A Conversation With...Charmaine Valere

Where were you born? Describe current family life.

I was born in Guyana and I currently live in New Jersey with my husband and three children.     


What do you do for a living? Why did you choose this vocation?

I am a teacher and a freelance writer. The former helps pay the bills, and the latter makes me feel like I’m part of something bigger than the things that seem to control most of my days--bigger than the forms to be filled out for every little turn I make (seemingly), and bigger than bills.


Who are your three favorite writers? Why?

These days (because I read to review mostly), I don’t have the luxury of reading more than one work by a writer to declare anyone a “favourite,” but when I was able to do so, I loved (still do) James Baldwin’s fire and bravery,


What was the first book you fell in love with and how have your reading habits changed over the years?

Little Women was my first love (not sure how young I was). I read it several times and to this day my first love (reading-wise) is a novel with an engaging saga.


What are you reading now?

I’m currently reading Maryse Condé’s I, Tituba, Black Witch of Salem (translated by Richard Philcox, copyright 1992) for my Caribbean Women Writers blog series. First lines: Abena, my mother, was raped by an English sailor on the deck of Christ the King one day in the year 16** while the ship was sailing for Barbados. I was born from the act of aggression. From this act of hatred and contempt.

Sounds Caribbean, right?



About Charmaine Valere


Charmaine Valere is a literature adjunct professor in New Jersey, a freelance writer on education and parenting topics, and  she writes about Guyanese and Caribbean literature at www.signifyinguyana.typepad.com.

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A Conversation With...Diana McCaulay

Where were you born? Describe current family life.    


I’m a born yah - was born in Kingston, Jamaica. My parents and three of my four grandparents were also born in Jamaica – different parts of the country. I have ancestral connections to Black River, St. Ann’s Bay, Mandeville and Ulster Spring.


I’m married to Fred Hanley, and I have a grown up son, Jonathan, who is an actor living in London. I have two sisters, Marilyn and Suzie – Marilyn lives in Toronto and Suzie in Kingston.


What do you do for a living? Why did you choose this vocation?


I am the founder and Chief Executive Officer of a non profit environmental group called the Jamaica Environment Trust or JET. JET is almost 20 years old, and I have been its full time CEO since 1998 – I worked in the insurance industry before that – have had many different occupations, actually. I became concerned about the natural environment back in the late 1980s because I realized that some gorgeous Jamaican places were being destroyed. One of them was the Palisadoes strip – a place my parents used to take me when I was a child to run up and down on the beach and watch the sunset. I took a house guest there and saw it had become an illegal garbage dump. I thought, someone should do something about this, and gradually, that someone became me. I didn’t know anything about the environment but I started talking to people, reading about it, and the more I learned the more concerned I became. Along with a group of friends and business colleagues, we started JET in 1991 and I eventually left my private sector job to run JET full-time.


Why did I do this? I think Jamaica is a special island, a very beautiful place, and I hated to see the damage we were doing (still doing) to our home. I have a very strong attachment to place, a love for nature, and I think many of our development and social problems are exacerbated by the way we treat our natural resources. It’s an ethical and moral position for me – we have a responsibility to be good stewards of the environment, to function as part of the natural world, not as some kind of exception. As a writer, I’m very interested in rootedness, in a sense of place and belonging, which dovetails with my environmental work.


Who are your three favorite writers? Why?


That’s a hard question to answer, because I may not like all the books a favourite writer has produced and my tastes change over time. But the three writers I will always buy are probably Barbara Kingsolver, J.M. Coetzee, and Kei Miller. But I’m looking at my bookshelves as I’m writing this and thinking: I can’t choose! Don’t make me choose! I love Barbara Kingsolver’s early work – partly because of her attention to place, to minority communities and people. I loved The Poisonwood Bible, which was a much more ambitious novel. Coetzee is brilliant – he introduces so many layers and abstractions in what appear to be short, simple works. My favourite of his books is The Life and Times of Michael K. Kei is my favourite Jamaican writer – he writes in three genres, short stories, novels and poetry – and he is a wonderful performer as well. Try not to read your work in public after Kei has read his! I am reading his new book now – The Last Warner Woman – but have not yet finished it.


What was the first book you fell in love with and how have your reading habits changed over the years?


My mother used to tell me I was reading before I was five, so I probably don’t remember the very first book I fell in love with – maybe the one with Noddy and the train? Too long ago. 


