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>>>BOOK LAUNCHES

Author Kei Miller for UWI, Mona December 21 [pic: kei]

Jamaican author Kei Miller will launch two of his most recently published books, Writing Down the Vision: Essays and Prophecies (2014) and The Cartographer Tries to Map A Way to Zion (2014), at The Philip Sherlock Centre for the Creative Arts (UWI) on Sunday, December 21, 2014 at 11:00 am. The event is hosted by the Centre, in association with the Department of Literatures in English, UWI, Mona.

Earlier this year (2014) Miller won the Bocas Prize for Caribbean Literature in non-fiction for Writing Down The Vision: Essays and Prophecies, and then later in the year he became the first black writer to win Britain’s most prestigious Poetry Prize, the Forward Prize for Best Collection, for The Cartographer Tries to Map A Way to Zion. The latter dramatises conflicting epistemologies, namely the cartographer’s and that of the Rastaman, while the former, by its title alone, challenges the reader to locate the sacred in the secular, and vice versa.

Miller is the recipient of numerous literary awards and fellowships, including the Rhodes Trust, Rex Nettleford Fellowship in Cultural Studies (2013) and the International Writer’s Fellowship (University of Iowa, 2007), and was named one of the Poetry Book Society’s New Generation Poets (2014). He has been an invited guest lecturer at various institutions worldwide; his essays, poetry, and non-fiction writing have been published and anthologised in reputable journals and readers.

The launch is open to the public.

Tanya Shirley’s second poetry collection to be launched in January [pic: tshirley]

Long before her debut collection of verse, She Who Sleeps With Bones, was published in 2009, University of the West Indies lecturer Tanya Shirley had begun to build a reputation in literary circles as being a fearless poet who was emerging as part of a new generation of outstanding female poets in the region.

But she’s so much more. She’s been steadily proving that she’s among the best poets the Caribbean has to offer – male or female – period.

Little surprise to Bookends, then, that during the Fourth Edward Baugh Distinguished Lecture in 2011, guest lecturer Professor Helen Tiffen anointed Shirley as one factoring in that contemporary wave of Caribbean writers who are set to “significantly impact the future”.

Well, the future is now. Shirley, a Cave Canem fellow who received an MFA in Creative Writing from the University of Maryland, has been cultivating a fan base of devotees, not just here on the Rock – at sundry readings and festival stages across the island – but overseas, as well, in respected journals and anthologies, all the while establishing herself as a bold and riveting performer who does not shy away from subjects that are both intensely sensual and spiritual at the same time.

She is fresh off appearing at StAnza, the Scottish Poetry Festival, this past summer, and, more recently, conducting a workshop at the two-day Bocas Lit Fest South in San Fernando last month.

Her recently published second collection, Merchant of Feathers (Peepal Tree Press), is all set for a January 8, 2015 launch at Lecture Theatre 3, Faculty of Medical Sciences, UWI, at 6:00 pm.

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Writer credit: Sharon Leach

Author News:

Jamaican Debut Novelist Makes Literary Awards Longlist [2 pics: adziko, all over again]

Debut novelist A-dZiko Simba Gegele has joined some to the world’s most celebrated novelists on the 2015 International IMPAC Dublin Literary Awards longlist. All Over Again (Blouse and Skirt Books, 2013) is among the list of 142 books from 39 countries that will vie for the world’s most valuable annual literary prize for a single work of fiction published in English.

The International IMPAC Dublin Literary Awards comes with a ¤100,000.00 cash prize. The list originates from nominations made from 114 libraries across the world. All Over Again is among the 29 debut novels on the longlist which also includes 49 titles in translation.

Books contending for the 2015 Award include those who have already won some of the literary world’s top prizes. These include The Narrow Road to the Deep North by Richard Flanagan, winner of the 2014 Man Booker Prize, The Goldfinch by Donna Tartt, winner of the 2014 Pulitzer Prize for Fiction, and The Good Lord Bird by James McBride, winner of the 2013 National Book Award.

Previous winners of the awards includes The Sound of Things Falling by Juan Gabriel Vásquez, translated from Spanish by Anne McLean (2014), City of Bohane by Kevin Barry (2013), Even the Dogs by Jon McGregor (2012) and Let the Great World Spin by Colum McCann (2011).

The longlist was recently announced in Dublin by Lord Mayor of Dublin, Christy Burke, patron of the award, at a ceremony in The Dublin City Library & Archive. The shortlist will be announced April 15, 2015 and the winner June 17, 2015.

