot the Sheriff...not the deputy."
Or if you prefer Bob Dylan:
"Mama, take this badge off of meI can't use it anymore.It's gettin' dark, too dark for me to seeI feel like I'm knockin' on heaven's door."
Either way, here's the link to vote for me:
http://jamaicablogawards.com/geoffrey-philip/
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15 Miami Poets@ The International Literary Quarterly: Geoffrey Philp

Mangroves (B)
acrylic on canvas
48 inches x 36 inches
2007 
© Xavier Cortada

Sharing space with fellow comrades-in-word @ Interlitq:  Elisa Albo, Howard Camner, Adrian Castro, Denise Duhamel, Corey Ginsburg, Michael Hettich, Miriam Levine, Christopher Louvet, Jesse Millner, Barbra Nightingale, Laura Richardson, Alexis Sellas, Virgil Suárez, and Nick Vagnoni. The artwork was done by Miami-based artist, Xavier Cortada.

Here's the link: http://www.interlitq.org/

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Christmas and Nostalgia

All men come to the hills

Finally…

Men from the deeps of the plains of the sea—

Where a wind-in-the sail is hope,

That long desire, and long weariness fulfills—

Come again to the hills.

“All men come to the hills” by Roger Mais

I had no intention of writing this morning. But then, old habits die hard, and when I could no longer stay in bed, I went downstairs as usual to check my e-mail. Was I surprised!

Sitting at the top of the list was an e-mail from Harold Mitchell, who had been searching the Net for the names of old friends, when he stumbled upon my blog. I hadn’t seen nor had I heard from him in years! In fact, had to dig through my copy of the Jamaica College ('75) yearbook, of which I was the literary editor, to recall his face.

A flood of memories of Jamaica at Christmas (including the poem by Roger Mais—it’s as if those old poets always knew we would be a wayfaring people) came back: football, the Mona Heights fair, and friends.

Yes, I know, memory is selective. But sometimes that is a good thing. In this case, I have used my memories of Jamaica to rebuild my life in Florida. I have taken the best that living in Jamaica has taught me to recreate a life here.

So, although I can no longer go to the fair nor do I play football, I still have a few friends with whom I can share some great memories. Here’s the post that Harold found:

My Jamaica: Part Two

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Merry Christmas

Merry Christmas

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Artist: Christina Philp

Vote for Geoffrey Philp's Blog: Jamaica Blog Awards

Geoffrey Philp's Blog has been nominated in the Best Overseas Blog for the Jamaica Blog Awards. Give thanks to Corve DaCosta for organizing the contest and for highlighting the Jamaican talent within the blogosphere.

To vote for my blog, please follow this link to the category: Best Overseas Blog:

http://jamaicablogawards.com/voting-categories/best-overseas-jamaica-blog/

Voting ends @ noon January 3, 2011.

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"Mary’s Prayer" by Geoffrey Philp

Madonna in Prayer by Sassoferrato, c1640-50 




Mary’s Prayer

Lord, help me to be a light today.

My tormentors taunted me until I cried.

Darkness covered my heart. It felt as if I had died

when they said nothing good was ever born from Nazareth’s clay,

sin would haunt the child because of my pride.

Lord, help me to be a light today.

But when I looked into His eyes, I found a way.

Something new was born, and I knew the elders had lied.

This is a love I can no longer hide:

Lord, help me to be a light today.

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Another year of blogging has come to an end, so I am signing off until January 12, 2011.

Be careful, enjoy yourselves, and your loved ones.

 Merry Christmas & Happy New Year!