The first book I remember bringing me to tears was probably Black Beauty – I read a lot about animals before I was ten. In my early teens, my father gave me adventure stories, war stories – the novels of C.S. Forrester, Nicholas Monsarrat and later, Ernest Hemmingway. My father convinced me that the only proper subject for literature was war. Then in the hormonal turmoil of adolescence I read the usual romance novels – two I remember being unable to stop reading were Margaret Mitchell’s Gone With The Wind and Daphne du Maurier’s Rebecca. I grew up liking the big novel, lots of drama and action and tragic love affairs. When I went to school, there was not much emphasis on West Indian literature, so I did not read Caribbean writers widely. I loved V.S. Naipaul’s A House for Mr. Biswas, which I studied at A-Level – used to comb through it looking for his metaphors. I have always been an omnivorous reader, though, I read many genres, many types of fiction – not much non fiction, unless it is environmental. I read more than one book at a time as well, depends on my mood. Now I am trying to make my reading count – I know I will not be able to read all the books I want to in my life, so I don’t read much commercial fiction. I am also filling the gap of not being well grounded in Caribbean literature. I read prize winning fiction too – hoping the prize judges are doing some selection for me!


What are you reading now?


Kei Miller’s The Last Warner Woman; Liz Rosenberg’s Home Repair and Kevin McIlvoy’s The Fifth Station. Three novels that could not be more different. I just finished Jessica Anthony’s The Convalescent and I cannot recommend that highly enough – Jess is a young writer, this is her first book and it is literally marvelous. The highest praise I can give a book is – I wish I had written it – and I wish I had written The Convalescent.


About the Author


Diana McCaulay is a Jamaican writer, newspaper columnist and environmental activist. She has lived her entire life in Jamaica and engaged in a range of occupations – secretary, insurance executive, racetrack steward, mid-life student, social commentator, environmental advocate. She is the Chief Executive of the Jamaican Environment Trust and the recipient of the 2005 Euan P. McFarlane Award for Outstanding Environmental Leadership. Dog-Heart won first prize in the 2008 Jamaican National Literature awards.

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A Conversation with Peter Schmitt

Peter Schmitt is the author of four collections of poems: Renewing the Vows, from David Robert Books (August 2007); Hazard Duty and Country Airport (Copper Beech Press); and a chapbook, To Disappear, from Pudding House. He has received The Lavan Award from The Academy of American Poets; The “Discovery”/The Nation Prize; and grants from the Florida Arts Council (twice) and The Ingram Merrill Foundation. His poems have been featured on National Public Radio’s Writers Almanac (read by Garrison Keillor), and his poem, “Packing Plant,” won The Sunken Garden Poetry Festival open competition in Farmington, Connecticut, in 2001, chosen out of 632 entries. His poems have appeared in many leading publications, including The Hudson Review, The Nation, The Paris Review, Poetry, and The Southern Review, and have been widely anthologized. He has also reviewed poetry for The Miami Herald and The South Florida Sun-Sentinel. A native Miamian and graduate with honors from Amherst College, where he studied with Richard Wilbur, and from the University of Iowa, where his teachers included Donald Justice, Peter Schmitt has taught creative writing and literature at the University of Miami since 1986.

Where were you born? Describe current family life.

I was born in Miami, and to my surprise, am still living here. My local family consists of my mother, who lives in Bay Harbor. I’m single, and share my residence with Chelsey, a highly intelligent and mischievous 17-year-old cat.

What do you do for a living? Why did you choose this vocation?

I have taught creative writing (poetry and fiction) and literature at The University of Miami since 1986. As a student at Amherst College, I was considerably influenced by certain teachers (like Richard Wilbur, Barry and Lorrie Goldensohn, and David Sofield), whose balanced careers of teaching and writing seemed a highly attractive model to emulate. By about 20, to write and to teach at the college level was what I wanted to do with my life, and I’ve been fortunate to have achieved that goal.

Who are your favorite writers? Why?

It’s very difficult to narrow the list to only three, but I would cite these poets: Elizabeth Bishop, from whom I learned that “quiet” and “understated” need not mean “minor;” Robert Frost, who brought home to me the centrality of metaphor, who for all his association with the natural world, with only one or two exceptions never wrote a poem without a person in it; and Donald Justice, also born in Miami, and one of my own teachers [at the Iowa Writers Workshop], whose dedication to art and to the craft of poetry provided an example that I will always hold before me, if never match. As with Bishop and Frost, Justice epitomizes clarity and reveals an emotional power made keener by restraint.

What was the first book you fell in love with and how have your reading habits changed over the years?

My mother claims I began to read at two, but as I don’t remember, I also can’t recall what must have been the first book I loved, though surely there was a first and have been many. I will say that I’m quite a slow reader—having read so much poetry over the years that I’ve become an ear-reader rather than an eye-reader. I wish I had more time for reading—reading of all things, especially novels. Significant gaps loom in my reading I’m embarrassed to admit to.

What are you reading now?

