Showing posts with label St. Lucia. Show all posts
Showing posts with label St. Lucia. Show all posts

February 12, 2019

New Book: "Saint Lucian Writers and Writing"


John Robert Lee

Papillote Press announces the forthcoming publication of "Saint Lucian Writers and Writing: An author index of published works of poetry, prose, and drama" compiled and edited by the Saint Lucian librarian and poet Robert John Lee, with an introduction by Antonia MacDonald. 

"A fascinating bibliography that turns a list into the life of a nation."

Publication date: 1 March 2019
ISBN: 9780995726314
Paperback/price: £9.99

Papillote Press is a small independent publishing house based in London and Dominica.

ABOUT THIS BOOK: This superb author index of poetry, prose and drama explores the writing landscape of a small Caribbean island. Everyone – from the internationally acclaimed Derek Walcott, to self-published unknowns – are there. But this bibliography is not just about literature, it also features the social, political and cultural dimensions of Saint Lucia, from scholarly essays to the ephemera of funeral pamphlets and recipe books. It turns a list into the life of a nation.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR: John Robert Lee is a Saint Lucian poet, author, editor, journalist, professional librarian, and teacher. His poetry and short stories have been widely anthologised. His latest collection of poems, Collected Poems 1975-2015 was published in 2017. A graduate of the University of the West Indies, he has taught literature, creative writing, and library science for many years. He has also worked as a journalist in newspapers, radio, and television. He lives in Saint Lucia. 

IN PRAISE of Saint Lucian Writers and Writing:
John Robert Lee’s bibliographical work is a magnificent act of scholarship that brings the rich and long history of Saint Lucian literary culture to life. Both record and tribute, this inclusive and educative bibliographical study includes an important introduction on the publication history and print culture of Saint Lucia. A work of literary heritage in itself, this study also actively engages publishers and researchers with an eye on the future as well as the past. — Professor Alison Donnell, University of East Anglia, UK

Here you can see everything— the things that didn’t last, the things that did, the things that should have but didn’t. Here is the heft of a fierce and devoted memory of all of our literature. And of what value is it? Well, it is a record of trials and failures, a record of what time kept and what it didn’t, though memory lunges back to claim it with an almost filial affection. — Vladimir Lucien, poet, Saint Lucia

Compiled with the sensitivity of the poet he is and the scrupulousness of the archivist many know him to be, John Robert Lee’s Saint Lucian Writers and Writing is vital work...This is a great start to discovering what the storytellers of one country have been busy building with words—and we’re talking beyond the usual suspects. — Robert Edison Sandiford, author of the novel And Sometimes They Fly, and editor (with Linda M. Deane) of Shouts from the Outfield: The ArtsEtc Cricket Anthology, Barbados

Always, I am in awe of the industry, the monk-like devotion that John Robert Lee brings to the self-chosen obligation of chronicling aspects of our artistic history... In what seems like a season of neglect — and indeed destruction — of our artistic and cultural heritage, this bibliography is an ark. And gratitude is joyfully rendered to its builder. — Kendel Hippolyte, poet/playwright, Saint Lucia

John Robert Lee has produced this voluminous social reference document for the world...A great gift to Saint Lucia. Give thanks! — Embert Charles, communications specialist/cultural administrator, Saint Lucia

All the world has heard of the late Sir Derek Walcott. But there have been many other Saint Lucian writers of note, some of them with a regional reputation in the Caribbean, others still little read outside of — or even within — Saint Lucia itself. John Robert Lee’s Saint Lucian Writers and Writing offers the first comprehensive bibliography of Saint Lucian literature...As both scholar and general reader, I am grateful to John Robert Lee for this comprehensive guide. — Paul Breslin, Professor of English, Emeritus, Northwestern University, United States, and author of Nobody's Nation: Reading Derek Walcott 

For more information visit the website www.papillotepress.co.uk or email info@papillotepress.co.uk

April 15, 2013

Donate to Poetry is an Island


"Until the lions have their own historians, the history of the hunt will always glorify the hunter."

Poetry is an Island is a loving portrait of Derek Walcott, who has been telling our story for the past fifty years. The documentary is now in post-production and the director, Ida Does, needs YOUR help to complete the project.

