Poetry Reading: Lelawatee Manoo-Rahming at FIU

On my bookshelf: Pepperpot

Pepperpot is the inaugural publication of Peekash Press, a joint imprint of 
Caribbean literature by Akashic Books (Brooklyn) and Peepal Tree Press (Leeds, UK). In collaboration with the Commonwealth Writers, the British Council, the Kingston Book Festival, and CaribLit, Akashic and Peepal Tree -- already recognized as publishers of high-quality Caribbean literature -- further their commitment to writers from the region with this exciting new imprint. Pepperpot gathers the very best Caribbean entries to the 2013 Commonwealth Short Story Prize, including a mix of established and up-and-coming writers from islands throughout the Caribbean.

Featuring short fiction by: 

Sharon Millar (Trinidad & Tobago)
Dwight Thompson (Jamaica)
Kevin Baldeosingh, (Trinidad & Tobago) 
Ivory Kelly (Belize)
Barbara Jenkins (Trinidad & Tobago) 
Sharon Leach (Jamaica)
Joanne C. Hillhouse (Antigua & Barbuda)
Ezekel Alan (Jamaica)
Heather Barker (Barbados)
Janice Lynn Mather (Bahamas) 
Kimmisha Thomas (Jamaica) 
Kevin Jared Hosein (Trinidad & Tobago)
Garfield Ellis (Jamaica)

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Susumba's Book bag: Online!

The first issue of Susumba's Book bag is now online, and features the work of Opal Palmer-Adisa, Sharon Millar, Joanne C. Hillhouse, Lisa Allen-Agostini, and Roland Watson-Grant, among others.

The inclusion of my short story “Blessed are the Meek” was especially gratifying because it has been the closest to an autobiographical story that I’ve ever written, and to see it in print has been cathartic. Publication closed the circle, so that I could lay those demons to rest.

Give thanks Tanya Batson-Savage and the Susumba team for providing another publication venue for Caribbean writers. 

Read and enjoy!

 http://www.susumba.com/magazine/issue/susumbas-book-bag-issue-1

‘Whatless Boys’ wins it for writer Antoni - Stabroek News - Georgetown, Guyana

Winner of the 2014 One Caribbean Media (OCM) Bocas Prize for Caribbean Literature, Robert Antoni, said he will share the US$10,000 prize money with the other finalists.

Antoni was announced as the winner from the top three writers for his book As Flies to Whatless Boys at an awards ceremony at the National Academy for the Performing Arts (NAPA), Port of Spain, on Saturday.

‘Whatless Boys’ wins it for writer Antoni - Stabroek News - Georgetown, Guyana:



'via Blog this'

Writers from 4 Caribbean Countries in the Running for 2014 Hollick Arvon Prize

Two emerging Jamaican writers, one from Grenada, one from St Vincent, and four from Trinidad and Tobago are the eight finalists for the much-coveted 2014 Hollick Arvon Caribbean Writers Prize, now in its second year.

The Prize, administered by The Bocas Lit Fest and worth a total of US$15,000, will give the winning Caribbean-based writer time to advance a non-fiction work in progress. It includes a year’s mentoring by an established author and travel to the United Kingdom to attend a one-week intensive creative writing course of their choice at Arvon.

The winning writer will also receive a cash award of 3,000GBP or US$4,500, have three days in London to network with literary professionals, hosted by the UK’s leading creative writing organisation, Arvon, in association with Free Word Centre and agents Rogers, Coleridge & White who have first option of agenting the winning writer.

It was a blind competition among 27 entrants.  “We had no idea who we were judging and we were impressed by the general high quality of the works submitted. They ranged from the academic to the personal and were generally imbued with original insights. Many of the works were directed at adult audiences but some were aimed at children and young adults”, said UWI Professor Funso Aiyejina, chair of the international judging panel of five that comprises Lord Hollick - sponsor of the award, Godfrey Smith - 2012 non-fiction winner of the OCM Bocas Prize, Ruth Borthwick of Arvon, and London literary agent, Jennifer Hewson.

A statement from the judges says, “Many of the works were eloquent, insightful, passionate and exciting. Some entries were very ambitious in scope but managed to remain focused on their subject matters. The judges are convinced that the works in contention for the prize venture beyond the safe shores of established themes and promise to create new boundaries for the Caribbean non-fiction genre.”