Just at the moment, I am as usual in the middle (slowly) of several books: poetry collections by Jim Daniels, Elise Partridge, Alison Townsend , and Natasha Trethewey; story collections by Max Apple (which I hope to review) and William Trevor; a novel by Brock Clarke, An Arsonist’s Guide to Writers’ Homes in NewEngland (good title); a history of Florida hurricanes, by Jay Barnes; and several magazines and literary journals (Atlantic, New Yorker, Paste, Hudson Review). Over the coming break I hope to make some headway in Robert B. Shaw’s Blank Verse, a form I teach in my poetry writing classes.

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On Friday (12/7/2007) I will be featuring an interview with Mervyn Morris.

A Conversation with Erika J. Waters

Where were you born?

I was born in Alexandria, VA, because my mother was working at the Pentagon. I lived there only three months, though, and then we started moving, first to Maryland, then Boston, Brooklyn, and finally, Rockland County, NY which is slightly upstate from NYC, on the Hudson River.

Describe current family life.

I live in Maine now, with my husband and elderly dog. Our daughter is at Massachusetts College of Art and Design in Boston and comes home only when coerced.

What do you do for a living?

I took early retirement from the University of the Virgin Islands and now teach English part-time at the University of Southern Maine in Portland.

Why did you choose this vocation?

I love books and reading! When I found out I could get a degree for reading for 4 years, I was ecstatic.

Who are your three favorite writers?

When I was in high school and college, I came to love Thomas Hardy‘s novels; I still admire his fiction and poetry, too. Then I read Zora Neale Hurston‘s Their Eyes Were Watching God, and she became my favorite author. After I started studying Caribbean literature, I was thoroughly impressed with both Derek Walcott and Kamau Brathwaite.

What was the first book you fell in love with and how have your reading habits changed over the years?

Way way back I loved Nancy Drew (You’re going to hear this a lot from women) and then I loved biographies. I remember Invincible Louisa, the biography of Louisa May Alcott. I also loved poetry from a very early age: I remember reading a collection called The Gay Poets about the Romantic poets (the word had nothing to do with sexuality then) and loving it. As an adolescent, I read an anthology of love poems so much it fell apart.

My reading habits today have been influenced by lack of time--I‘m more selective. Also, I don‘t feel compelled to finish a book that is wasting my time.

An interesting question might be when do you read? So many people I know read before they go to bed. I could never do that because I would end up staying up all night. I wonder if others who study literature for a living or write it would agree?

What are you reading now?

I’ve just finished The Law of Dreams by Peter Behrens, the story of a man’s life during the potato famine in Ireland and then his immigration to Canada. I was utterly amazed by this book and have recommended it to everyone I know.

What makes you laugh?

A lot of silly things make me laugh! I laugh out loud at funny movies, at TV shows, at slap-stick comedy. I laugh a lot, actually, and I value those people I can laugh with.

About Erika Waters

Erika J. Waters received her Bachelor’s and Master’s Degrees in English from NYU and then an Education Specialist in Adult and Continuing Education and a Ph.D. in English from the University of New Mexico. She started teaching at the University of the Virgin Islands (St. Croix) in the early 1970s; in1987 she founded The Caribbean Writer. She also edited or co-edited books of Caribbean poetry, fiction, literary criticism, and drama. With funding from the National Endowment for the Humanities and Tulsa Studies in Women’s Literature, she researched early Caribbean women writers; she has published reviews and articles on Caribbean literature for over 30 years. In 2002 she took early retirement from UVI and moved to Maine, where she now teaches part-time at the University of Southern Maine and the University of Maine, Augusta. She was a Fulbright Scholar in Finland in 2005 where she taught Caribbean Literature.

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A Conversation with Karel Mc Intosh

Karel M^c Intosh is excited about social media, and the opportunities it creates for communications and creating relationships. Currently, she authors the Caribbean Public Relations blog, where she focuses on media and communications in the Caribbean. Karel is based in Trinidad. She also works in Trinidad and Tobago’s tourism industry, and holds the rank of Corporate Communications Coordinator.

A qualified communicator, she holds a MSc. in Corporate Communications with Distinction from Thames Valley University (England), and a BSc. in Government with a minor in International Relations (Upper Second Class Honours) from the University of the West Indies (Trinidad).

Diverse public relations, writing and editorial projects have defined Karel’s five-year communications career. Her career started in 1999 when she joined the Trinidad and Tobago Newsday as a freelancer, and soon became a full-time reporter, copping Newsday’s Best Story of the Year Award in 2000. Since then, she has amassed valuable experience writing for communications, lifestyle and business magazines. Currently, she is a columnist with the Jamaica Gleaner’s JobSmart. Karel has also worked in public relations consultancy, where she gained a wealth of experience with companies from various industries, including the energy, engineering, financial, and non-profit sector. Karel has also lectured in the fields of communications, public relations and foreign policy.