I am supporting by word and deed this remarkable documentary. If you'd like to assist in funding this project, here is the link:

http://www.indiegogo.com/projects/poetry-is-an-island-derek-walcott

One Love,
Geoffrey


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The Coalition for the Exoneration of Marcus Garvey is petitioning Senator Bill Nelson, Representative Frederica Wilson, and the Congress of the United States of America for the exoneration of Marcus Garvey:

http://www.causes.com/actions/1722148-urge-congress-to-exonerate-civil-rights-leader-marcus-garvey

We are also petitioning President Barack Obama to exonerate Marcus Garvey:

http://signon.org/sign/exonerate-marcus-garvey?source=c.url&r_by=4631897

Thank you for your support..

January 23, 2013

Happy Birthday, Derek Walcott



And I answer, Anna,
twenty years after,
a man lives half of life,
the second half I memory,

the first half, hesitation
for what should have happened,
but could not, or

what happened with others
when it should not.

~ Another Life

I first heard that fragment from Another Life when I was living in Jamaica. It was on a radio show produced by John Figueroa. Every Sunday afternoon, I would wait by my mother’s transistor radio to listen to the work of a leading Caribbean writer. When I heard Derek Walcott, I was twenty-one and in love. I also wanted to be a writer.

I scribbled down the name of the book and all the information I could gather. The next day, I went to the UWI bookstore and bought my cop of Another Life on January 15, 1979.

After reading Another Life cover to cover several times, Walcott became the model for my verse. Through his poetry, I saw the Caribbean in a new way: its landscape, people, and Light. I also learned that love changes us by awakening us to the details of our lives: “At the touch of love, everyone becomes a poet.” And despite the terrible price of heartbreak, the bounty from paying attention to the texture of experience, yields the inestimable reward of a life well-lived.

Happy Birthday, Mr. Walcott!

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Poetry is an Island: Derek Walcott



Teaser for the highly anticipated documentary about Derek Walcott. He even 

reads "Love After Love."



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We are petitioning President Barack Obama to exonerate the Right Honorable Marcus Mosiah Garvey. http://signon.org/sign/exonerate-marcus-garvey?source=c.url&r_by=4631897

December 3, 2012

Call for Papers:ACLALS Conference



Connecting Cultures and the Commonwealth, ACLALS Conference

The 16th Triennial ACLALS (Association for Commonwealth Literature and Language Studies) Conference

St. Lucia, West Indies,

August 5 –9, 2013

CFP deadline: 15 December 2012


Information direct from CFP below:

“‘The current unbroken/ the circuits kept open’: Connecting Cultures and the Commonwealth”

In “Sometimes in the Middle of the Story,” a poem that revisits the perilous event of the Middle Passage, the eminent Walcott scholar, Edward Baugh, gives primacy to the connecting currents of the “ocean” as a central motif. While the sea is viewed as an archive of history as Nobel Laureate and St. Lucian poet, Derek Walcott has argued, Baugh mobilizes this metaphor to both recognize the traumatic beginning of the colonial encounter in the Caribbean and the rich “refashioning of futures” of cultural connections that the Middle Passage engendered. No doubt the colonial encounter of slavery and indentureship in the Caribbean could have led to cultural enclosures, but in Baugh’s view, “the paths of ocean” represent connecting currents between and beyond the cultures of Africa, Asia, Europe and the Indigenous Caribbean. The sea, in particular, the Atlantic Ocean, was a site of treacherous travel and trade, yet that very sea is a source “connecting us still”.

Not all colonial encounters carry with them the violence of such ruptures; but whether we had traumatic or benign beginnings, we wonder what future consequently has been imagined for these and other Commonwealth lands? What global zones of power and influence haunt the seemingly ecumenical and liberal discourses of cultural exchange? What cultural connections and disconnections have emerged over time? Whose cultural currents are unbroken: whose cultural circuits have been kept open? What is the currency of indigenous language and linguistic legacies? In the commingling of cultures in the postcolonial circuits of exchange, what is the relationship between indigenous and outside cultures? Is the implicit comparative critical lens fostered in early postcolonial theory still viable? What do these connecting comparisons obscure or reveal? What is the relationship between economic currencies and cultural circuits? What are the historical and critical currents that mark postcolonial and commonwealth studies at this time? What connections are there between different genders, sexualities and ecologies? How valuable is the more recent deployment of concepts of desire, intimacy and affect to postcolonial and Commonwealth studies? What useful connections can be made between such disciplinary paradigms as globalization, diaspora and cultural studies to Commonwealth and postcolonial literature and language studies? In general, how might literary and language studies help us to understand the value of cultural connections and disconnections throughout the Commonwealth?

