10 Ways to Support Caribbean Poets

In my post earlier this month, I shared that November is "Support Caribbean Poets" month (I am not sure if it has been declared by anyone, anywhere and since the focus of this blog is to promote Caribbean poetry and poets, I decided to declare it :)

So, if you like Caribbean poetry, here are 10 ways that you can support Caribbean poets:

• Attend their readings if they are taking place in your city, or a city near you
• Follow their blogs, and offer up a comment or two. Believe me, we really love your feedback!
• Follow them on Facebook or Twitter
• Send them a shout out via their Facebook page or Twitter. I am sure they would love to hear from you. I reached out to poets Ishion Hutchinson and Cherry Nature via Facebook and loved the interaction
• Blog about them and their works
• Reach out to them for interviews on your blog. I was fortunate that poets Easton Lee and Kwame Dawes graciously granted me interviews which I posted on this blog.
• Review their works as objectively as you can on Amazon, Goodreads, Smashwords or Library Thing. I was really pleased to receive three favorable reviews of my first collection, From Cane Field to the Sea, via Amazon and Goodreads. Poets can only grow and write better when readers offer both critique and praise.
• Purchase their works
• Read their works
• Recommend their books to family, friends and colleagues

So, hopefully you will be able to do many or all of these suggestions so that Caribbean poetry can continue to flourish. The Caribbean region is a diverse region in culture, language and literature and there are so many talented poets with acclaimed work.

I would love to hear from you about ways in which you are promoting Caribbean poetry, so please send me your comments.