Marina Salandy-Brown, festival director and co-founder of the Prize, remarked the gender mix of Prize entrants. “In 2013 we had fewer male writers entering their work for fiction but this year there were six, which is a much higher proportion of male entrants for this non-fiction genre of writing, even though only one of them made it onto the list of finalists.”

The winner will be announced at the 2014 NGC Bocas Lit Fest, Trinidad and Tobago’s annual literary festival which runs from 23 to 27 April in Port of Spain at the National Library.

The National Gas Company of Trinidad and Tobago is title sponsor of the Trinidad and Tobago annual literary festival, now in its fourth year. One Caribbean Media is sponsor of the OCM Bocas Prize for Caribbean Literature. The Ministry of Planning & Sustainable is a main sponsor and First Citizens, flow and Courts are supporting sponsors.

See www.bocaslitfest.com for more information.

2014 Non-fiction Finalists

Turn Around, Judy Antoine, Grenada

Let It Fly, Melissa Balgobin, Trinidad and Tobago

Split Level, Rhoda Bharath, Trinidad and Tobago

17 Rest House Road, Ira Mathur, Trinidad and Tobago

Loving Jamaica, Diana McCaulay, Jamaica

The Plight of the Humanitarian Aid Worker, Nadine McNeil, Jamaica

Canouan Suite, Philip Nanton, St. Vincent

Richard Bridgens, Judy Raymond, Trinidad and Tobago

2014 Hollick Arvon Caribbean Writers Prize

Bringing on new writers

The region’s only prize that seeks to open doors for budding writers will close for submissions on 30^th September.

The 2014 Hollick Arvon Caribbean Writers Prize will be awarded to an emerging writer of literary non-fiction, which includes biography, memoir, travel writing, history, current affairs, and non-academic essays on diverse subjects. 

The Prize, administered by The Bocas Lit Fest and worth a total of US$15,000, will give the winning Caribbean-based writer time to advance a work in progress. It includes a year’s mentoring by an established author and travel to the United Kingdom to attend a one-week intensive creative writing course of their choice at Arvon.

The winning writer will also have three days in London to network with literary professionals, hosted by the UK’s leading creative writing organisation, Arvon, in association with Free Word Centre and agents Rogers, Coleridge & White, and receive a cash award of 3,000GBP or US$4,500.

“The deadline is imminent but there is still a little time to get entries in”, says Bocas Lit Fest founder Marina Salandy-Brown.  “To qualify, writers must simply be of Caribbean birth or citizenship, aged over 18, living in the region, and not yet published a non-fiction work.  We require just 2000 words of the work in progress and to see another previously published piece of the same length and genre, but full details are on the website.”

The winner will be announced at the 2014 NGC Bocas Lit Fest, Trinidad and Tobago’s annual literary festival, in April in Port of Spain.  This year’s inaugural Prize for fiction turned up some fine writers from all over the Caribbean and organisers are expecting another exciting crop of new and nearly new writers to emerge.

See www.bocaslitfest.com for application form and more information.

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The Burt Award for Caribbean Literature (23-8-2013) | Commonwealth Writers

An exciting global initiative in Young Adult literature is coming to the Caribbean. Established by CODE with the support of Canadian philanthropist William (Bill) Burt and the Literary Prizes Foundation, in partnership with the Bocas Lit Fest, the Burt Award for Caribbean Literature was launched on April 27, 2013, at the NGC Bocas Lit Fest in Port of Spain.

The Award will be given annually to three English-language literary works for Young Adults by Caribbean authors. A First Prize of $10,000 CAD, a Second Prize of $7,000 CAD and a Third Prize of $5,000 CAD will be awarded to the winning authors. Publishers of winning titles will be awarded a guaranteed purchase of up to 3,000 copies, ensuring the books will get into the hands of young people in schools, libraries and community organisations across the Caribbean.

The Burt Award for Caribbean Literature (23-8-2013) | Commonwealth Writers:

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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..

Finalists: Hollick Arvon Caribbean Writers Prize.

Fourteen writers from seven countries have been named as finalists for the inaugural Hollick Arvon Caribbean Writers Prize.