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Image source: http://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/books/bookreviews/4699156/Mother-of-God-a-History-of-the-Virgin-Mary-by-Miri-Rubin-review.html

National Book Foundation: Innovations in Reading Prize 2011

Innovations in Reading Prize 2011

For individuals, institutions, and collaborative programs using innovative approaches to successfully inspire a lifelong love of reading

POSTMARK DEADLINE: FEBRUARY 22, 2011

The complete application process is available in the Application Form.
PDF Application form to be filled out by hand and faxed or mailed to the Foundation. Download >


Each year, the National Book Foundation awards a number of prizes of up to $2,500 each to individuals and institutions--or partnerships between the two--that have developed innovative means of creating and sustaining a lifelong love of reading. In addition to promoting the best of American literature through the National Book Awards, the Foundation also seeks to expand the audience for literature in America. Through the Innovations in Reading Prizes, those individuals and institutions that use particularly innovative methods to generate excitement and a passionate engagement with books and literature will be rewarded for their creativity and leadership.

Questions? Contact the Foundation at 212.685.0261      .

Sponsored by a generous grant from Levenger.

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Give A Child A Book As A Gift This Christmas @ Jamaican Literature.Com

"Rather than go the typical route of toys and games, how about giving a child a book as a gift this Christmas? When choosing books for children, here are a few thoughts:

Will the child find the story and illustrations appealing?

What will he/she learn from the book?

Is it age appropriate?"

For more, please visit Jamaican Literature

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Defining Moments...Joanne C. Hillhouse

I’ve published two books, and I still feel like a fraud.

It was said there, in the safety of the circle, not simply to echo the insecurities of another, nor disingenuously, out of some sense of --you are not alone – false comfort. It was as honest as we had ever been with each other. It was an unremarkable day, really, notwithstanding the record low temperatures of the pending Christmas season; unremarkable, except for this, this moment of copping to our insecurities as though finally confessing some shameful secret.

And yes, there was a part of us, of me, fearful of being dismissed or ridiculed for it – more self-doubt. There was a part of me that contemplated, much of the rest of that Sunday and night, the riskiness of trust. After all, isn’t that one reason why writing, and fiction writing especially, had been my longest and most honest relationship; it gave me a safe place more sacred than the confessional, a space where it was okay to be honest and yet okay – in fact, essential – to twist the truth.

But in that moment of quiet admission, it felt safe here, too, in a community of writers not concerned with putting a good face on things, writers who’d spent the better part of this writing session talking candidly about the things that matter to them and the things that drive them to write – about family, and ideology, and country, and childhood, and passions, and flirtations, and the books of other great writers, and dreams, and, yes, insecurities.

I feel like a fraud.

And it hit me, about five minutes before I finally gave into the compulsion to write this, just now, that this is why I’ve struggled with my host blogger’s invitation – to me and other writers – to write of that moment when we knew we were writers.

I thought of things my father and mother – holders of my first memories – have told me about my early relationship with language: the way I’d sit so silently in pre-school my teacher thought it was too soon yet radio everything that had happened on returning home, the way I read the pictures and told the stories before I could decode the words.

I thought of how I’ve daydreamed my way through life, always with parallel scenarios running on delay in my head.

I thought of how writing saved my life all the times I felt certain I would finally jump from the ledge.

I thought of Tanty’s black and white notebook, inherited after she died; her elegant script alongside my own scrappy scrawl. I thought of how her ghost shows up, inserting itself:

At night, after she’d bathed and put on the pretty pink duster one of her ‘children’ had sent her, when he’d climb into her lap, it would be to the scent of baby powder, Florida water and soursop bush (the last tucked under her head tie) – from The Boy from Willow Bend

I thought of seeing the cover of that book for the first time and not knowing how to feel, and of that feeling of jumping out of my skin – like I was on a caffeine high – when, recently, my agent called with the news that she had an offer, after more rejections than I care to think of, for my new book – Spring 2012!

And while these are all true moments, it would’ve been disingenuous to milk them and say, I knew then.

I know I am a writer. Through each struggle for the right word, through every rejection, wondering if writers are just masochistic after all because this amount of stinginess in a normal relationship would’ve had friends scheduling an intervention. Through every effort to greet the day and the fragments of things that sit like puzzle pieces on the page with hopefulness, and let my spirit not be squashed.