Jacqueline Woodson responds to racist joke [pic: woodson]

Author Jacqueline Woodson has addressed Daniel Handler’s (aka “Lemony Snicket”) recent racist joke with an unflinching response in The New York Times.

Handler last month made offhanded comments about Woodson being allergic to watermelon while hosting the National Book Awards. Woodson was accepting an award in the young adult category for her latest book Brown Girl Dreaming.

Amid waves of criticism and backlash over the comments, Handler has since apologised and donated $110,000 to the grassroots organisation We Need Diverse Books while Woodson issued an indirect statement through her publisher.

Woodson’s essay in the Times takes Handler’s comments head on, though.

Titled “The Pain of the Watermelon Joke,” Woodson explores her own background and the evolution of her understanding of the racially charged significance of the watermelon. By the time she was 11 years old, she explains, the fruit had become repulsive to her.

“By making light of that deep and troubled history, he showed that he believed we were at a point where we could laugh about it all. His historical context, unlike my own, came from a place of ignorance,” Woodson writes.

Like her previous statement, Woodson uses the essay to re-frame the situation by focusing on positive change in a time when the lack of diverse voices in literature has become all-too apparent.

Woodson’s mission, she explains, is “to write stories that have been historically absent in this country’s body of literature, to create mirrors for the people who so rarely see themselves inside contemporary fiction, and windows for those who think we are no more than the stereotypes they’re so afraid of.

“To give young people – and all people – a sense of this country’s brilliant and brutal history, so that no one ever thinks they can walk onto a stage one evening and laugh at another’s too often painful past”.

China’s Yan Lianke receives Franz Kafka prize [pic: yan lianke]

PRAGUE (AP) – Yan Lianke, a Chinese author who has seen some of his novels banned in his homeland, has received the prestigious Franz Kafka Prize in the Czech Republic.

Yan said he was grateful as he accepted the annual $10,000 prize at Prague’s City Hall.

Each spring, it’s awarded to authors whose works “appeal to readers regardless of their origin, nationality and culture”.

Past winners have included American novelist Philip Roth, Nobel laureates Elfriede Jelinek of Austria and Harold Pinter of Britain, and Israeli author Amos Oz.

Based in Beijing, Yan fell afoul of authorities there with Dream of Ding Village, about the AIDS crisis caused by HIV-contaminated blood, and To Serve the People, with a character who can be aroused only when his lover smashes images of Chairman Mao.

Toni Morrison’s papers to be housed at Princeton [pic: toni]

The papers of Nobel laureate Toni Morrison are now part of the permanent library collection of Princeton University.

Princeton made the announcement in October, shortly before the 83-year-old Morrison took part in a forum at the school where she served on the faculty for 17 years.

The renowned author’s papers contain about 180 linear feet of research materials documenting her life, work and writing methods. They include manuscripts, drafts and proofs of many of Morrison’s novels. Materials for her children’s literature, lyrics, lectures, correspondence and more are also part of the collection.

Additional manuscripts and papers will be added over time, beginning with the manuscript of Morrison’s next novel, which is expected to be published in the spring.

Morrison, who won the Pulitzer Prize for her novel Beloved in 1988, came to Princeton in 1989 and was a member of the university’s creative writing programme until she retired in 2006. In 1994, she founded the Princeton Atelier, bringing together undergraduate students in interdisciplinary collaborations with acclaimed artists and performers.

“Toni Morrison’s place among the giants of American literature is firmly entrenched, and I am overjoyed that we are adding her papers to the Princeton University Library’s collections,” Princeton President Christopher Eisgruber said. “We at Princeton are fortunate that (Morrison) brought her brilliant talents as a writer and teacher to our campus 25 years ago, and we are deeply honoured to house her papers and to help preserve her inspiring legacy.”

Morrison received an honorary doctorate during the school’s 2013 commencement.

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Book Event:

Sir Shridath’s ‘Glimpses’ Launched in Jamaica [6 pics: DSC 1621, 1716, 1891, 1909, 1732, 1744]

Following launches in the United Kingdom, the United States, Canada, Guyana and Trinidad, Sir Shridath ‘Sonny’ Ramphal, Chancellor Emeritus and former secretary general of the Commonwealth of Nations, on Wednesday, December 3, 2014 launched Glimpses of A Global Life, his recently published autobiography/memoir, at the Regional Headquarters of the University of the West Indies.

Despite late-afternoon showers that promoted traffic gridlock, the event began punctually and was fairly well-attended by representatives of the government, university, and the diplomatic corps, among other distinguished guests.

