Here is a starter list of Caribbean literary resources which lovers of Caribbean literature may find useful. Since it is a starter, and by no means exhaustive, I would welcome any comments or suggestions for additional sources you may know of. For some of the resources, there are previous postings on this blog which give more details about these literary sites.
Book Reviews
Caribbean Review of Books
Literary Festivals
Calabash International Literary Festival (Jamaica)
Bocas Lit Fest (Trinidad & Tobago) (Link temporarily unavailable)
Publishers
House of Nehesi
MacMillan Caribbean
Peepal Tree Press
Smashwords (Self Publishing - See previous post)
Research
Institute of Jamaica
Jamaica Cultural Development Commission (JCDC)
University of the West Indies
Writing Communities
Association of Caribbean Women Writers and Scholars (ACWWS)
Caribbean Literary Salon
11/29/2010
11/12/2010
Rejection is good (sometimes)
Recently, I experienced the rejection of my first manuscript of poems. I was crushed. Then, I stepped back and tried as objectively as I could to review the poems I had written over a ten-year span. I did some editing and also added three new poems to the collection. I have since submitted the manuscript to a new publisher whose focus is on Caribbean writing. I don't know what the outcome will be this time around, but I believe in, and stand by my work. I will continue to write poetry, regardless.
If you are an aspiring poet who has faced rejection(s), continue to write and keep the faith. Consider, for inspiration, Christian Campbell who recently won the Aldeburgh prize for best first collection, Running the Dusk, (Peepal Tree Press), which was also short-listed for the Forward prize. In his August 2010 interview with Lisa Allen-Agostini in the Caribbean Review of Books, Campbell shared how Running the Dusk was rejected by several publishers. Here is a link to the interview:
http://caribbeanreviewofbooks.com/crb-archive/22-july-2010/i-must-make-trouble-for-the-nation/
So, sometimes rejection can be a good thing, leading our collection to the right publisher at the right time. Rejection can also help us to take an objective look at our work, refining and reviewing where necessary. Don't lose hope. Continue to be passionate about your poetry!
If you are an aspiring poet who has faced rejection(s), continue to write and keep the faith. Consider, for inspiration, Christian Campbell who recently won the Aldeburgh prize for best first collection, Running the Dusk, (Peepal Tree Press), which was also short-listed for the Forward prize. In his August 2010 interview with Lisa Allen-Agostini in the Caribbean Review of Books, Campbell shared how Running the Dusk was rejected by several publishers. Here is a link to the interview:
http://caribbeanreviewofbooks.com/crb-archive/22-july-2010/i-must-make-trouble-for-the-nation/
So, sometimes rejection can be a good thing, leading our collection to the right publisher at the right time. Rejection can also help us to take an objective look at our work, refining and reviewing where necessary. Don't lose hope. Continue to be passionate about your poetry!
11/11/2010
More on Claude McKay
The exile theme recurs in many of Claude McKay's works. The Jamaican landscape and the yearning to return were prominent in many of his poems. Today, I will feature two more of his poems that are among my favorite. The first speaks of a promise to return home, and the other describes the lovely Spanish Needle flower which seemed to remind him so much of his Jamaican childhood.
I Shall Return
I shall return again; I shall return
To laugh and love and watch with wonder-eyes
At golden noon the forest fires burn,
Wafting their blue-black smoke to sapphire skies.
I shall return to loiter by the streams
That bathe the brown blades of the bending grasses,
And realize once more my thousand dreams
Of waters rushing down the mountain passes.
I shall return to hear the fiddle and fife
Of village dances, dear delicious tunes
That stir the hidden depths of native life,
Stray melodies of dim remembered runes.
I shall return, I shall return again,
To ease my mind of long, long years of pain.
To laugh and love and watch with wonder-eyes
At golden noon the forest fires burn,
Wafting their blue-black smoke to sapphire skies.
I shall return to loiter by the streams
That bathe the brown blades of the bending grasses,
And realize once more my thousand dreams
Of waters rushing down the mountain passes.
I shall return to hear the fiddle and fife
Of village dances, dear delicious tunes
That stir the hidden depths of native life,
Stray melodies of dim remembered runes.
I shall return, I shall return again,
To ease my mind of long, long years of pain.
The Spanish Needle
Lovely dainty Spanish needle
With your yellow flower and white,
Dew bedecked and softly sleeping,
Do you think of me to-night?
Shadowed by the spreading mango,
Nodding o'er the rippling stream,
Tell me, dear plant of my childhood,
Do you of the exile dream?
Do you see me by the brook's side
Catching crayfish 'neath the stone,
As you did the day you whispered:
Leave the harmless dears alone?
Do you see me in the meadow
Coming from the woodland spring
With a bamboo on my shoulder
And a pail slung from a string?
Do you see me all expectant
Lying in an orange grove,
While the swee-swees sing above me,
Waiting for my elf-eyed love?
Lovely dainty Spanish needle,
Source to me of sweet delight,
In your far-off sunny southland
Do you dream of me to-night?
