Acclaimed writer Shani Mootoo will read from and discuss her latest collection of poetry, Oh Witness Dey! (Book*hug Press) at The Writers Centre, 14 Alcazar Street, St. Clair on Tuesday 24 June, 5.30 pm.
Mootoo, born in Dublin to Trinidadian parents, raised in Trinidad, and based in Canada, has earned international acclaim for her body of literary work, which includes her groundbreaking first novel, Cereus Blooms at Night, published in fourteen countries.
On Tuesday 24 June, Mootoo will read poems from Oh Witness Dey!, which has been shortlisted for the 2025 Pat Lowther Memorial Award and named a finalist for the 2024 Big Other Book Award for Poetry.
This verse writing is not only personal; it is deeply rooted in home, Mootoo affirmed, saying, “The poetry, the ideas, the song of Oh Witness Dey! could only have come out of my enduring passion for Trinidad and Tobago. It is, therefore, an immense privilege to read from it to its perfect audience at The Writers Centre.” Mootoo’s reading and discussion will be moderated by host Angelique V. Nixon, Bahamian writer, scholar, and activist who has lived and worked in Trinidad and Tobago for over 10 years.
Attendees who are less familiar with Mootoo’s poetry will find ample evidence of her storytelling strengths in Oh Witness Dey!, which addresses Indo-Trinidadian indentureship and its legacies through memory, lyrical narrative, and folk traditions. Mootoo emphasized the particular creative powers that poetry conveys, saying, “As a storyteller, my poems, too, tell stories. But sometimes, the very details that delight in the long-form story, can encumber the single most important note within. That note, in a word, or a sentence, is given total attention, allowed resonance, when it stands alone, as in a poem, and yet it can speak a novel’s worth of meaning. The remarkable, that is, the worth-remarking, is often radical and is, therefore, the vital essence of poetry for me.”
Copies of Oh Witness Dey! as well as select other books by Mootoo will be available for purchase from Paper Based Bookshop on the day of the event. The Writers Centre’s on-site café, Sleepy Cat Cafe, will be open with a range of hot and cold beverages as well as pastries and snacks for purchase. Guests are encouraged to bring their pre-owned copies of Mootoo’s previously published works to be autographed.
The event is free and open to the public. All are invited.
The Writers Centre, 14 Alcazar Street, St. Clair, is the home of the Bocas Lit Fest, Paper Based Bookshop, and the Sleepy Cat Cafe.