The 16th Triennial ACLALS Conference invites scholars working in a variety of media (literature, linguistics, film, the visual and musical arts and popular culture) to present papers on the theme, “‘The current unbroken/ the circuits kept open’: Connecting Cultures and the Commonwealth,” on the questions raised above, and on a range of topics including those listed below:

Historical and cultural currents in the Commonwealth
The common wealth of nations
Identity, currency and the practices of cultural consumption
Currents in language studies
The currency of cultures and/or Cultural Studies
Linguistic circuits and circuits of identity or cultural exchange
Cultural circuits and economic currency
The Currency of trade and travel
Circuits of violence/brokenness/trauma and cultural discourse
Discursive cultural circuits on gender and sexuality
Middle Passages and stories in the middle
The Black Atlantic and the Commonwealth
Connections/disconnections throughout the Commonwealth
Circling definitions: Commonwealth? Postcolonial? Postnational?
Waves of critical, cultural or linguistic practice
Short-circuiting genre: literary experimentation?
Island currents, global changes: conversations across the Commonwealth
Imagining Commonwealth futures

DEADLINE: Abstracts of maximum 300 words for papers of 20 minutes duration, and maximum 400 words for three-paper panels (with the names of the panelists) which engage with these and other relevant questions along with a short bio not exceeding 100 words should be submitted to ACLALSCONFERENCE2013@gmail.com by 15 December 2012


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Geoffrey Philp’s Blog Spot receives a percentage of the purchase price on anything you buy through links to Amazon, Shambala Books, Hay House, or any of the Google ads or Google Custom Search.

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May 10, 2011

New Film: The Island of Derek Walcott


Synopsis


Central to this documentary are two selected poems of Derek Walcott’s work. These poems are the guiding texts to Walcott’s thoughts and feelings about his life and his heritage as a Caribbean man. Firstly, there is the world famous poem entitled ‘Love after Love’. By focusing on this poem, we aim to be detailed on ‘the sense of belonging’ of the poet. It relates perfectly to our intentions of reflecting on the long life of our protagonist as an artist, twin brother, migrant, and island-child. The film will contain unique footage of Mr. Walcott in his personal ambience and showing us places that were meaningful for him growing up as the son of a single mother, after his father died at an early age. Secondly, a lesser known poem will take us to Amsterdam and the city of Delft in Holland where Walcott reflects on his ‘Dutch Heritage’.




About the Director


Ida Does, director of the documentary, is dedicated to Caribbean stories and fascinated by the history of this region. Mr. Walcott has proven that, being born on a tiny Caribbean island can be the starting point of tremendous achievements in literature and theatre. The aim will be to film him now, in the eve of his days, looking back on his struggles and work. Also aiming to explore his Dutch ancestors and what it means to him.

Sales/Screening Contact

Name: Ida Does
Email address: idadoes@hotmail.com

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May 9, 2011

New Caribbean Literary Prizes

© George Lamming/For use only with OES article. Saltwater Collection

George Lamming awarded in Cuba; Derek Walcott wins in Trinidad;
Earl Lovelace leads in Guadeloupe

GREAT BAY, St. Martin (May 9, 2011)—In less than one month in 2011, it appears that an unprecedented number of literary prizes were awarded to major Caribbean writers in their own region.

On May 6, the distinguished author George Lamming was awarded the Caribbean Hibiscus Prize in Cuba, said his HNP publisher here on Monday, May 9.

The Association of Cuban Writers and Artists (UNEAC) awarded Lamming the prize, which “acknowledges the lifetime’s work of Caribbean writers, artists and groups,” said HNP publisher Lasana M. Sekou.

The Barbadian writer “expressed his appreciation for the honors received in Cuba, because the concept of culture on the island is not decorative like in most countries of the region, since Cubans believe that culture is a weapon to defend the Revolution,” reported ACN news service.

In addition to its regional significance, UNEAC president Miguel Barnet said the prize aims at spreading more awareness about Cuban culture and the institution’s work. 

During the award ceremony, Cuban poet Nancy Morejon pointed out that the Hibiscus Prize is named after a flower common to Caribbean nations, and that “Lamming was selected to receive this first edition of the prize because when you read his works you can understand Nature and the regional spirit better,” reported RCA radio (FM 105.3). Culture Minister Abel Prieto attended the ceremony, held at the UNEAC.