Vice-Chancellor of the University of the West Indies E Nigel Harris, in his welcome and opening remarks, described the book as “spellbinding” and “an extraordinary story of an extraordinary man living in extraordinary times.”

Keynote speaker for the evening was former Prime Minister, the Honourable PJ Patterson, who expressed his belief that the book will serve “those who wish to fully understand the bewildering pace and extensive scope, within the modern era, of political, economic and social changes in a single but inter-connected world”.

In this memoir, Ramphal, Commonwealth of Nations’ longest serving secretary-general, tells the story of that organisation’s role in ending the Unilateral Declaration of Independence of Southern Rhodesia by a minority white regime and bringing Zimbabwe to independence; of aiding the struggle against apartheid and securing its end, and the release of Nelson Mandela and South Africa’s freedom; of the obduracy of Britain’s Margaret Thatcher against sanctions and the heroic stand against her by other Commonwealth leaders – from Africa, India, the Caribbean, Canada and Australia. Ramphal replaces conjecture over these dark episodes in human history with fact.

In these ‘glimpses’, the shadows of characters such as Uganda’s tyrant, Idi Amin, are recalled, as are the enlightened spirits of others like Germany’s Willy Brandt and Nelson Mandela – all of whom Ramphal encountered in his global life.

The audience listened attentively to Former Prime Minister Patterson’s address, entitled “Vreed-En Hoop to Carlton Gardens, which lauded the book as a “fine work of scholarship and literary art which we shall treasure for generations to come”.

He added, “As will clearly become evident, ‘Glimpses’ provides more than a fleeting chronicle or purely personal recollection of significant issues and memorable events,” Patterson said. “It is as much about a range of significant milestones that marked the journey of people in the Caribbean, the Commonwealth and the developing world as it pinpoints the current challenges we face and those we can discern for the years ahead.

“The global narrative is told from a Caribbean focus and the perspectives of one who views the stage of our single universe through the lens of a far-sighted apostle for the Third World.”

The former prime minister also used the occasion to address concerns about Caricom and the fractured state of the Caribbean. “…anyone who cares about the region must be concerned,” he remarked.

“We cannot even agree to a Final Court of our own making, despite having already paid for the CCJ in full and the whole world has expressed its confidence in our judiciary by appointing for the second time to the International Court of Justice a distinguished jurist – Hon Patrick Robinson.

“Because one of the unifying forces, even in colonial times, is in mortal peril – cricket.

“Because we no longer speak with one clear and strong voice, in the international arena, in the Non-Aligned, in the Commonwealth, in the OAS. It appears, at times, muted, confused, dissonant.

“I believe that the launch of this book, exquisitely written by our Chancellor Emeritus, here at the Regional Headquarters of the University of the West Indies, is a summons for us all – Oriens Ex Occidente Lux.”

Glimpses of a Global Life by Shridath Ramphal

PICS:

DSC 1621 [books displayed prominently]

DSC 1744 Vice-Chancellor E Nigel Harris, former PM PJ Patterson and Sir Shridath share a light moment after the launch.

DSC 1732 Nicole Bryan, director, tech services at the National Library of Jamaica, receives a copy of the book for the library from Sir Shridath.

DSC 1761 Minister of Education Ronald Thwaites thumbs through his copy of Glimpses of a Global Life.

DSC 1891 Hotel magnate Peter Rousseau (right) waits for Sir Shridath to sign his book, while Vice-Chancellor Harris participates in the moment.

DSC 1909 Minna Israel (left), special advisor to the vice-chancellor, and Professor Yvette Jackson, pro-vice-chancellor, graduate studies at UWI, came out for the event.

(PHOTOS: GARFIELD ROBINSON)

PAGE FOUR:

Bookends serial:

The Wife [pic: wife]

6

Lucia continued to stay home from school, days after Cleo Beckford was stabbed.

Then came news we’d all been waiting for: Cleo was going to pull through. Her injuries had been grave: she’d undergone a life-saving operation to stem the internal bleeding and the doctors had to resection her bowel, which had been perforated in the stabbing. During the eight days it took for her to recover, the doctors had been reluctant about giving a positive prognosis. But then, after ten days, they were convinced she’d be fully recovered. “Thank God,” I said, weeping over the phone with Mrs Beckford, who’d aged about 10 years since the whole ordeal.