Karel is a Member of the International Association of Business Communicators, and actively participates in the Trinidad and Tobago Chapter. You can contact her at caribbeanprblog@yahoo.com

Where were you born? Describe current family life.

I was born in Trinidad, and have lived there all of my life, except for a few vacations and the year I spent pursuing my master's in England. I’m the only girl out of four children and I come from a full, nuclear family with Mom and Dad still together, and having always been there for us. I’m especially tickled by my nieces and nephews who I absolutely adore.

What do you do for a living? Why did you choose this vocation?

I work in the field of corporate communication, and love it. Writing was always a strength of mine, so initially I had considered journalism, and law for some reason, as potential careers. During a year off from my Bachelors studies, I took a year off to work with a Trinidad newspaper, and from there kept doing communications-related stuff during my UWI years. By that time I was convinced that communications was for me, especially since I liked the strategic aspect of it. I believe in sticking with what I’m good at, and more importantly what keeps me happy, and communications does that for me.

Who are your three favorite writers? Why?

Gosh, that’s a bit of a tough question for me. I don’t read as much as I’d like to and I haven’t for a while. But growing up – in my pre-teen years – I read DH Lawrence, Chinua Achebe, Michael Anthony, Jane Austen, and Charles Dickens. I’m really all over the place with writers, but I absolutely love Elizabeth Nunez, and Chinua Achebe.

What was the first book you fell in love with and how have your reading habits changed over the years?

I love, love, love, Chinua Achebe. To me Things Fall Apart was great and riveting. I equally love Green Days by the River by Michael Anthony, and DH Lawrence’s Sons and Lovers. In primary school, I read the usual Nancy Drew and Hardy Boys, but mixed it with great, Caribbean literature from the likes of Michael Anthony and Selvon, and Achebe, Lawrence etc. In secondary school I studied English Literature right up to "A" Levels, and so I read George Elliott’s The Mill on the Floss, Jamaica Kincaid’s Annie John, Thomas Hardy’s Tess of the d'Urbervilles, Jane Austen’s Pride and Prejudice, lots of DH Lawrence, and other books on the curriculum.

I love Toni Morrison’s Song of Solomon, but wasn’t impressed by her other offerings. While I was in England I took advantage of lots of free delivery by Amazon and I stocked up on Elizabeth Nunez. In between that I read tonnes of corporate communications, public relations, advertising and marketing books and journals for my Masters. Now, if I’m really bored, I’ll borrow one of my friends’ romance novels, which in my book aren’t real literature. What I really want to do is to create a library of great, Caribbean books. My problem is easy access locally to Caribbean authors (somehow bookstores think that VS Naipaul alone qualifies), so Amazon is going to get business from me.

Honestly though, reading actual published works has taken a bit of a backseat for me since my addiction to the Internet took over my life J

What are you reading now?

The Internet (laughter). Most times I read stuff on social media etc. I do read Bajegirl’s fiction at the Cheese-on-Bread blog though J Currently, I’m searching high and low in Trini bookstores for a copy of Green Days by the River, which I read over 15 years ago, but I remember I loved it, and want to get it badly so I can enjoy it again. So, if I don’t order it from Amazon, Santa’s elves can send me a copy (yes, I’m already waiting for Christmas with bated breath)!

What makes you laugh?

It doesn’t take much to make me laugh, and I laugh quite often. I laugh at ridiculous comments, picong, outright funny jokes, people’s quirky movements, someone else laughing and seriously lame jokes. I’m a winner at stale joke competitions as well, so I have career options. Mostly, I laugh at my nieces’ and nephews’ antics, which most of the time I instigate, and which they do because they know Aunty Karel will reward them with a hearty round of laughter.

What are your other passions?

I love singing, as I used to attend music school, and would like to start that back one day, as well as to get back on my piano. As noted before, I’m really into the Internet, and would like to become a full-fledged tech geek one day, as well as a designer. These will marry well with my current communications skills. These days I’m also in the gym, trying to be a fitness freak. Hopefully, I’ll become really passionate about that. LOL. Otherwise, my overall passion is simply enjoying life to the fullest, living each day thanking God for life, strength, joy, his goodness and family and friends. I’m a real simple person.

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A Conversation With Patrice Elizabeth Grell Yursik

Patrice Elizabeth Grell Yursik is a Trinidad-born writer who currently resides in Miami. She graduated with her MFA in Creative Writing (fiction) from the University of Miami, and then, spent a wonderful summer employed as the Assistant Events and Marketing Coordinator at Books & Books. In 2005, she won an honorable mention in Trinidad's Derek Walcott Writing Contest for her short story, "Cookie." Currently she is the Calendar Editor of the Miami New Times, and in her spare time, she has created Afrobella.com, a beauty blog for women of color that has won an eager and ardent readership. This year Afrobella was nominated for a Bloggers Choice Award, and was the proud winner of two Black Weblog Awards -- for Best Culture Blog and Best Niche Blog. When Patrice isn't writing for her job or her blog, she is fervently trying to complete her first novel.