I know I am a writer, and, yet, insecurity dogs me; insecurity, and curiousity, and questions, and this tendency to pick at things, and pain so big it feels like it might swallow me sometimes.

I know I am a writer, because, through it all, I write.

I know I am a writer, because as I drove to that writers’ group meeting, musing on things, my fingers itched to pick at the scabs with paper and pen.

Because as I left that meeting, the need to sum up how that looping, rambling conversation had filled me up was like an ache, but a good ache.

I know I’m a writer. And sometimes I even impress and surprise myself, feel proud of myself, that, yes, I wrote this: something that makes someone laugh or cry or wonder why, or so they tell me. I wrote this, After Glow, Friday Night Fish Fry…both stories I’m proud of. I wrote this forthcoming book, my most challenging effort to date.

I know that I’m a writer because things never feel quite so hopeless, the world never feels so dull and absent of meaning as when I can’t write. Not even after the umpteenth rejection saying in not so many words, you’re not good enough. It’s not about finally finding the courage to cop to being a writer, to write it in my passport, to greet the world with it – even as they whisper with something like pity, she bright, you know, she coulda been a lawyer.

It’s about moments like this when I can admit to the insecurities that I haven’t been able to shake despite the Boy, in spite of Dancing Nude in the Moonlight; and still write and feel grateful that like air and music, the ability to express that insecurity (and every drop of joy and fear and hope and sensation of being suspended miles above earth fearful of the drop but hanging there nonetheless) lives in me. I know I’m a writer because I write. This. And my underarms are sweaty with the fear of putting it down and setting it free. But I do anyway.

About Joanne C. Hillhouse

Antiguan Joanne C. Hillhouse (who also writes as jhohadli) is the author of two books of fiction: The Boy from Willow Bend and Dancing Nude in the Moonlight. A former Breadloaf fellow, her fiction and poetry have, also, appeared in Tongues of the Ocean, Mythium, Ma Comère, The Caribbean Writer, Calabash, Sea Breeze, Women Writers: A Zine, St. Somewhere, and more. She was awarded a 2004 UNESCO Honour Award for her contribution to literacy and the literary arts in Antigua and Barbuda. Among her projects are the Wadadli Youth Pen Prize – http://wadadlipen.wordpress.com She’s a freelance writer, journalist, editorial consultant, and producer (having worked in print, film, and TV). For more, visit www.jhohadli.com  

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Photo Credit:  Andy E. Williams.

RAIN TAXI BENEFIT AUCTION!

RAIN TAXI BENEFIT AUCTION!

Our annual benefit auction allows you to support the nonprofit Rain Taxi and get cool stuff at the same time!

You'll find signed first editions, gorgeous broadsides, rare chapbooks, seminal graphic novels, quirky collectible books, handcrafted items, and more!  M.T. ANDERSON, Paul AUSTER, Geoff DYER, Brian EVENSON, Neil GAIMAN, William GIBSON, Richard HELL, Brenda HILLMAN, Susan HOWE, Lewis HYDE, Robert KIRKMAN, Gordon LISH, Alexander MCCALL SMITH, Eileen MYLES, Antonya NELSON, Ron PADGETT, Per PETTERSON, Raymond QUENEAU, Edward SANDERS, Jean VALENTINE, and William T. VOLLMANN are just some of the authors whose works you'll find.  For a full list of offerings, go to our online auction now!

http://shop.ebay.com/merchant/raintaxi

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Top Ten Hits 2010

One of the more pleasant rituals of blogging is the calendar year analysis of posts. Luckily, I’ve installed Google Analytics, so the process is relatively easy.

If there is a trend in the types of hits, it seems to suggest that readers are interested in information about writing competitions and opportunities for publication. There was continued interest in two perennial favorites, Bob Marley and Marcus Garvey, and I was pleased with the number of visits for children’s books. This is a neglected area in our writing and if I can do anything to promote the work of children’s authors such as Diane Browne and sites such as Anansesem , I will certainly do my best. For if our writing does not try to engage youngsters, from as early as possible, in the critical task of questioning identity through creative acts, then why are we writing at all?