Announced by the judges on 10 March, 2013, the finalists include emerging writers from Antigua and Barbuda, the Bahamas, Bermuda, Jamaica, Puerto Rico, St. Lucia, and Trinidad and Tobago. The winner of the Prize will be announced on 27 April, during the third annual NGC Bocas Lit Fest in Port of Spain.

The finalists are:

Lisa Allen-Agostini (Trinidad and Tobago)
Katherine Atkinson (St. Lucia)
Angela Barry (Bermuda)
Vashti Bowlah (Trinidad and Tobago)
Brenda Lee Brown (Antigua and Barbuda)
Lenworth Burke (Jamaica)
Barbara Jenkins (Trinidad and Tobago)
Ilsa Lopez-Valles (Puerto Rico)
Ira Mathur (Trinidad and Tobago)
Sharon Millar (Trinidad and Tobago)
Amanda Choo Quan (Trinidad and Tobago)
Lelawatee Manoo-Rahming (Bahamas/Trinidad and Tobago)
Ann Second (Trinidad and Tobago)
Hazel Simmonds-McDonald (St. Lucia)

The Prize, worth US$15,000, will offer the winning Caribbean-based writer time to advance a work in progress. It includes a year’s mentoring by an established author, and travel to the United Kingdom to attend a one-week intensive Arvon Foundation creative writing course of their choice. The winning writer will also have three days in London to network with literary professionals, hosted by Arvon, the UK’s leading creative writing organisation, in association with Free Word Centre and literary agents Rogers, Coleridge & White. The winner will also receive a cash award of £3,000 (US$4,500).

“We were very pleased with the quality of entries and the range of new writers coming up in the region,” says Funso Aiyejina, chair of the judging panel, who also remarked on the fact that only one of the finalists is male. A total of 65 writers writing in English, from thirteen Caribbean countries, submitted entries for the Prize.

Marina Salandy-Brown, co-founder of the Prize and Director of the NGC Bocas Lit Fest, says the Prize is guaranteed for three years, thanks to the Hollick Family Charitable Trust in London. “This is a rare and valuable opportunity for our writers, who largely lack access to those who can help advance their work. One person will take home the Prize, but nobody loses by putting their work out there. You never know what might happen as a result.”

Further information on the Hollick Arvon Prize, click here

Longlist for the 2013 OCM Bocas Prize

The judging panels for the 2013 OCM Bocas Prize have announced a longlist of ten books in the three genre categories, with a further three books receiving special mention:

POETRY

Dark and Unaccustomed Words, by Vahni Capildeo (Trinidad and Tobago)
Fault Lines, by Kendel Hippolyte (St Lucia)
South Eastern Stages, by Anthony Kellman (Barbados)

Special mention:
The Festival of Wild Orchid, by Margaret Ann Lim (Jamaica)

FICTION

This Is How You Lose Her, by Junot Díaz (Dominican Republic/USA)
Archipelago, by Monique Roffey (Trinidad and Tobago)
Light Falling on Bamboo, by Lawrence Scott (Trinidad and Tobago)
God Carlos, by Anthony C. Winkler (Jamaica)

NON-FICTION

The Predicament of Blackness: Postcolonial Ghana and the Politics of Race, by Jemima Pierre (Haiti/USA)
The Sky’s Wild Noise: Selected Essays, by Rupert Roopnaraine (Guyana)
Sugar in the Blood: A Family’s Story of Slavery and Empire, by Andrea Stuart (Barbados)

Special mention:
Abolition and Plantation Management in Jamaica, 1807–1838, by Dave St Aubyn Gosse (Jamaica)
Ismith Khan: The Man and His Work, by Roydon Salick (Trinidad and Tobago)

The prize shortlist will be announced in March 2013.

Free Valentine's Day Ebook from Peepal Tree Press

Peepal Tree Press has a belated Valentine's Day gift for poetry lovers--a FREE ebook available in EPUB (iPad, Nook, Kobo and Adobe Digital Editions)  MOBI (Kindle), and PDF formats. 

Poems for Valentine's Day includes the work of contemporary Caribbean poets, many of whom have been featured on this blog:

Opal Palmer Adisa

Edward Baugh

Jacqueline Bishop

Christian Campbell

Kwame Dawes

Marcia Douglas

Kendel Hippolyte

Lelawattee Manoo-Rahming

Shara Mccallum

Mark Mcwatt

Geoffrey Philp

Velma Pollard

Jennifer Rahim

Dennis Scott

Tanya Shirley

Dorothea Smartt

Ralph Thompson

Aza Weir‐Soley

Here's the link: 

http://myemail.constantcontact.com/A-Valentine-from-Peepal-Tree-Press----free-poetry-e-book.html?soid=1101704465966&aid=YXCEGqfZDr0

Enjoy!