Where were you born?

Port of Spain, Trinidad.

What do you do for a living? Why did you choose this vocation?

I’m the calendar editor at the Miami New Times. After graduating from the University of Miami with an MFA in Creative Writing, I didn’t know what I was going to do for a living. I worked for three months as the assistant events and marketing co-ordinator at Books and Books until I got the New Times job. I didn’t apply for the particular position that I have, so you could say that the vocation chose me.

Who are your three favorite writers? Why?

Roald Dahl, because his stories are so alive with magic. I grew up on his children’s books, and when I was a teenager, I read the Roald Dahl Omnibus. Then I sought out all of his other books. He was a definite early influence on me as an aspiring fiction writer.

Samuel Selvon, because he made me realize that I could have a voice and a personality, and tell the stories I had stored up inside me. Foreday Morning and Ways of Sunlight were crucial in my upbringing.

Toni Morrison. The way she approaches the particular issues of black society is so inspiring to me as a writer.


What was the first book you fell in love with and how have your reading habits changed over the years?

Summer Lightning by Olive Senior, without a doubt. That book made me realize that I had stories to tell. That book made me fall in love with short stories and realize their potential. Over the years, I’ve found less and less time to read. Also, I’ve found that I have a more discerning eye for fiction, and it’s more difficult for me to surrender to a fictional story. I read a lot of biographies and non fiction books these days. For some reason, it’s what I’m most drawn to.

What are you reading now?

I just finished Dear Diary by Lesley Arfin, which was such a page turner. It’s a crazy rough and tumble biography.


What makes you laugh?

On TV, I get a kick out of The Office, 30 Rock, and those silly gossip shows like Best Week Ever and The Soup. In real life, my husband. He’s a total comedian. We’re both pretty silly, and we love being silly together. It’s the best.

What are your other passions?

The most all-consuming passion in my life right now is my website, Afrobella.com. It started out as a forum to review beauty products targeted towards women of color with natural hair. It has grown into so much more than that. Now I also write about music, culture – whatever I want to, really. I have an average 1500 readers a day, I get to interact with intelligent women from all over the world, and I won two Black Weblog Awards this year. So, Afrobella takes up all of my free time, but in the best possible way.

I was an art minor in college, specializing in sculpture. I love working with clay, handbuilding, and I miss doing that. I also love oil painting, which is a messy, time consuming passion that I haven’t had a chance to pursue in too long. I love crafty projects – making jewelry and candles and stuff like that. I love cooking, and I’m definitely passionate about good, healthy food.

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A Conversation With Fragano Ledgister

Fragano Ledgister was born in London, moved to Jamaica at the age of 12, and was educated at St Elizabeth Technical High School, Munro College, UWI Mona, New York University, and the University of California, San Diego. He has worked for the Jamaica Daily News, The Gleaner, CANA, Efe News Agency, as an office temp, as a college professor, and, once upon a time, as a radio actor.

Fragano is the author of Class Alliances and the Liberal-Authoritarian State: The Roots of Post-Colonial Democracy in Jamaica, Trinidad and Tobago, and Surinam, and he has also published poems in Focus 1983 and the Penguin Book of Caribbean Verse in English. The father of two sons, both in college, he lives in Atlanta, Georgia. He teaches political science at Clark Atlanta University.

Where were you born? Describe current family life.

I was born in London, England. I lived there till I was twelve, then moved to Jamaica.

Currently, I live with my third wife and her mother in Atlanta. I’m the father of two sons by my first wife (who is now a good friend), both more or less grown – one just graduated from college, the other is a sophomore. I have a complicated family life which seems to include two wives (one current, one ex) who nag me about my health.

What do you do for a living? Why did you choose this vocation?

I’m a political scientist, teaching at Clark Atlanta University. I got my Ph.D. in political science, from the University of California, San Diego, in 1994, after obtaining an MA in Latin American and Caribbean studies from NYU in 1988. It was while I was at NYU in the 80s that I became interested in political science. I hadn’t expected to find that it was the courses in Caribbean and Latin American politics that truly engaged my interest.

I work in two areas of the discipline – comparative politics, which is the study of the domestic politics of countries other than the one you’re in, and political theory, which examines why we engage in politics and what it means for us. My particular interest in the Caribbean (no surprise, surely) and I’m currently looking at the ideas that led what were the British West Indies to independence.

Who are your three favorite writers? Why?

Bwoy, Geoffrey, you know how to ask hard questions. I read a lot of science fiction, and I’ve found myself really enjoying the novels of Harry Turtledove. He writes both fantasy and alternative history, and he’s a superb teller of stories with a tendency to produce excruciating and wonderful puns.

