Book Bulletin
Bocas Book Bulletin: September 2020
A monthly roundup of Caribbean literary news, curated by the NGC Bocas Lit Fest and published in the Sunday Express.
New Releases
The Undiscovered Country (Peepal Tree Press), a collection of essays by Trinidadian writer Andre Bagoo, is described by its publisher as “a manifesto, a literary criticism, a personal chronicle of literary life.” Ranging from meditations on writers — from V.S. Naipaul and Derek Walcott to Mark Twain — and artists to musings on topics as diverse as musical films, board games, and T&T’s ethnic politics, these pieces use their topics as lenses to investigate the development of a distinct personality and perspective.
Black Spartacus: The Epic Life of Toussaint Louverture (Farrar, Straus, and Giroux), a new biography by the Mauritius-born, Oxford-based historian Sudhir Hazareesingh, has been called by one critic “by far the most complete, authoritative and persuasive biography of Toussaint that we are likely to have for a long time.” Drawing on scattered archival sources to reconstruct the life of Haiti’s revolutionary leader, Black Spartacus attempts to reconcile the many myths that have grown up around Toussaint’s story, with a detailed examination of the political and military history of the late eighteenth century.
Stuart Hall (UWI Press) by Annie Paul, the latest book in the publisher’s ongoing Caribbean Biography series, is a short, accessible life of the celebrated Jamaica-born scholar, a pioneer in the academic field of cultural studies. Based in Britain for most of his career, Hall developed an international reputation for his groundbreaking ideas, but recognition in the Caribbean came relatively late. The book also includes excerpts from his little-known early writing.
Awards & Prizes
The Brooklyn Caribbean Literary Festival has announced the inaugural winners of its two prizes for emerging writers. Hadassah Williams of Trinidad and Tobago is the 2020 winner of the BCLF Elizabeth Nunez Award for Writers in the Caribbean, for her short story “Vizay”. The shortlist was dominated by writers in T&T, who also included Akhim Alexis, Rashad Hosein, Sogolon Jaya, J. Tracy Farrag, and Suzanne Bhagan. Meanwhile, Stephanie Ramlogan — born in T&T and currently resident in the United States — is the 2020 winner of the BCLF Elizabeth Nunez Caribbean-American Writer’s Prize, for her story “The Case of the Missing Eggs”.
Jamaican-British writer Alex Wheatle has been shortlisted for the 2021 NSK Neustadt Prize for Children’s Literature, sponsored by the journal World Literature Today. Considered “the most prestigious international children’s literary award given in the United States,” the prize recognises “the significant achievement of a writer or illustrator, either over a lifetime or in a single publication, as well as an ongoing, positive impact on children’s literature.” The winner will be announced in October.
The shortlist for the 2020 Bristol Short Story Prize, announced at the end of July, includes the writer Stephen Narain — born in the Bahamas to Guyanese parents, and now resident in the United States. The winner will be announced in October.
The 2021 Johnson and Amoy Achong Caribbean Writers Prize remains open for entries until 30 September, 2020. This annual award 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 a mentor. The Johnson and Amoy Achong Caribbean Writers Prize is sponsored by philanthropist Dr. Kongshiek Achong Low and administered by the Bocas Lit Fest and the literary charitable trust Arvon. Full details on eligibility and the submissions process are available at the Bocas Lit Fest website: www.bocaslitfest.com/2021/awards/the-johnson-and-amoy-achong-caribbean-writers-prize.
Caribbean Bestsellers
Independent bookshop Paper Based (paperbased.org) shares their top-selling Caribbean titles for the past month:
- One Year of Ugly, by Caroline Mackenzie
- Book of the Little Axe, by Lauren Francis-Sharma
- The Wondrous and Tragic Life of Ivan and Ivana, by Maryse Condé
- Love After Love, by Ingrid Persaud
- Tea by the Sea, by Donna Hemans
Other News
The 2020 NGC Bocas Lit Fest, running from 18 to 20 September, has announced its programme of virtual events, to be streamed via the festival website and social media platforms, freely accessible to viewers around the world. Highlights include a special Future Friday programme on Friday 18 September, in which writers of speculative fiction share their ideas, hopes, and concerns about the way ahead for the Caribbean and the rest of the world, and discuss how the SF/F genre allows us to imagine possible futures.
The festival’s Saturday 19 September programme will bring two events marking the 50th anniversary of the 1970 Black Power Revolution, examining its legacies for us in the present. Sunday 20 September will begin with a high-powered panel debating the state of Caribbean political leadership, featuring former Jamaican Prime Minister P.J. Patterson, author of a recent political memoir, followed by an Extempo debate in which calypsonians Black Sage and Brian London tackle the same question. Another highlight is a dramatisation of the beloved novel Crick Crack Monkey by T&T author Merle Hodge, marking its 50th anniversary.
Elsewhere the 2020 NGC Bocas Lit Fest will present readings from and discussion of an array of newly published books from established and debut authors, including Ingrid Persaud, Caroline Mackenzie, Elizabeth Walcott-Hackshaw, Andre Bagoo, Monique Roffey, Jacob Ross, John Robert Lee, Canisia Lubrin, Celia Sorhaindo, and Katherine Agyemaa Agard. Other participating writers include 2020 OCM Bocas Prize winner Richard Georges. The culminating event of the festival will be the launch of the groundbreaking new bilingual anthology The Sea Needs No Ornament, collecting the work of nearly three dozen women poets from across the Hispanophone and Anglophone Caribbean.
All events are free and require no registration, streaming simultaneously via www.bocaslitfest.com, facebook.com/bocaslitfest, and youtube.com/bocaslitfest.