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!

 ***

Related articles

• Happy Birthday, Derek Walcott! (poefrika.blogspot.com)
• Derek Walcott in Toronto: Memory, Imagination and the Consolation of Caliban (repeatingislands.com)
• Derek Walcott on white egrets and the right regrets (repeatingislands.com)
• The Sea is History: A Conversation with Derek Walcott (repeatingislands.com)
• Derek Walcott: Poet's gifts as potent as ever (repeatingislands.com)
• Derek Walcott: Inspired by rhymes and a faith in paradise (telegraph.co.uk)

Professor Tony Martin dies at 70

Trinicenter.com - Professor Tony Martin dies at 70: "Dr. Tony Martin, former Professor Emeritus at Wellesley College, has passed over tonight, January 17th 2013 in Trinidad & Tobago at West Shore Medical Hospital. Trinidadian-born Dr. Martin taught at the University of Michigan-Flint, the Cipriani Labour College (Trinidad), and St. Mary's College (Trinidad). He has been a visiting professor at the University of Minnesota, Brandeis University, Brown University, and The Colorado College and also spent a year as an honorary research fellow at the University of the West Indies, Trinidad."


Professor Martin has written, compiled or edited 14 books including Caribbean History: From Pre-Colonial Origins to the Present (2012) published by Pearson Education; Amy Ashwood Garvey: Pan-Africanist, Feminist and Mrs. Marcus Garvey No. 1, Or, A Tale of Two Amies (2007), Literary Garveyism: Garvey, Black Arts and the Harlem Renaissance (1983), and the classic study of the Garvey Movement, Race First: the Ideological and Organizational Struggles of Marcus Garvey and the Universal Negro Improvement Association (1976).

His work on Marcus Garvey was featured on the curricula of many African studies programmes around the world and he was a well-known lecturer in many countries.


http://www.trinicenter.com/tnt/2013/1701.html





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Blog Disclosure Policy
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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Disclaimer of Endorsement
The documents posted on this Web site may contain hypertext links or pointers to information created and maintained by other public and private organizations. These links and pointers are provided for visitors' convenience. I do not control or guarantee the accuracy, relevance, timeliness, or completeness of any linked information. Further, the inclusion of links or pointers to other Web sites or agencies is not intended to assign importance to those sites and the information contained therein, nor is it intended to endorse, recommend, or favor any views expressed, or commercial products or services offered on these outside sites, or the organizations sponsoring the sites, by trade name, trademark, manufacture, or otherwise.

Reference in this Web site to any specific commercial products, processes, or services, or the use of any trade, firm or corporation name is for the information and convenience of the site's visitors, and does not constitute endorsement, recommendation, or favoring by this blog.

Poetry Friday: Cynthia James

Malpeque 

I was searching for two equal halves of shell, 
the tide was out, the sea had disappeared, 
so I could walk far out the ocean floor - 
two matching cups, flesh-coloured 
on the inside, shaped by what they once held. 

No need to dig, these chip-chip were on the surface, dead;
but so many of the outstanding were unhinged,
and even those un-afflicted in the head were badly 
frayed, battered, left behind in the spume’s wake –
some big, some small, not text-book pretty, but different -
Ask Rihanna … all cut along the selvedge,

some bronzed, some bevelled, some striated, 
some the colour of donkey-eyes, 
some fat and black like Orinoco sea coconuts,
some pale, transparent, shaped like  Douens’ hats, 
some like hanging fingernails, white chips from an enamel posy, 
(dented just at the upturned lip, near the curved ear-grip) – 

yet all were heirlooms, antiques, unusual; 
with a whiff of Balandra, curry-chip-chip, steamed 
down in coconut milk with a blade of stinging nettle 
(aka chardon beni), on top, a blood orange scotch bonnet. 
Vat 19! Something to “Awake the Spirit!”
You’d know it when you saw it.