Long hailed as one of the “adamic fathers” of Caribbean Literature, Lamming’s newest book of essays, Sovereignty of the Imagination, was published in St. Martin by HNP, said Sekou. Sovereignty and Lamming’s Western Education & The Caribbean Intellectual, also from HNP, are available at Van Dorp and other bookstores and libraries in the region, www.amazon.com and other online stores.

On April 29, it was the Nobel Laureate Derek Walcott who was honored. The acclaimed St. Lucian author, whose mother’s family hails from St. Martin, received the first edition of the OCM Bocas Prize in Trinidad for White Egrets, his latest poetry collection. The volume has already won the prestigious TS Eliot Prize.

The Bocas Prize to Walcott included an award of US$10,000. Tiphanie Yanique won the Bocas Fiction category for her debut novel, How To Escape From a Leper Colony. The much-celebrated Edwidge Danticat won the Non-Fiction category.

In a year with what appears to be an unprecedented appearance of literary prizes with regional projection, Guadeloupe took center stage from April 6 - 9, with its 2nd International Congress of Caribbean Writers.

The first edition of the congress’s Grand Prize of Caribbean Literature went to the Trinidadian Earl Lovelace for his new novel, Is Just a Movie. The prize included a financial award of Euros 10,000, probably the highest monetary prize for literature in the region to date.

The oldest and most prestigious award for literature in the region remains the Casa de Las Americas prize. 


Caption1: In this rare photo two legendary Caribbean authors (L-R) George Lamming and Derek Walcott. (© George Lamming/For use only with OES article. Saltwater Collection)

Contact
Lasana M. Sekou

P.O. Box 460
Philipsburg, St. Martin
Caribbean
Tel (599) 554-7089
E-mail: Offshoreediting@hotmail.com

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April 21, 2011

21 Days/21 Poems: A Poem I Wished I Could Have Written

8          Fight With the Crew

It had one bitch on board, like he had me mark--
that was the cook, some Vincentian arse
with a skin like a gommier tree, red peeling bark,
and wash-out blue eyes; he wouldn’t give me a ease,
like he feel he was white. Had an exercise book,
the same one here, that I was using to write
my poetry, so one day this man snatch it
from my hand, and start throwing it left and right
to the rest of the crew, bawling out, “Catch it,”
and start mincing me like I was some hen
because of the poems. Some case is for fist,
some case is for tholing pin, some is for knife--
this one was for knife. Well, I beg him first,
but he keep reading, “O my children, my wife,”
and playing he crying, to make the crew laugh;
it move like a flying fish, the silver knife
that catch him right in the plump of his calf,
and he fainst so slowly, and he turn more white
than he thought he was. I suppose among men
you need that sort of thing. It ain’t right
but that’s how it is. There wasn’t much pain,
just plenty blood, and Vincie and me best friend,
but none of them go fuck with my poetry again.

An excerpt from "The Schooner Flight" by Derek Walcott. The Star-Apple Kingdom. Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 1979.


I swear, Walcott makes writing verse look so easy. In "The Schooner Flight" Shabine's language ranges from "I blow out the light/ by the dreamless face of Maria Concepcion" to "none of them go fuck with my poetry again" And the poem is a primer on various types of rhyme, which are not forced, but seem credible enough to be spoken by a "red nigger who love the sea"  and who "had a sound colonial education."

The scope of the poem was wide enough to confront contemporary issues (political corruption, racism) by showing their links to the past in the personal experiences of Shabine and stirred in me what Seamus Heaney calls "the envy test." But it was Shabine's love for Maria Concepcion, surely a metonym for poetry, art--all things Caribbeanly wonderful--and his heart-wrenching grief at her loss that made the poem, not merely an aesthetic exercise, but something real and deeply felt.

"The Schooner Flight" is a masterful performance by a poet whose oeuvre shows a deep love for the Caribbean--its language, landscape and light.







Derek Walcott was born in 1930 in the town of Castries in Saint Lucia, one of the Windward Islands in the Lesser Antilles. The experience of growing up on the isolated volcanic island, an ex-British colony, has had a strong influence on Walcott's life and work. Both his grandmothers were said to have been the descendants of slaves. His father, a Bohemian watercolourist, died when Derek and his twin brother, Roderick, were only a few years old. His mother ran the town's Methodist school. After studying at St. Mary's College in his native island and at the University of the West Indies in Jamaica, Walcott moved in 1953 to Trinidad, where he has worked as theatre and art critic. At the age of 18, he made his debut with 25 Poems, but his breakthrough came with the collection of poems, In a Green Night (1962). In 1959, he founded the Trinidad Theatre Workshop which produced many of his early plays.

