"Gone to Drift" by Diana McCaulay

“Gone to Drift is a Jamaican coming-of-age story: realistic, often funny and deeply touching.” Pamela Mordecai

Gone to Drift tells the story of Lloyd, a 12-year-old boy from Kingston and his search for his beloved grandfather, Maas Conrad, a fisherman who is lost at sea. Lloyd suspects that his grandfather has witnessed an illegal capture of dolphins for the tourist trade and that he has come to harm. No one wants to help Lloyd except for an uptown girl who studies dolphins, his best friend Dwight and a mad man called Slowly on a sun-baked beach.

Interspersed with Lloyd’s quest on land and sea is a second voice - of Maas Conrad himself, who, unknown to Lloyd is alive but marooned on a rock. Gone to Drift is an exciting adventure story in which Lloyd discovers that the enemies of his grandfather - and of the Caribbean Sea that he loves are closer to home than he could ever imagine.

Gone to Drift is built on McCaulay's 2012 Regional Commonwealth prizewinning short story, The Dolphin Catchers. McCaulay, the author of two acclaimed earlier novels, Dog-Heart (2010) and Huracan (2012), is now working on a memoir.

Gone to Drift will be distributed to schools and libraries throughout Jamaica - and the wider Caribbean - as part of the prize awarded by the Canadian charity, CODE. This is an annual awarded given for Young Adult novels written by Caribbean authors, in partnership with Trinidad’s Bocas Lit Fest.

A lifelong resident of Kingston, Diana McCaulay founded the Jamaica Environment Trust in 1991 and still serves as its CEO and guiding force. She is also a former Gleaner columnist. She says: “As reading meant so much to me as a teenager, I’m hoping Gone to Drift will be read and enjoyed by many Caribbean young people. I wanted to pay tribute to our long tradition of fishermen, and to look at what the loss of traditional livelihoods and the depletion of fisheries in the Caribbean means to us.”

Gone to Drift was placed second in the 2015 Burt Prize for Caribbean Literature.
Publication date: 29 February 2016 Price: £7.99
ISBN: 9780993108617

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"Between Two Fires" by Tony Williams

Journalist and author, Tony Williams, the creator of Caribbean Book Blog, has launched his latest novel, Between Two Fires.

Between Two Fires is a gripping read packed with mystery, suspense, and interracial romance and is set on Elysian Island, a fictional retreat for the super-rich in the Caribbean.
 
The plot revolves around Rudy Philips, a Black British journalist with Caribbean roots and lots of charm who gets ensnared in the age-old emotional trap; becoming romantically entangled with a married woman.

Bridget Tennyson, the woman who has enchanted him, is a gorgeous American stockbroker and she’s married to the world-famous British aristocrat, Lord Edward Tennyson. She’s a smart and sophisticated career woman and runs a highly successful stock-trading firm on Elysian Island, just off the coast of St. Lucia where Rudy was born.

Not only is Rudy out of her league, the two of them come from completely different worlds, but this doesn’t faze Rudy. He’s all too aware that Bridget is crazy over him and her marriage is on the rocks. What’s more, Bridget assures him that she has the perfect plan for getting rid of Edward, permanently.

The big question is, can Rudy who is used to having women eating out of his hand, handle a woman like Bridget who is an independent thinker, calculating, tough and ambitious?

Moreover, they both know that if they slip up and Edward discovers what’s going down, there’s going to be hell to pay.

At its core, Between Two Fires tackles the controversial issue of what often tends to happen to the male ego when a man is confronted with a woman who is independent-minded and empowered,, knows exactly what she wants and is intent on being true to herself and her ideals.

It is also a story of betrayal, revenge and murder.

Between Two Fires is available as an ebook and paperback at Amazon, Barnes & Nobel, Smashwords and other online bookstores. Secure your e-copy today for just US$2.99.

Email: toniwilliams918@gmail.com

Author Website: https://toniwilliamsbooks.wordpress.com/

Amazon Page http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B018PPKRLS?*Version*=1&*entries*=0

Author Interview: https://gottawritenetwork.wordpress.com/2016/02/21/caribbean-author-toni-williams-tells-about-his-interest-in-crime-fiction/

" A Warm December" @ Julius Littman Performing Arts Theater

A Warm December

February 26,  2016

Special Screening at the Julius Littman Performing Arts Theater in The City of North Miami Beach, 7:00PM

Released in 1973 and both starring and directed by Sidney Poitier, "A Warm December" tells the story of Dr. Matt Younger (Sidney Poitier) and his daughter (Yvette Curtis) who arrive for a month-long visit to London for dirt-bike racing and unexpectedly, a new romance for the widowed Dr. Younger. His new love interest is the beautiful and playful dignitary Catherine Oswandu (Esther Anderson). But something is amiss -- strange men seem to be following her wherever she goes, and Younger assumes she's at the center of some political intrigue. His heart sinks when he learns that she has sickle cell anemia, and the men are watchdogs in the employ of her anxious father (Earl Cameron). 

Q & A with co-star, Esther Anderson concluding the film.

In celebration of African-American History Month, the screening will include a special guest film introduction by community leader and grandson of Dr. Maya Angelou, Elliott Jones.  

The screening is FREE of charge, register online for free passes. Space Is Limited. Tickets are available online at  docmiami.org

Support the UNIA Sponsored Petition

For the past eight years, I have been campaigning for the exoneration of Marcus Garvey. Although some of my petitions have had some success, others have not yielded the desired results.