I started to watch Lucia like a hawk, then. Those days, I had a constant knot of fear in the pit of my stomach. I was a mother coming to terms with the realities of an ever-increasingly evil world I was unable to protect my children from. Evan was still my baby but, even at his age, he was not immune to the slings and arrows of the devil. And then there was Lucia, who may have even already fallen prey to bad influences. I forced her to go to church with us twice on Sundays and to the Friday evening youth socials. Normally, we let the children attend only Sunday morning service and Bible study. During exam time, we excused them from attending any at all. But these were extraordinary circumstances, I felt. I also resumed daily morning devotions with both children. I could not leave the house without saying a prayer of protection for the children.

My sister Maxine thought I was being paranoid. Apparently Lucia had called her aunt to complain that I was “forcing the Jesus crap down her throat” and begged her to talk some sense into me. “So, what’s the plan,” Maxine sneered. “You just going to pest the Lord into keeping the kids safe? I hate to break it to you: God doesn’t care about us insignificant mortals.”

I ignored her. She was just allowing the devil to speak through her. Besides, she didn’t understand what it meant to be a mother. (She’d gotten pregnant once, in her early twenties, I suppose, but had terminated the pregnancy. I did not remind her of this; she didn’t speak of it anymore and would have felt I was throwing what I considered to be her failure in her face.) Anyway, she didn’t understand the constant worry that something bad would happen to your child, the way this horrible thing, this nightmare, had suddenly come to Cleo Beckford’s mother. She’d been lucky, though; things could have turned out differently. Who was to say what my Waterloo would be, with Lucia? I was worried about her; I had the right to be. I was worried she wouldn’t go back to school, even though her teachers dutifully sent her assignments to her so she wouldn’t fall too badly behind. I even called a child psychologist I was referred to by the guidance counselor at her school, who tried to explain that she was deeply traumatised and that her means of coping with such a horror was withdrawal.

I understood, of course, about trauma and withdrawal. But there was something more. “But she refuses to let me take her to see you,” I complained to the psychiatrist, who had many years of experience working with children. I thought Lucia was masking some deeper problem. She’d become even more anti-social than usual, and, it seemed to me, she was once again started to gain weight. Her skin broke out, the way it did when she gorged on chocolate bars. Besides which, her hatred for me seemed to have blossomed.

Yanique, the girl who came in and washed and cleaned for us two days a week, reported that Lucia had a male visitor in the evenings. “Just the evenings, though, Miss Margaret. Just little before you come home,” she clarified.

It was the same boy, Sophie’s boyfriend, I discovered. The boy over whom Sophie had stabbed Cleo, when she’d suspected a romantic entanglement between them. His name was DJ. Double Jeopardy.

I secretly monitored Lucia’s e-mail and text messages. I eavesdropped on her landline phone calls. Once I heard her describe what Cleo’s body looked like, as she lay there bleeding in the schoolyard. She was talking to Double Jeopardy.

“So Cleo didn’t die,” he said. His voice was low, seductive.

“Blood was just pumping out of the cut,” she said. “Just squirting out.” Her voice was expressionless, and that worried me.

“She was going in and out of consciousness,” Lucia went on dispassionately, as though she were a reporter reading some random news report about a beach outing.

“Lucia,” he said softly. “You’re making me hard…”

I hung up the phone at this point; I didn’t want to hear any more.

That night, I told Robert what I’d overheard. He’d just come home from a prayer meeting. I was reading my Bible in bed.

“So what you want me to do?” he asked, sighing and sitting on the edge of the bed.

“What you mean, ‘What I want you to do?’ I want you to talk to her,” I said, enraged. “Be a father. For a change.”

“What the hell is that supposed to mean?”

“It means that I’m tired of being alone in this marriage!”

Our voices had become raised. Robert got up and closed the door. “Alone in this marriage?” he said dropping his voice to a dramatic whisper.

“Yes, Robert. I’m alone. A-L-O-N-E. I’m raising our children as though I’m a widow. I’m not getting any help from you! And, while we’re at it, what am I supposed to think when my own husband stops having sex with me?”

The blood had drained away from his face. He stood facing me now, shaking. After a beat he started moving closer. He leaned menacingly in toward me. He was so close, I could feel his breath, warm and slightly stale, against my skin. My heart raced. I thought he was going to strike me, or choke me, although he’d never been violent, all the time we’d been married. Then, abruptly, he grabbed his pillow from beside me on the bed, spun around and marched to the door.

“That’s right!” I shouted after him. “Go spend the night in your blinking study. I hope what you have waiting in there makes you believe you’re a man, because I sure as hell don’t!”

TO BE CONTINUED…