I would say that my favourite poet is Derek Walcott, who continues to amaze me and who manages to condense the complexities of human experience in the Caribbean into the best words possible. If there is someone whose verse truly speaks to me and echoes best my sense of who I am it is Walcott. No one else could write lines like ‘either I’m nobody or I’m a nation’ and give them the kind of force and significance that he does.

I also really like the novels of Neil Gaiman. I’ve managed to read every novel he’s written, and I was completely blown away by American Gods and by Anansi Boys. Both novels have something powerful to say about culture and identity, and an Englishman who can take on Afro-Caribbean beliefs and treat them honestly and respectfully is going to get my attention.

The problem with this question is that I have to leave out a host of other writers whose work I love, and who, for one reason or another, attract my complete attention. A couple of years ago, for example, I reread all the novels of John Hearne. I’ve read most of Anthony Winkler’s work and been bowled over with laughter. I’ve read the poems of Lorna Goodison, Kwame Dawes, and Donna Weir-Soley recently and enjoyed them all. Right now, I’m waiting for new novels by Charles Stross and Jo Walton, which I know I’ll enjoy.

I couldn’t abandon this question without mentioning the work of John M. Ford, whom I had the honour of encountering online in the last year of his life, and whose novels and poems unfailingly delight.

What was the first book you fell in love with and how have your reading habits changed over the years?

The first book I fell in love with was the Spanish school primer that one of my aunts gave me as a child. I read it again and again for years.

I read, as I’ve said elsewhere, promiscuously. I have to engage in two kinds of reading, after all. One is for my work, both teaching and research, and one is for my own pleasure and, sometimes edification. I read in spurts: light novels that amuse and entertain me, more serious work that makes me think, poetry that makes me think and feel, and I generally find myself reading two or three books at a time.

The first novel I can recall truly loving – and reading over and over again till the binding came off – was an abridged translation of The Three Musketeers that I read around the age of nine. Not until many years later did I discover the Caribbean connection of the author.

The first book of poetry that truly gripped me, as I’ve said elsewhere, was The Faber Book of Modern Verse.

What are you reading now?

The questions you’ve asked me, of course. But that’s unfair. I’ve just finished a fantasy novel, Tooth and Claw, by Jo Walton. Another fantasy novel, the Eyre Affair, by Jasper Fforde (a birthday present from my older son), Women and Human Development by Martha Nussbaum, and I’ve been reading Tobias Buckell’s Ragamuffin (having recently read his Crystal Rain). I ought to say something here about Caribbean-themed science fiction – the work of Buckell and Nalo Hopkinson is breathing fresh air into a genre which has been unfairly stereotyped as for white male nerds (I fed my science fiction and fantasy habit for years at the second-hand bookshop in Liguanea Plaza, after all).

I’ve also just read student essays, and have more to come.

In addition I’ve been reading The New Guide to the Conversation in English by Pedro Carolino, a work that dispels gravity. The author was described by Mark Twain as a ‘well-intentioned and honest idiot’.

What makes you laugh?

Most statements by George W. Bush. The less-than-wondrous things that some of my students write (I’m still trying to figure out how Confucius came to be a major figure in the early development of Western Europe). The comedy of Jo Caulfield. Anthony Winkler’s comic novels. Puns. Unintentional confusions, as uttered by the evening news host of my local public radio station.

What are your other passions?

Above all else, poetry; my own verse, which has reappeared over the past couple of years, and the poetry of others. What amazes me is the return of the fierce joy of producing verse and the need I have, once more, to write it.

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A Conversation With Karla Gottlieb

Karla Gottlieb is the Director for Community Partnerships at the Human Services Coalition. Previously, she worked with community colleges on related issues to civic responsibility for seven years. As the Campus Director for the Center for Community Involvement at Miami Dade College, she coordinated service learning projects for more than 35 faculty members a semester. In 2000, she began lecturing nationally on civic engagement and its relationship to service learning. She has published two books, The Mother of Us All: A History of Queen Nanny, Leader of the Windward Jamaican Maroons (Africa World Press 2000) and A Practical Guide for Integrating Civic Responsibility into the Curriculum (co-editor with Gail Robinson, AACC Press 2002). She lives in Miami, Florida.

Where were you born? Describe your current family life.

The middle bed, the Maternity Ward at Jackson Hospital, Miami Fla. The bed had a heart scratched onto it, or so my mother relates.

I live with my husband of 7 years and my soon to be 5-year-old son who is the joy of my world and the heart of my life. I see my mother twice a week and talk to my father twice a day.

What do you do for a living? Why did you choose this vocation?

I am the Director of Community Partnerships at a local nonprofit, the Human Services Coalition. Our goal is to eliminate poverty. I am also a writer. I don’t think I chose these professions – I think they chose me.