The reasons are varied. Some of my critics have said that Garvey’s message is outdated while others have said that Garvey’s exoneration is a waste of political capital. In the words of Mutty Perkins, the irascible Jamaican journalist, both are examples of “arrant nonsense.”

Africans at home and abroad face the same existential threat in Garvey’s time as they do now: the erasure of black lives. In 1914, Garvey rightly diagnosed the threat and offered solutions to our lack of organization and collective ignorance about our history. Garvey’s intellect and intuition led him to realization that movements would only be successful if they could draw on the shared memories of their people while also making public their grievances against regimes that try to silence their legitimate complaints. Against the despair that had numbed his people into compliance, the UNIA created the Pan-African flag, published a newspaper, founded schools, operated several businesses, including the Black Star Line, and proclaimed the “Declaration of the Rights of the Negro Peoples of the World”: The Principles of the Universal Negro Improvement Association.

This is why I am suspending my current petitions and fully supporting the UNIA sponsored petition because the UNIA has kept alive Garvey’s educational and organizational program while also pursuing legal remedies to alleviate the persecution of Africans at home and abroad.

It is also my hope that members of the Rastafari community, Nation of Islam, #BlackLivesMatter, and other organizations will support this effort. For although there are serious ideological divisions among these organizations, they share a common goal: the redemption of Africans at home and abroad.

Please join me by signing this petition and sharing the petition with at least ten friends. Time is of the essence.

https://www.change.org/p/barack-obama-presidential-pardon-for-marcus-garvey?recruiter=3131320&utm_source=share_petition&utm_medium=twitter&utm_campaign=share_twitter_responsive

 

Marcus Garvey: A Forerunner of #BlackLivesMatter

Separated by a century of struggle, Marcus Garvey's Universal Negro Improvement Association (UNIA) and #BlackLivesMatter (#BLM) share striking similarities. 
During this interactive presentation, Professor Geoffrey Philp will discuss the origin stories of the UNIA and #BLM and the historical significance of these movements in the lives of Africans at home and abroad.

“Marcus Garvey: A Forerunner of #BlackLivesMatter.”

Room 1210

Tuesday, February 9, 2016

10: 00 am to 11:00 am

Miami Dade College InterAmerican Campus 627 SW 27th Ave Miami, FL 33135

FAU Presents ‘Readings in DIRT’ by South Florida Authors

Six nationally recognized writers will read original works that explore the theme of "dirt," its literal and figurative connotations, in conjunction with the exhibition “DIRT: Yuta Suelo Udongo Tè,” which is currently on view at Florida Atlantic University’s Ritter Gallery, 777 Glades Road, Boca Raton campus.  The readings take place on Thursday, Feb. 11 at 7 p.m., and are free and open to the public. More information can be found at www.fau.edu/galleries.  

Miami writers Michael Hettich, John Dufresne, Elizabeth Jacobson and Geoffrey Philp will join FAU professors Andrew Furman, Ph.D., (English) and Edward Petuch, Ph.D., (geology). The authors will present their works written specifically for the exhibition as well as texts about this fundamental element that they have selected by other authors.

Hettich, an award-winning author, curated the program while contemplating the nature of “dirt” in language: “What is dirt and dirty depends on context as much as material, doesn’t it? And don’t we grow our food in dirt? When it comes right down to it, everything is dirt, though not everything is dirty.” Hettich has published more than a dozen books of poetry, most recently, “Systems of Vanishing” (University of Tampa Press, 2014), which won the 2013 Tampa Review Poetry prize. He has worked extensively with artists and musicians and was instrumental in the SWEAT Broadside Portfolios, a collaboration of South Florida book artists, novelists, poets and printmakers. He teaches English and creative writing at Miami-Dade College.  

Dufresne has published novels, short story collections, poetry chapbooks, guides to writing, plays and screenplays. Two of his novels, “Louisiana Power & Light” (Plume, 1994) and “Love Warps the Mind a Little” (W.W. Norton, 2008), have been New York Times Notable Books of the Year. He teaches in the MFA program at Florida International University.

Jacobson has published numerous works of poetry, including a book of poems titled “Her Knees Pulled In” (Tres Chicas Books, 2012). She is the founding director of the WingSpan Poetry Project at Lotus House in Miami and at several locations in Santa Fe, New Mexico, which brings weekly poetry classes to local shelters.

Geoffrey Philp is a Jamaican poet, novelist and playwright. He is author of the novel “Benjamin, My Son” (Peepal Tree, 2003), and five poetry collections. Philp is associate professor in the English department at Miami-Dade College where he teaches creative writing.

Furman has published works of fiction, nonfiction and literary criticism, including “Bitten: My Unexpected Love Affair with Florida” (University Press of Florida, 2014). Furman teaches in the MFA program in creative writing at FAU.

Petuch’s research interests lie in the geology of the Florida peninsula and the Atlantic coastal plain, among other topics. He has authored many works, including “The Geology of the Everglades and Adjacent Areas” (Taylor and Francis, 2007). Petuch teaches in the Department of Geosciences at FAU.

For more information and a full schedule of events, call the University Galleries at 561-297-2661 or visit www.fau.edu/galleries.

The exhibition and programs are made possible by grants from State of Florida, Department of State, Division of Cultural Affairs and the Florida Council on Arts and Culture; Cultural Council of Palm Beach County; Beatrice Cummings Mayer and R.A. Ritter Foundation. Museum Education and AMP Programs made possible by Kaye Arts Integration Endowment and a grant from the Community Foundation of Palm Beach and Martin Counties.