Yes, many seemed to have it, until I picked them up.
Clutches of Malpeque shells, I picked up 
to find a right side to match a left side, 
fine Muscovado clawed all up under my finger nails;
and the further out I got, more bosey my back bent;
until I heard something like a conch blast and looked back. 

So far I’d come?  And no exact match? 
Nothing whole, nothing that made sense?
I’d never thought much before of the mounds I had despoiled; 
tide in - tide out, facing the Atlantic chip-chip was always there. 
Now just a clutter of so-called good halves in my hand -
Should I drop everything and go back? But go back where?

©Cynthia James 2013



About Cynthia James

Cynthia James is a Trinidadian, living for the past 3 years in Toronto. She writes poetry and fiction and her work can be found in publications such as Callaloo,Caribbean Writer and The Oxford Book of Caribbean Verse.




Blog Disclosure Policy

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.


***

Disclaimer of Endorsement

The documents posted on this Web site may contain hypertext links or pointers to information created and maintained by other public and private organizations. These links and pointers are provided for visitors' convenience. I do not control or guarantee the accuracy, relevance, timeliness, or completeness of any linked information. Further, the inclusion of links or pointers to other Web sites or agencies is not intended to assign importance to those sites and the information contained therein, nor is it intended to endorse, recommend, or favor any views expressed, or commercial products or services offered on these outside sites, or the organizations sponsoring the sites, by trade name, trademark, manufacture, or otherwise.

Reference in this Web site to any specific commercial products, processes, or services, or the use of any trade, firm or corporation name is for the information and convenience of the site's visitors, and does not constitute endorsement, recommendation, or favoring by this blog.

Poetry Friday: Cynthia James

Writing Forward
 
Hold nothing against the daffodil,
potent against the cancer of self-love and aged forgetfulness;
but beware the bulb; mistake it not for the onion;
it can kill; it’s subtext for the Ides of March, but also
‘comes before the swallow dares’ in The Winter’s Tale;
grind and smear it on topical wounds only;
for it’s death and spring, bad luck and morning glory;
it flowered in the Garden of Gethsemane and at Stonehenge;
meanwhile turn the page; it’s the only way to complete
your chapter of the story, you Mau-Mau-ed, castrated,
you waiting for the return of the Balangiga and the Kohinoor;
the eye of history is longer than you can imagine;
learn the lore of all bush medicine with thanksgiving;
go where you will, love where you will, live where you will
 
© Cynthia James October 2012


About Cynthia James

 
Cynthia James is a Trinidadian, living for the past 3 years in Toronto. She writes poetry and fiction and her work can be found in publications such as Callaloo,Caribbean Writer and The Oxford Book of Caribbean Verse.

Imagined Nations, 50 Years Later: Reflections on Independence and Federation in the Caribbean

The 31st Annual Meeting of the West Indian Literature Conference

Imagined Nations, 50 Years Later: Reflections on Independence and Federation in the Caribbean

Caribbean Literary and Cultural Studies at the University of Miami

October 11-13th, 2012

University of Miami 

Coral Gables, Miami, FL

Conference Description

In 2012 Trinidad and Tobago and Jamaica celebrate the 50th Anniversary of their independence from Britain. However, while 2012 marks these very auspicious occasions, it is also the 50th anniversary of the collapse of the West Indies Federation. Anniversaries encourage and even demand reflection and re-visitations of the expectations, opportunities lost and those well used, the failures and achievements as well as the considerations that attended these occasions. For more than fifty years, novelists, poets, visual artists and other cultural workers have been actively involved in imagining, revising and challenging the project of independence and the future it promised for so many. 

The 50th Anniversary is an excellent opportunity to revisit the movement towards and attainment of independence; the arts movements that emerged out of these nationalist projects; the cultural institutions that gave expression to the changes taking place; the rise and collapse of the West Indian Federation and the implications of all of these developments for the Caribbean region in the new era of globalization. Moreover, this occasion provides an important critical crossroad for us to consider the extent to which dialogues about independence and Federation have preoccupied not only writers, but also artists working in a number of different mediums in the Caribbean region. To this end, the 31st West Indian Literature Conference invites writers, cultural practitioners and scholars to submit papers that engage a wide range of critical perspectives on the various representations of both independence and the rise and fall of the West Indian Federation.