Walcott has been an assiduous traveller to other countries but has always, not least in his efforts to create an indigenous drama, felt himself deeply-rooted in Caribbean society with its cultural fusion of African, Asiatic and European elements. For many years, he has divided his time between Trinidad, where he has his home as a writer, and Boston University, where he teaches literature and creative writing.

From Nobel Lectures, Literature 1991-1995, Editor Sture Allén, World Scientific Publishing Co., Singapore, 1997


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April 4, 2011

New Ebook: Forbidden @ Smashwords and Amazon





Guest Post by Tony Williams.


Finally, after many years of struggle I’ve managed to get my first novel published. For the past eighteen months, I’ve been using my blog to inform writers about new developments in the book trade and to urge them to consider non-traditional publishing options now available, especially ebooks. I’ve now decided that after ladling out advice so generously, it’s time to take a dose of my own medicine. My book is titled Forbidden, but more about that later. First, let me tell you about my self-publishing journey.


It turned out to be quite easy and uneventful. Over a period of just two days, I was able to have my book available for sale as an ebook in the Kindle Store and at Smashwords. Here’s how it works. 


When you sign up, upload your manuscript and cover to the Kindle Direct Publishing platform, http://kdp.amazon.com it takes up to 48 hours to be vetted for proper formatting and then it is listed for sale in the Kindle Store. With Smashwords, it took about two hours in a queue before going live on their website. If you want it included in their premium catalogue for sale in other distribution channels, you have to wait about a week for further vetting (this time manually) and approval. I got the green light for inclusion. Smashwords has already shipped it to the Apple iBookstore, the Nook (Barnes & Nobel) Kobo, Sony and Diesel and it should be on sale there in the next two weeks. 


The paperback edition is available via the UK-based website CompletelyNovel.com (CN) and is printed and distributed by the POD printers Lightening Source. The set up is the same – sign up with CN, upload your manuscript and cover to their website and thereafter it immediately goes on sale.


I’m currently based in St Lucia, light years away from the global publishing hubs of North America and London. With a laptop and an internet connection it took me about twenty minutes max. to sign up and upload my book for publication on each of the three platforms. I found their instructions easy to follow. And it’s free. To get the paperback sold through multiple distribution channels including Amazon.com, I had to subscribe for a CompletelyNovel ‘Pro Plan.’ It cost me US$190 a year (or US$21.99 a month). It’s a lot cheaper at the Amazon affiliate Createspace – a flat fee of $35. I found out too late.


My biggest challenge was having the manuscript and cover formatted to their individual specifications. Since I’m hopeless with formatting, I hired a graphic artist recommended by Smashwords to format my ebook. For US$65 she formatted the manuscript and cover for both Kindle and Smashwords. It’s also good for the other ebook retailers. I paid CompletelyNovel.com to format the paperback. A St Lucian graphic artist (Mageesa Boudhar) designed my cover. Altogether, I spent about US$300 for formatting and cover design. 


What I now have to sort out is how to get multiple paperback copies to interested bookstores in the Caribbean in a cost effective way. It turns out that this is easier and cheaper to do if the bookstores are in North America or the UK where Lightening Source have their printing operations.


I also discovered, much to my surprise, that I have to pay the IRS 30% of my royalties on sales made in the US. It doesn’t matter that I’m not a US citizen, or that I’m not based in the US. Both Amazon and Smashwords warned me up front that they are mandated by law to withhold taxes from my earnings and submit them to Uncle Sam. The only way around it is if you are a citizen of a country whose government has signed a Tax Exemption Treaty with the US government. You would automatically qualify for full or partial exemption from tax withholdings on your earnings. You have to apply for a foreign tax number by submitting a W-8BEN form. The IRS then issues you a foreign tax ID, which you have to submit to Amazon and Smashwords. Thereafter, they’re no longer required to withhold taxes on your royalties. That’s the only way to fend off the taxman. To view countries that have tax treaties with the US, see this PDF file: http://www.irs.gov/pub/irs-pdf/p901.pdf

Apparently only three Caribbean governments had the foresight to negotiate tax exemption treaties with the US on behalf of their citizens - Jamaica, Trinidad & Tobago and Barbados, although it’s still not clear to me from the abovementioned document that writers are included in the exemptions. For the rest of us in the English-speaking Caribbean, we’re evidently been left out in the cold.