Who are your three favorite writers? Why?

Annie Proulx. Howard Zinn. A.S. Byatt. Barbara Kingsolver. Chinua Achebe. Lee Smith. Is that three?

I love them because they are geniuses. They draw you in to their worlds and you can’t put the books down, then you learn something amazing with every new chapter.

What was the first book you fell in love with and how have your reading habits changed over the years?

I would have to say Judy Blume when I was a child. Now the books I read aren’t as sexy. I also listen to more books on tape, which I tend to do at the same time that I am reading. With very few exceptions, I prefer novels and historical novels over everything else. I usually have a hard time reading nonfiction, which is odd because I have written two non fiction books.

What are you reading now?

Angle of Repose; Antigua Penny Puce; The Stone Diaries; Mrs. Pollifax Unveiled

What makes you laugh?

When someone else laughs, especially my son or husband.

What are your other passions?

Eating, (therefore) yoga, swimming, reading, animals, talking with animals, growing things in my garden (arugula, mangos, avocados) the environment, trees, National Geographic, the ocean, Jamaica, Tahiti, Africa, the Everglades, camping, going to little traveled places, jewels, shells, other precious things, love, children especially mine, magic, dreams, dream journals, writing, sleeping, the sun, sunny places, snow, indigenous cultures, Arab culture, respect.

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On Friday, "A Conversation with Fragano Ledgister."

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A Conversation With Imani

Imani was born in Jamaica's tourist capital where she led a typical spoiled middle-class existence with her mother and aunt until her little brother decided to make an appearance. A "problem student" and chronic "underachiever" at a few respectable all-girls high schools, she fell into another middle-class trend and completed four years of university abroad. After a blessedly brief stint at Health Canada, she returned to the welcoming bosom of academia. She now lives in a quiet university town in Southern Ontario with an urban planner, an English major, and a cat named Baby Girl.

Where were you born?

I was born at the Mt. Salem hospital in Montego Bay on Tuesday, Dec. 13th and 11:30 PM. At least, that's how I remember it was recorded in my baby photo album. My current "family life" is primarily limited to phone calls and e-mails, as I'm the only one in Canada. The rest -- my mother, most of my aunts and various cousins -- are split between South Florida and Kingston which has my grandfather, the rest of my cousins and a younger brother who chose to attend high school there as he had no interest in the American version. We visit together during summer and/or Christmas.

What do you do for a living? Why did you choose this vocation?

A living? I've made the fatal mistake of becoming a grad student in order to pursue my interests in law and bioethics, particularly concerning neuroscience. Basically. I'm stuck on neuroscience because it's one of the last frontiers in science which gets my adrenaline going even if I'm not directly involved in any experiments. It's also miles away from my other more leisurely interests, which helps to keep my brain happy. Because I'm a grad student I'm also manning first year tutorial classes for one of my professors. At a later point in life, I'd like to spend a good five to ten years teaching.

Who are your three favorite writers?

This is an incredibly difficult question to which I cannot give a definite answer. So I'm just going to pull some names from the top of my head which will reflect how I feel at this moment: Lorna Goodison, Jorge Luis Borges, A.S. Byatt.

Why?

Goodison because she was the first Jamaican writer I read whose works reflected an emotional complexity and, though I couldn't describe as such at the time, an aesthetic quality that satisfied a hunger I didn't know existed at the time. I read "For My Mother (may I inherit half her strength)" in grade 10 and was a goner.

Borges because his writings contain the whole world: past, present and future. Reading his stories and poems is like time travel.

Byatt because she's clearly as obsessed with mythology and 19th C British authors as I am. She also creates images that remain for years after and understands that mathematicians are dreamers. (Read "Virgin in the Garden")

What was the first book you fell in love with and how have your reading habits changed over the years?

You know, I don't really remember, which is probably a horrible thing to say for a reader. I'm not sure whether it was the Naughtiest Girl in Boarding School series by Enid Blyton or Romeo & Juliet by Shakespeare. On a certain level my reading habits aren't really that different now. I still enjoy children's literature, Diana Wynne Jones probably being my favourite of the lot, and I still dig Shakespeare. A major difference is that my tastes have extended far beyond England's border and I now enjoy and am familiar with a lot of contemporary American, Canadian and classic French lit. I've even discovered Jamaican novelists (imagine!) and have just finished A Quality of Violence by Salkey.

What are you reading now?

Too many things. I'm still with Paradise Lost aching for my poor Satan because he's about to get whooped by Jesus. Crystal Rain by Tobias S. Buckell, as I've been asked to review his second book if I like the first. Mulligan Stew by Gilbert Sorrentino which makes me laugh so hard I can only read so many pages a day, and then I must spare my stomach. And, finally, Demons by Dostoevsky, which is proving to be more entertaining and amusing than I expected.