Panel presentations will consider these and other themes and topics:

Literary Nationalism in Trinidad and Jamaica
The Architecture of Independence
Narrative Intentions: Mapping the Landscapes of Independence
Bodies of (In)difference: Gender, Sexuality and Nationhood
Flexible Citizens, Rigid Borders: Migration and Diaspora
Pan-Caribbeanism and discourses of regional integration
States of Independence – Puerto Rico and the US
Political Leadership: Past, Present and Future
Caribbean Women's Literature: Configuring of a political voice/space.
New artistic articulations and revisions of the (post)independence project
Rhythm-Nations: Music, Poetry and Performance
Pedagogies of Independence
Colonization in Reverse: Caribbean and Britain
Comparative Contemplations: Decolonization in the French, Hispanic and Dutch Caribbean

Cultural Performance and the Politics of Nation

For more information: http://www.as.miami.edu/windianlitconf/

***

Blog Disclosure Policy

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.




***

Disclaimer of Endorsement

The documents posted on this Web site may contain hypertext links or pointers to information created and maintained by other public and private organizations. These links and pointers are provided for visitors' convenience. I do not control or guarantee the accuracy, relevance, timeliness, or completeness of any linked information. Further, the inclusion of links or pointers to other Web sites or agencies is not intended to assign importance to those sites and the information contained therein, nor is it intended to endorse, recommend, or favor any views expressed, or commercial products or services offered on these outside sites, or the organizations sponsoring the sites, by trade name, trademark, manufacture, or otherwise.

Reference in this Web site to any specific commercial products, processes, or services, or the use of any trade, firm or corporation name is for the information and convenience of the site's visitors, and does not constitute endorsement, recommendation, or favoring by this blog.

The 2013 Hollick Arvon Caribbean Writers Prize

The Hollick Arvon Caribbean Writers Prize is an annual award which allows an emerging Caribbean writer living and working in the Anglophone Caribbean to devote time to advancing or finishing a literary work, with support from an established writer as mentor. It is sponsored by the Hollick Family Charitable Trust and the literary charitable trust the Arvon Foundation, in association with the non-profit organisation the Bocas Lit Fest.
The Hollick Arvon Caribbean Writers Prize will be offered annually, initially for the next three years, and across three literary genres: fiction in 2013, non-fiction in 2014, and poetry in 2015.
The Prize
The Hollick Arvon Prize, with a total value of £10,000 (approx. US$16,000), consists of:
1.    a cash award of £3,000 (approx. US$5,000) 2.    a year’s mentoring by an established writer 3.    travel to the United Kingdom to attend a one-week intensive Arvon creative writing course at one of Arvon’s internationally renowned writing houses 4.    three days in London to network with editors and publishers, hosted by Arvon, in association with the Free Word Centre and the Rogers, Coleridge & White literary agency.
The winner of the 2013 Hollick Arvon Prize will be announced in March 2013. Presentation of the prize will take place in April 2013 in Port of Spain, Trinidad and Tobago.
Eligibility
To be eligible for entry, a writer must:
1.    be of Caribbean birth or citizenship, living and working in the Anglophone Caribbean and writing in English 2.    be over the age of 18 by 30 September, 2012 3.    have had at least one piece of creative writing of no less than 2,000 words published 4.    not yet have published a full-length book in the genre category.
How to enter
Each entrant may make only one submission for the 2013 Hollick Arvon Prize. Each submission must include:
1.    a maximum of 3,000 words from a work in progress which the Prize will allow the writer to advance or complete. This may be an excerpt from a novel or from a series of short stories 2.    an outline of the entire work in progress and how the writer plans to develop it 3.    a statement of no more than 500 words about why your work should be supported by this Prize 4.    a copy of up to two pieces of previously published creative writing (not exceeding 2,000 words each). An extract from a longer work is acceptable. State the date and place of publication 5.    a completed entry form
Note: all submissions should be typed with double spacing.
Submissions must be made electronically. Please send all submission materials attached to a single email addressed to info@bocaslitfest.com. The email subject line should read “Hollick Arvon Prize”.
Deadline
The 2013 Hollick Arvon Prize opens for entries on 30 June, 2012. The closing date is 30 September, 2012, at 6 pm TT time. No late entries will be accepted.
Judging
The Hollick Arvon Prize will be judged by a panel comprising representatives of the Hollick Family Charitable Trust and the Arvon Foundation, an agent from the Rogers, Coleridge & White literary agency, and up to three representatives of the NGC Bocas Lit Fest. The Prize will be administered by the Arvon Foundation and Bocas Lit Fest, in conjunction with the Hollick Family Charitable Trust.
For any queries about eligibility requirements or the submission process, please contact the prize administrators at: info@bocaslitfest.com or follow this link: http://www.bocaslitfest.com/hollick-arvon-caribbean-writers-prize.html
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Poetry Friday: Cynthia James