With your yellow flower and white,
Dew bedecked and softly sleeping,
Do you think of me to-night?
Shadowed by the spreading mango,
Nodding o'er the rippling stream,
Tell me, dear plant of my childhood,
Do you of the exile dream?
Do you see me by the brook's side
Catching crayfish 'neath the stone,
As you did the day you whispered:
Leave the harmless dears alone?
Do you see me in the meadow
Coming from the woodland spring
With a bamboo on my shoulder
And a pail slung from a string?
Do you see me all expectant
Lying in an orange grove,
While the swee-swees sing above me,
Waiting for my elf-eyed love?
Lovely dainty Spanish needle,
Source to me of sweet delight,
In your far-off sunny southland
Do you dream of me to-night?
11/06/2010
OCM Bocas Prize for Caribbean Literature and the Bocas Lit Fest
Great news about a new Caribbean literature prize and a new Caribbean literary festival. The first ever Bocas Lit Fest takes place April 28 - May 1, 2011 in Port of Spain, Trinidad & Tobago. This is a positive development for Caribbean literature and culture, and this new literary festival now joins the Calabash Festival, held annually in Jamaica, as an additional medium to showcase Caribbean writing.
The new OCM Bocas Prize for Caribbean Literature will be awarded for the first time in April 2011 during the Bocas Lit Fest. Check out more details at the Caribbean Review of Books website
http://caribbeanreviewofbooks.com/2010/11/04/a-prize-of-our-own/comment-page-1/#comment-593
The new OCM Bocas Prize for Caribbean Literature will be awarded for the first time in April 2011 during the Bocas Lit Fest. Check out more details at the Caribbean Review of Books website
http://caribbeanreviewofbooks.com/2010/11/04/a-prize-of-our-own/comment-page-1/#comment-593
11/04/2010
Smashwords
I want to share with you this really great website I discovered called Smashwords. Smashwords promotes self-publishing, especially for the ebook market. Best of all, the service is free! They have been around for a while now (can't believe I just found out about them), and have really great guides for formatting and presenting your work, as well as for promoting your work. When you visit their site, also take time to check out the Smashwords blog.
http://www.smashwords.com/
http://blog.smashwords.com/
So, aspiring writers everywhere (especially aspiring Caribbean poets!), check out Smashwords and tell me what you think.
http://www.smashwords.com/
http://blog.smashwords.com/
So, aspiring writers everywhere (especially aspiring Caribbean poets!), check out Smashwords and tell me what you think.
11/01/2010
Claude McKay
He was central to the Harlem Renaissance. William Churchill quoted his poem, If We Must Die, during World War 2. Although he became an American citizen, many people still believe Claude McKay was American-born.
However, Claude McKay was a Jamaican poet whose works inspired millions. His poems were daring and defiant, yet at the same time, they conveyed a nostalgic yearning for his native Jamaica. Claude McKay was born on September 15, 1890 in Clarendon, Jamaica. He never returned home to the land he loved and wrote so much about in his poems, and died in Chicago in 1948.
I am very pleased to feature Claude McKay as my poet of the month for November, and to share with you perhaps his most famous poem, If We Must Die.
If We Must Die.
If we must die, let it not be like hogs
hunted and penned in an inglorious spot
While round us bark the mad and hungry dogs
making their mock at our accursed lot.
If we must die, O let us nobly die
So that our precious blood may not be shed
in vain; then even the monsters we defy
Shall be constrained to honor us though dead!
O kinsmen! we must meet the common foe!
Though far outnumbered let us show us brave,
And for their thousand blows deal one deathblow!
What though before us lies the open grave?
Like men we'll face the murderous, cowardly pack
Pressed to the wall, dying, but fighting back!
Here are some more details on the life of Claude McKay from the website, Modern American Poetry.
Modern American Poetry http://www.english.illinois.edu/maps/poets/m_r/mckay/life.htm
However, Claude McKay was a Jamaican poet whose works inspired millions. His poems were daring and defiant, yet at the same time, they conveyed a nostalgic yearning for his native Jamaica. Claude McKay was born on September 15, 1890 in Clarendon, Jamaica. He never returned home to the land he loved and wrote so much about in his poems, and died in Chicago in 1948.
I am very pleased to feature Claude McKay as my poet of the month for November, and to share with you perhaps his most famous poem, If We Must Die.
If We Must Die.
If we must die, let it not be like hogs
hunted and penned in an inglorious spot
While round us bark the mad and hungry dogs
making their mock at our accursed lot.
If we must die, O let us nobly die
So that our precious blood may not be shed
in vain; then even the monsters we defy
Shall be constrained to honor us though dead!
O kinsmen! we must meet the common foe!
Though far outnumbered let us show us brave,
And for their thousand blows deal one deathblow!
What though before us lies the open grave?
Like men we'll face the murderous, cowardly pack
Pressed to the wall, dying, but fighting back!
Here are some more details on the life of Claude McKay from the website, Modern American Poetry.
Modern American Poetry http://www.english.illinois.edu/maps/poets/m_r/mckay/life.htm
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