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A Conversation With Richard Grayson

Richard Grayson is the author of the short story collections With Hitler in New York, Lincoln's Doctor's Dog, I Brake for Delmore Schwartz, I Survived Caracas Traffic, The Silicon Valley Diet, And to Think That He Kissed him on Lorimer Street and Highly Irregular Stories, as well as WRITE-IN: Diary of a Congressional Candidate in Florida's Fourth Congressional District. His nonfiction has appeared in The Miami Herald, The South Florida Sun-Sentinel, The Tampa Tribune, The Orlando Sentinel, The Ocala Star-Banner, The Gainesville Sun, The Arizona Republic, The San Jose Mercury News, The New York Times and People. He has received three Individual Artist Fellowships in Literature from the Florida Division of Cultural Affairs and a Writer-in-Residence Award from the New York State Council on the Arts.

Where were you born?

I was born in 1951 at Brookdale (formerly Beth-El) Hospital on the border of the East Flatbush neighborhood of Brooklyn just down the street from where Church Avenue becomes Bob Marley Boulevard. In other words, I was born in the Caribbean.

What do you do for a living? Why did you choose this vocation?

I’ve worked in higher education since I was 23, at over twenty schools.

At the University of Florida I held a research faculty position (“visiting assistant in law research”) when I was a staff attorney in social policy at the Center for Governmental Responsibility. At Nova Southeastern University’s Shepard Broad Law Center, I was associate director of student services and director of academic resources. At Florida International University, I was an adjunct lecturer in computer education at the Teacher Education Center; I used to do in-service computer education workshops for teachers at various Miami-Dade public schools.

I was a visiting professor of legal studies at NSU’s undergraduate school and also taught in the humanities department, and I also taught in the business school’s bachelor of professional management program all over the state: Gainesville, Ocala, Jacksonville, St. Augustine, Coral Springs, Boca Raton, Miami, and Davie. I taught English part-time and full-time at both the Central and South campuses of Broward Community College. I also taught English at Santa Fe Community College in Gainesville and Florida Atlantic University. That’s just the jobs I had in Florida!

I’ve also taught various subjects at Arizona State University, Long Island University, Fashion Institute of Technology, Touro College, Mesa Community College, California State University at Long Beach, three community colleges and three senior colleges of the City University of New York, and some other schools.

I am now semi-retired. This term I am teaching basic writing skills at Fordham University, composition at Borough of Manhattan Community College, and literature at The School of Visual Arts, but I will not be working for the first part of 2008.

I chose to work in higher education because I like teaching and learning and getting the whole week off at Christmas. I’ve worked at so many places because I love novelty. When I was younger, I vowed to never work at any one job for more than a few years.

Who are your three favorite writers? Why?

I’m sure that my list changes daily. Since I’m mostly a short story writer, I’ll give my current three favorite writers of short stories: Flannery O’Connor, Grace Paley, and Donald Barthelme. Even when I'm reading their stories for the fortieth time, they still can surprise me.

What was the first book you fell in love with and how have your reading habits changed over the years?

The Poky Little Puppy, a Golden book, a little picture book my mother read to me when I was very young. I made her read it over and over again until I was about three and could recite the whole story by heart. I reread it at a supermarket in Arizona a couple of years ago and I still could recall all the words.

I now prefer books without pictures.

What are you reading now?

Aside from a lot of student essays, I’m reading Jerome Groopman’s How Doctors Think. He begins with a case study of how many physicians misdiagnosed a particular patient for many years. I think it’s funny that ten pages before her actual disease was revealed, I had diagnosed her correctly with celiac disease. That’s probably because I have no medical training and was going on something more like common sense with familiarity with the symptoms from friends with the disease who were similarly misdiagnosed. I’m really interested in how people – writers, lawyers, computer programmers, doctors – think and make decisions.

What makes you laugh?

I think many things are funny, but I generally only laugh at something when people around me are laughing. I’ve had inappropriate uncontrollable laughter at very pretentious performances or very solemn events. When people tell me to shush, that just makes me laugh more. That’s happened at lectures, ballet performances, poetry readings, and even funerals.

What are your other passions?

I like walking around different neighborhoods, wherever I am, and staying for weeks in different parts of the U.S., such as northwestern Arkansas or northeastern Wyoming. I like drinking iced tea. I like to watch daytime soap operas on television. I love politics and reading the New York Times and blogs. And I like hot weather, which is one reason I love Florida.

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Next week Monday (10/8/07) Imani, The Books of my Numberless Dreams and on Wednesday (10/8/07) Karla Gottlieb, author of The Mother of Us All: A History of Queen Nanny, Leader of the Windward Jamaican Maroons.

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