May Shuttlecock

 
The day before, I’d left the gold leaf candelabras in Cantaro;
white holy ghosts wing-spanned the high blue apse of Santa Cruz;
I was confirmed again, crowned with cascading tulle, wild lilies
and forget-me-nots. ‘Twas May, the rains had not yet
washed away the yellow candles kindling tender fires,
and surfeited, I wondered how and why I’d sunk so low
within the vale to miss the Hubble view and give this up.
The old singer in the corner needed but a shuttle;
I went out and bought, passing the day soft, loud
pedalling the treadle’s lockstitch revolutions.
The next day my flight confirmed, I climbed the clouds,
suction-cupped my ears, swore against all birds, and landed
routinely at Pearson. By evening I’d trod fallen acacia crisps,
windblown bread crumbs, and yellow buttons helix-spiked,
kicking heads sprung in thawed and tilled dogs pats.

***

Cynthia James is a Trinidadian, living for the past 3 years in Toronto. She writes poetry and fiction and her work can be found in publications such as Callaloo,Caribbean Writer and The Oxford Book of Caribbean Verse.





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1 Minute Book Review: Vessels by Andre Bagoo

Name of the book: Trick Vessels

Author: Andre Bagoo

Publisher: Shearsman Books

What's the book about? "Aptly titled are these poems: they are like vials without bottoms … held up, looked through, a universe can be discerned. They pour and continue to pour a mixture of guile and subterfuge, language that contradicts, and bargains for its own sanity, contents in volume denying the size of these trick vessels." — Mervyn Taylor

Why am I reading the book? Bagoo's juxtapositions usher the reader into Caribbean landscapes that are dreamlike and terrifying. Yet he controls the tone and scope so masterfully that the poems become experiences in themselves.

Quote from the book:

here
the strongest of bodies are dazed
beneath showers of diamond sprinkles
a thousand cold handcuffs
fall on black limbs
men clothed in blue
to mark them as 'lifers':

Where to buy: http://www.shearsman.com/pages/books/catalog/2012/bagoo.html

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“The Sugar Clock” by Cynthia James

 

This setting back and forwarding
the clock, lengthening and shortening time,
is not in my experience
 
I learned and laboured under one timepiece,
the sugar clock, somewhere near the great house
deep in the crevice of my ear still going strong
 
the wailing ICTA horn blaring at five to seven, five to twelve and five to four;
more than a century of wailing - (1820s to 1921 - estate,
usine - plantation time seems distant!)
 
when to pick up tools, when to lay them down and when to lunch -
I have no picture of this timepiece, no sense of what it was,
but in the bowel of the you-we sugar factory, sure it was!
 
Some say ‘twas pressured steam, but in my mind
it was a round alarm with finger lever, iron, brass or shiny silver,
nippled like the cycle bell Works workers rode out, clicking after it went off.
 
Who pulled it? Or was it automatic?
Did its wail wind round the campus weekends, too, when I was gone?
Or did absentee hands run round its face invisibly
 
like on these fancy modern digitals?
Halfway between a warning and rebellion
sometimes it sounded like a conch! but no, it was no conch,
 
or else I’d seen a Maroon man, built say like the Orisha Andrew,
master drummer, going in and out.
I moved in step with it, shell shocked.
 
Who turned it off? And when?
Did its sly slumbering regime rankle you-we historians?
Who knows the what and why, the grip of memory?
 
Oriens Ex Occidente Lux
Did it shut off on its accord when the steam engine rusted?
When did it cease to be that relic of “the bulwark that we watch” way south?
 
 
 
©Cynthia James 2012

 
 
 
Cynthia James is a Trinidadian, living for the past 3 years in Toronto. She writes poetry and fiction and her work can be found in publications such as Callaloo, Caribbean Writer and The Oxford Book of Caribbean Verse.

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