I had a wonderful surprise with the placement of the book review of Anton Nimblett’s Sections of an Orange, which may help to explain why visitors from Trinidad and Tobago have risen to #4 on the 2010 Top Ten List and #6 on the All Time Hits. I still can’t explain why the Philippines, Germany, and China are not on the Top Ten Hits for 2010.

Top Ten Hits: Country/Territory (2010)

	Country/Territory	Visits
1.	United States	27838
2.	Jamaica	5876
3.	United Kingdom	3385
4.	Trinidad and Tobago	3205
5.	Canada	3156
6.	India	1204
7.	Belize	978
8.	France	795
9.	Barbados	780
10.	Australia	751

All Time Top Ten Hits: Country/Territory (1/1/2006 to 12/1/2010)

	Country/Territory	Visits
1.	United States	117903
2.	Jamaica	18423
3.	United Kingdom	14393
4.	Canada	13141
5.	India	9333
6.	Trinidad and Tobago	8209
7.	Philippines	7566
8.	China	7496
9.	France	7212
10.	Germany	4377

Based on a comparison of the All Time Top Ten Hits and the Top Ten Hits for 2010, readers are expecting information about the following topics, which I will attempt to cover in 2011 as I have done in the past:

• Caribbean authors/literature
• Bob Marley/reggae
• News about Caribbean authors and in the case of obituaries, the significance of the author’s work
• Children’s books/literature
• Writing competitions and opportunities for publishing
• New Books and Book Reviews

All Time Top Ten Hits (1/1/2006 to 12/1/2010)

	Page Title	Visits
1.	The Meaning(s) of Bob Marley's Songs	13400
2.	“Little Boy Crying"" by Mervyn Morris: An Appreciation	10695
3.	“Colonial Girls School"" by Olive Senior: An Appreciation	10429
4.	“Epitaph"" by Dennis Scott: An Appreciation	7339
5.	A Fable of Freedom: "I Shot the Sheriff""	4134
6.	Five Songs I Must Have for my iPod	3813
7.	A Rubric for Poetry?	3523
8.	The Top Ten Things Every Writer Should Know	3472
9.	Bob Marley and the Seven Chakras	3039
10.	About Geoffrey Philp's Blog Spot	2355

Of course, I will continue to explore questions, which while not popular, seem to be gaining momentum:

• What are the challenges that Caribbean authors face in the new digital age?
• What are the new books/works that not only entertain, but are also engaged with the issues of expanding the moral imagination of Caribbean creole identity? What are the elements of a Caribbean creole identity?
• How does the Caribbean literary tradition inform our discourse about violence, especially toward children, the LGBT community, and ourselves?
• How do folk elements/mythology contribute to the Caribbean literary tradition?

It seems as if I have a lot of work ahead of me. But with the help of my friends, I know “every little thing’s gonna be all right.”  

It’s also good to know that there are other web sites out there such as Repeating Islands, Signifying Guyana, The Caribbean Review of Books, The Caribbean Book Blog, and Jamaican Literature where readers will also get excellent information about writing from the Caribbean.

Here, then, are the Top Ten Hits for 2010 in reverse order:

Top Ten: Hits (2010)

	Page Title	Visits
10.	world-book-day-caribbean-childrens.html	216
9.	accepting-submissions-caribbean-writer.html	259
8.	small-axe-literary-competition-2010.html	262
7.	bob-marley-and-heros-journey.html	289
6.	book-review-sections-of-orange-by-anton.html	320
5.	10th-annual-calabash-international.html	343
4.	albert-huie-1920-2010.html	427
3.	rex-nettleford-1933-2010.html	432
2.	happy-birthday-marcus-garvey-2010.html	831
1.	commonwealth-short-story-competition.html	1851

I wonder what the 2011 will bring? Your guess is as good as mine…

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