Out this August, the University of the Virgin Islands announces the release of Volume 29 in their anticipated series, The Caribbean Writer-Where the Caribbean Imagination Embraces the World.
“Each poem, story, essay, and book review is a new emerging or established Caribbean voice in conversations generated by our 2015 theme, “Ambiguities and Contradictions in the Caribbean Space.” You will experience the effects of migration, the contradictions in race, class, gender relations, the ambiguities in nationality constructs, the power of religion, the nature of spirituality and the grip of the supernatural, the many permutations of love and relationships, and parenting amid the subtleties of childhood sensibilities–all set in the context of our diversity. New possibilities and new meanings about our similar and different hopes for the future rise out of the fellowship evident in these conversations,” states a recent news release.
The stunning cover art, entitled “Mysteries and Contradictions,” is the work of Antiguan artist, Edison Liburd. Volume 29 also features the works of Virgin Islands artists Elisa Mckay, Lucien Downes, Daryl Wooford and Madeline Meehan. Other artists include Jamaican artist Bernard Hoyes, Els Tjong Joe Wai from Surinam, and the works of Alison Wells and Darin Gibson from Trinidad.
This volume of The Caribbean Writer is edited by Alscess Lewis-Brown, the author of several books for young people including, the Moko Jumbi Majorette series, Efa and the Mosquito and Footsteps to the Sunrise. She has served on the University’s Adjunct Faculty since 1990, teaching courses in writing and the humanities.
“I am honored and delighted to edit this volume,” Lewis-Brown said, reflecting on the approximately 500 submissions that were reviewed in order to select the pieces for final publication. She thanked the Journal’s Editorial Board, UVI faculty members Patricia Harkins-Pierre, Vincent Cooper, Edgar O. Lake, local poet and novelist and UVI Professor, and David Gould, who participated actively in the paring down process and who contributed greatly to this keepsake publication.
“We are pleased that this volume has drawn such an array of visual art and literature from across the Caribbean diaspora. Works have been submitted from countries in South America, up the Caribbean archipelago to the Bahamas, across the United States and as far away as Japan, Africa, Great Britain and Spain-literally everywhere the Caribbean experience is being lived or where Caribbean people and their descendants are living.” Brown added.
The Volume features interviews with awarding winning Virgin Islands author, Tiphanie Yanique, and internationally renowned, Jamaica Kincaid. It also offers a special tribute to three award-winning, giant Caribbean writers who have given a lifetime of service to literature. Celebrating their 85th year are Nobel Laureate Derek Walcott and Edward Kamau Brathwaite, winner of the 2015 Frost Award. Earl Lovelace turned 80 on July 13. The works of these octogenarians continue to inspire writers within the region and its diaspora.
Some writers you have seen before and some are new to this volume. Established writers include award-winning poet Kamau Brathwaite, Joanne C. Hillhouse, Tammi Browne-Bannister, Breanne McIvor, Ernestia Fraser, Lelawattee Rahming, and Dwight Thompson. Writers from St. Croix are Bibi Donaie, Daisy Lafond, D’Yanirah Santiago and Lori Watts Hirons. Writers from St. Thomas are Susan Hunter, Ashley Ruth Bernier and Tamika Gibson. Writing out of Tortola is award-winning poet, Richard Georges. Book reviewers include David Gould, Susan Wanlass, Gabrielle DiLorenze, Linda Rodriguez Guelielmoni, Mary Jo Wilder, Cyril Dabydeen, Mary Jo Coaplen, Elaine Savory, Valerie Knowles Combie, Patricia Harkins-Pierre, and Vincent Cooper.
“We are pleased to continue in the tradition of excellence which both the University and The Caribbean Writer represent with this new volume of the journal,” said UVI President David Hall. “It is this spirit of excellence that has ensured the success and vitality of the journal for so many years.”
The Caribbean Writer
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