I haven’t been able to confirm whether CARICOM and the OECS are aware of this and, if so, whether they ever attempted to negotiate a US Tax Exemption Treaty collectively with the US Government on behalf of their citizens, instead of the individual governments going about it in a piecemeal fashion. I intend to follow up and find out. 


My novel, Forbidden tackles the sensitive issue of race within the context of a Caribbean island whose residents, over time, have bought into the ideals of colourism; the preference for lighter skin tones, and the tendency to regard fair-skinned people as more desirable. It also examines to what extent religion has contributed to this world view and looks at how the Church and the Bible have shaped Black people’s self image and our sense of self worth. It is controversial and I knew from the start this would further limit my chances of ever being published.


Nevertheless, I believe in it. I also think it addresses issues that people grapple with from day to day, and not just in the Caribbean. Many other societies and cultures struggle with the issue of colourism, not to mention matters of faith. My book, however, is an attempt to have a conversation with my brothers and sisters from the Caribbean. Now, consider this. 


The English-speaking islands of the Caribbean have a population of approximately 5.444,762 (CIA World Factbook 2009 estimates). Add to this a further 7.3 million people of Caribbean descent I’ve estimated (through research) to be living in the Diaspora – altogether some 13 million people. I haven’t even included African, African-American, Black British and Black Canadian readers.


Perhaps not immediately, but in the long run, I believe authors who have digitized their books will have a better shot at tapping into that diverse demographic. Physical books will always be there. Many readers still prefer them. But if your aim is to try to reach as many readers as possible among a demographic that is so widely dispersed, physical books just don’t cut it. Their comparatively higher cost doesn’t help either.


If technology provides you with a mode of delivery that is, for the most part, accessible and free, and you’re sure that your work is polished and edited as well as it can be, and it is appealing, why look a gift horse in the mouth?


Marketing and promoting is going to be hard work. It’s always been, even for established writers who are increasingly expected to do their bit in promoting their work. Personally, I’m game for the challenge. Where there’s a will, there’s a way. 


But new writers like me aside, Caribbean writers locked into deals with traditional publishers will sooner or later (if they haven’t done so yet) have to contend with the issue of what to do with their titles which have gone out of print, or are likely to. What do you do if your publisher is unwilling or reluctant to invest in new editions of your book, even while seeking to maintain control of it and your current and future work? At present, most traditional publishers are insisting on pocketing 75% of all ebook sales. Amazon and Smashwords are offering indie writers up to 70% and 85% respectively on sales made directly from their websites. Third party sales still earn you more than you get from traditional publishers. 


These are all indications of how book publishing is undergoing dramatic change, forcing writers and publishers alike to face up to the reality that they have to adapt and consider options that, in the past, they probably wouldn’t have given a second thought.


In one of the most thought-provoking articles on publishing I’ve read yet, writer and blogger, Dean Wesley Smith advised in his recent post Killing the Sacred Cows of Publishing: the Myth of Security: “... don’t think that just because you are an indie publisher and in control of your own covers that you have security. You don’t. And don’t think that just because you sold a big book deal to a traditional publisher you have security. You don’t. So maybe get the security from learning the business and enjoying the writing. For me, doing a job I love is the real reward.” 


This is precisely how I feel. 



The paperback is available at CompletelyNovel.com http://www.completelynovel.com/books/forbidden (USA) will soon be on sale at Amazon.com and other retailers worldwide.

About Tony Williams

Tony Williams was born in Castries, Saint Lucia. From a young age, he set out to pursue his dream of becoming a writer. He started as a news reporter with the Government Information Service in 1977, soon after leaving secondary school. A few years later, he left journalism to take over the management of a family-owned banana plantation. Ten years later, he gave it up to return to journalism and went on to become the editor of the Crusader newspaper in Saint Lucia. He was subsequently awarded a Reuters Fellowship in journalism at Green College, Oxford University. In 2007, he gave up full time journalism to devote more time to creative writing. Along with freelance journalism, he does consultancy work and speechwriting part time. He’s the creator of Caribbean Book Blog.

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