A monthly roundup of news about Caribbean books and writers, presented by the Bocas Lit Fest.
Welcome to the latest installment of the Bocas Book Bulletin, a monthly roundup of Caribbean literary news, curated by the Bocas Lit Fest, Trinidad and Tobago’s annual literary festival, and published in the Sunday Express.
New Releases
Unstitching Silence (Peekash Press), edited by Shivanee Ramlochan and Lucy Evans, gathers short stories and poetry responding to gender-based violence, written by ten Caribbean writers: Christine Barrow, Sara Bastian, Neala Luna Bhagwansingh, kevanté ac cash, Courtney Conrad, Kevin Jared Hosein, karen lee, Caroline Mackenzie, Tanicia Pratt and Dwight Thompson. Ranging from the satirical to the tragic, the historical to the contemporary, the creative writing in Unstitching Silence seeks to destigmatise, reduce shame, and cast much-needed illumination on the prevalence of gender-based violence in our region.
The Delicate Beast (Bellevue Literary Press) by Haitian-born Roger Celestin examines life beneath the shadow of oppression, set in the 1950s in a locale called the “Tropical Republic”, symbolic of Haiti itself. In Celestin’s debut novel, a young male protagonist grows up in the lushness and decadence that his family’s elite status affords him, before the menacing arrival of “the Mortician”. Split between the Tropical Republic and New York, following the central character from boyhood into adult awareness, The Delicate Beast is an existential epic.
Casualties of Truth (Atlantic Monthly Press) by Lauren Francis-Sharma delves deep into the possibilities of reconciliation in the face of both buried secrets and unspeakable violence. Centred on a protagonist who, at first glance, seems embedded in privilege, the novel’s plot takes her on a journey back in time, from Washington, DC, to Johannesburg, South Africa. Every individual in Casualties of Truth is gratifyingly complex, from central character Prudence to Matshediso, the man who comes barrelling back into her life fuelled by a ruthless revenge.
Ibis (The Overlook Press) by Justin Haynes is a melange of superstition, fear, folklore, and tradition, as seen through the eyes of numerous villagers who make New Felicity their home. A debut novel of deep environmental concerns, Ibis explores the unlikely — sometimes even fantastical — occurrences that spring to life when the unexpected and the old-fashioned collide. From sea-brined fishermen to the singular voice of an eleven-year-old Venezuelan refugee girl, Ibis confronts unspoken truths surrounding the rights of the disadvantaged and voiceless, in stirring language.
The Unbearable Taste of Fruit and Wine (Android Press) is the new speculative novella by R.S.A. Garcia, author of adventure-fantasy novel The Nightward. Inspired by elements of Greek mythology, Garcia’s latest publication focuses on Iris, a loyal but wistful conscript to the service of the Archmagus, a mysterious, powerful figure who rescued Iris in her youth. A chance encounter with a thief outside of Iris’s cloistered world reveals an enigmatic, but potentially dizzying new pathway, if she has the fortitude — or temerity — to pursue it.
A House for Miss Pauline (Algonquin Books) by Diana McCaulay presents the indomitable and unforgettable title character of Miss Pauline, a stalwart nonagenarian on the cusp of her hundredth birthday. Foul-mouthed, witty, with a past defined by more stories of resilience than can be counted, Miss Pauline’s life holds a dark secret at its centre: one that could unravel the life she’s built for herself, brick by brick, in Mason Hall, Jamaica. McCaulay’s newest novel gives us a protagonist more memorable and enduring than most.
Peekash Press Launches Four Titles at The Writers Centre
On 15 March at 4.30 pm, The Writers Centre, 14 Alcazar Street, St. Clair, will host a four-book launch, featuring readings and discussions from six Trinidad and Tobago authors. Chapbooks of poetry and prose by Amílcar Peter Sanatan, June Aming, and Rajiv Ramkhalawan will debut. Aming and Sanatan, both 2024 Bocas Breakthrough Fellowship awardees, developed their chapbooks as part of their fellowship experience. Ramkhalawan, a 2022 Bocas Emerging Writer Fellowship recipient, was awarded similar editorial guidance.
Alongside the chapbooks, the new anthology Unstitching Silence: Fiction and Poetry by Caribbean Writers on Gender-Based Violence will be launched, with readings from T&T contributors Kevin Jared Hosein, Caroline Mackenzie, and Neala Luna Bhagwansingh. Unstitching Silence, edited by Shivanee Ramlochan and Lucy Evans, forms part of the multi-tiered project “Representing gender-based violence: literature, performance and activism in the Anglophone Caribbean”, funded by the UK Arts and Humanities Research Council.
All four titles are published by Peekash Press, dedicated to publishing Caribbean writers based at home in the region, administered by the Bocas Lit Fest. Copies of all books will be available for sale. The event is free and open to the public.
Writing Desire Masterclass with Leone Ross
Award-winning novelist and short story writer Leone Ross, author of This One Sky Day/Popisho, Come Let Us Sing Anyway, Orange Laughter, and All the Blood is Red, will lead a three-part virtual Bocas Academy Masterclass on Writing Desire. On 8, 15, and 22 March, Ross will guide participants in honing indispensable skills, subverting clichés, and strengthening their prose in three critical areas: Writing Love, Writing Sex, and Writing Darkness/Taboo. The masterclass is best suited to intermediate-level writers with some publication history, e.g. a writer who has had at least one to three short stories published in online or print magazines and journals. The registration fee for all three sessions is $900.
Participants in the Bocas Academy will also have access to free resource kits, alumni events, and certificates of completion.
For more information and to register, visit www.academy.bocaslitfest.com or email workshops@bocaslitfest.com.
