One of the biggest awards in writing for Caribbean authors is the Commonwealth Short Story Prize. Held annually since 2012 it rewards great writing and supports writers at various stages of their careers. As in most professions a prize means validation. But it also means opportunity and money. A new writer may find it delivers…
Alison Flood (The Guardian) reports that British-Trinidadian poet Roger Robinson won the Royal Society of Literature’s Ondaatje prize. A Portable Paradise is the second poetry collection to win the award for a book that conjures “the spirit of a place.” In his interview, he says, “I want these poems to help people to practise empathy.” […]…
The Voices From Inside event was one of those really nice and hopeful events that make you believe in the potential of us all to do good things. It was a showcase of the prisoners’ poetry, and a reading from Dr. Baz Dresinger’s new book Incarcerated Nations. She had travelled all over, looking at our…
In the 7 years it’s been around, Bocas has grown from strength to strength. The annual literary festival has hosted some of the most successful and interesting writers, publishers and poets of Caribbean, and World literature. And because it’s in Trinidad, there’s a non-pretentiousness to the proceedings that may make your faves seem significantly more approachable….
‘Tell Desperadoes when you reach that hill I decompose, but I composing still.’ ” Derek Walcott A statement so timely on the rot that pervades Trinidad that I had to double check the year it was written because I thought he was talking about our current state. We’ve been doing this nonsense for years.
I have it. Jade Gadeon’s Carnival, adult colouring book. Jade has realistically rendered the costumes, colour and music of Trinidad Carnival. You can tell that the book was made by a mas playing Trini. I was surprised by the Minshall costumes that she included in the book. She clearly had access to his work. I…
Local designer Ryan Chan has just released an adult colouring book. You know that I’m obsessed with them. Especially Caribbean colouring books. To the point where I had promised myself that I’m only allowed to buy Jade Gedeon’s Carnival Escape colouring book. I going to break that promise to include this gem. Some pages from…
Because I’m a cliché, I have an obsession with colouring and colouring books. It’s fun, it’s art with training wheels, because I haven’t drawn a thing in years. I needed an outlet and colouring books are it. I’ve been dying to find books that are more my style, so fashion themes are a fave. As…
Talented artist Danielle Boodoo-Fortune is the winner of the Wasafiri New Writing Prize- Poetry for her poem Portrait of my father as a grouper. Wasafiri is a UK-based international magazine on contemporary writing. It is published quarterly. The name comes from the Kiswahili word for ‘travellers’.The magazine was formed out of a deliberate initiative to…
The National Trust of Trinidad and Tobago is selling the recently re-released A Handbook of Trinidad Cookery; the first published recipe book of Trinidad and Tobago. The new edition was edited by Danielle Delon, whose previous work includes The Letter’s of Margaret Mann. This is a re-publication of the 1907 edition of the book which…