MAKE IT REAL: Writers Clinic With Caribbean Authors

The Louise Bennett-Coverley-Heritage Council, as part of the centenary celebrations of Jamaica’s cultural icon, the Honourable Louise Bennett-Coverley, will host a one-day writers clinic - Make it Real- on Saturday, October 5, 2019, 10:00am– 5:00pm.  The Clinic will be held at  Broward County West Regional Library,  8601 West Broward Boulevard, Plantation, Florida 33324. 

Make it Real  will help writers take the ideas they’ve been wanting to write about, shape, polish and breathe life into them so they can become real stories or poems.   Two workshops, Fiction, and  Poetry will be held concurrently. A third workshop on Performance Poetry will  be open to all participants.  The sessions will cover: character and plot development, stage craft and delivery, playing with rhyme and rhythm and editing for publication. 

To celebrate Louise Bennett-Coverley’s iconic contribution to Caribbean literature, the Writer’s Clinic will be taught by three outstanding Caribbean writers who live in Florida.

Christine Craig will host the Poetry clinic. She was born in Jamaica and is a graduate of the University of the West Indies. Her short stories and poems have been published in British, American and Caribbean journals. Described as “One of the Caribbean’s most original and innovative poets” - her poetry collection All Things Bright…and Quadrille for Tigers was published by Peepal Tree Press, UK. Her short story collection Mint Tea and other Stories, and children’s fiction Bird Gang, were published by Heinemann Caribbean. 

Geoffrey Philp will host the Fiction clinic. He has written two novels, Benjamin, my son and Garvey's Ghost; two collections of short stories, Who's Your Daddy? and Uncle Obadiah and the Alien, and three children’s books, Marcus and the Amazons, The Christmas Dutch Pot Baby, and Grandpa Sydney's Anancy Stories. His work is represented in nearly every anthology of Caribbean literature including the Oxford Book of Caribbean Short Stories and the Oxford Book of Caribbean Verse.

Malachi Smith is the presenter of the Performance Poetry clinic. He is a fellow of the University of Miami’s Michener Caribbean Writer’s Institute, an alumnus of Florida International University, Miami-Dade College and Jamaica School of Drama. Malachi was a founding member of Poets in Unity. He has recorded seven CD collections of his poetry and has read and performed his poetry internationally. 

The writing clinic is sponsored by the Louise Bennett-Heritage Council, Broward County Public Library, Friends of the South Regional Library and Friends of the West Regional Library. The Writers Clinic is free and open to writers in all genres.  For applications email Malachi at malismith@aol.com or log on to www.louisebennettheritage.com