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Calabash International Literary Festival
The Calabash International Literary Festival is a three-day festival in Jamaica staged on a biennial basis on even years (having been held annually in its first decade)."Info" Calabash. It was founded in 2001 by novelist Colin Channer, poet and producer Justine Henzell; Channer resigned at the end of 2010, saying in his explanation: "The ultimate goal of leadership must never be its own survival, but to become obsolete. I am glad this time has come." In 2014 there was a larger international content including leading literary figures and musicians, and the current incarnation of the festival was described in April 2016 as "an af ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Jamaica
Jamaica (; ) is an island country situated in the Caribbean Sea. Spanning in area, it is the third-largest island of the Greater Antilles and the Caribbean (after Cuba and Hispaniola). Jamaica lies about south of Cuba, and west of Hispaniola (the island containing the countries of Haiti and the Dominican Republic); the British Overseas Territory of the Cayman Islands lies some to the north-west. Originally inhabited by the indigenous TaÃno peoples, the island came under Spanish rule following the arrival of Christopher Columbus in 1494. Many of the indigenous people either were killed or died of diseases, after which the Spanish brought large numbers of African slaves to Jamaica as labourers. The island remained a possession of Spain until 1655, when England (later Great Britain) conquered it, renaming it ''Jamaica''. Under British colonial rule Jamaica became a leading sugar exporter, with a plantation economy dependent on the African slaves and later their des ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Elizabeth Alexander (poet)
Elizabeth Alexander (born May 30, 1962) is an American poet, essayist, playwright, and the president of the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation since 2018. Previously she was a professor for 15 years at Yale University, where she taught poetry and chaired the African American studies department. In 2015, she was appointed director of creativity and free expression at the Ford Foundation. She then joined the faculty of Columbia University in 2016, as the Wun Tsun Tam Mellon Professor in the Humanities in the Department of English and Comparative Literature. Early life Alexander was born in Harlem, New York City, and grew up in Washington, D.C. She is the daughter of former United States Secretary of the Army and Equal Employment Opportunity Commission Chairman Clifford Alexander, Jr. and Adele Logan Alexander, a professor of African-American women's history at George Washington University and writer. Her brother Mark C. Alexander was a senior adviser to the Barack Obama presidential c ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Robert McCrum
John Robert McCrum (born 7 July 1953) is an English writer and editor, holding senior editorial positions at Faber and Faber over seventeen years, followed by a long association with ''The Observer''. Early life The son of Michael William McCrum, a Cambridge educated ancient historian, McCrum was educated at Sherborne School, Corpus Christi College, Cambridge (MA(Cantab)), and the University of Pennsylvania as a Thouron Scholar. Career McCrum was editorial director at Faber & Faber from 1979 to 1989 and editor-in-chief there from 1990 to 1996. He served as literary editor of ''The Observer'' for more than ten years. In May 2008 he was appointed associate editor of ''The Observer''. McCrum is the co-author of ''The Story of English'' with William Cran and Robert MacNeil and wrote ''P. G. Wodehouse: A Life''. McCrum's novel ''Suspicion'' was published in 1997. McCrum received an Honorary Doctorate from Heriot-Watt University in 2011. In August 2017, McCrum's ''Every Thir ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
ARC Magazine
''ARC Magazine'' is an art magazine covering contemporary Caribbean art and culture. It was founded in 2011 as a non-profit print and digital magazine publication with an active web following. ''ARC'' profiles established and emerging artists living in the Caribbean, as well as the Caribbean diaspora. Background "ARC" stands for "Art. Recognition. Culture." The magazine is printed in Iceland by Oddi. The magazine was founded in 2011 by Nadia Huggins and Holly Bynoe, both visual artists from St. Vincent and the Grenadines. Bynoe earned her MFA in Advanced Photographic Studies from Bard College in Annandale-on-Hudson, New York. The magazine has hosted art exhibited and, in 2013 and 2014, partnered with VOLTA NY to host artists discussions and exhibitions. ''ARC Magazine'' has also partnered with the Trinidad and Tobago Film Festival. The magazine began as a quarterly publication with a modest print run of 500 in a large format of 12" H x 9" W. Content Departments in ''ARC Magaz ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Eleanor Catton
Eleanor Catton (born 24 September 1985) is a New Zealand novelist and screenwriter. Born in Canada, Catton moved to New Zealand as a child and grew up in Christchurch. She completed a master's degree in creative writing at the International Institute of Modern Letters. Her award-winning debut novel, '' The Rehearsal'', written as her Master's thesis, was published in 2008, and has been adapted into a 2016 film of the same name. Her second novel, ''The Luminaries'', won the 2013 Booker Prize, making Catton the youngest author ever to win the prize (at age 28) and only the second New Zealander. It was subsequently adapted into a television miniseries, with Catton as screenwriter. Early life Catton was born in Canada, where her father was a graduate student completing his doctorate at the University of Western Ontario on a Commonwealth scholarship. Her mother Judith is a New Zealander from Canterbury, while her father, philosopher Philip Catton, comes from Washington State. Her ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Marlon James (novelist)
Marlon James (born 24 November 1970) is a Jamaican writer. He is the author of five novels: ''John Crow's Devil'' (2005), ''The Book of Night Women'' (2009), ''A Brief History of Seven Killings'' (2014), which won him the 2015 Man Booker Prize, '' Black Leopard, Red Wolf'' (2019), and ''Moon Witch, Spider King'' (2022). Now living in Minneapolis, Minnesota, in the U.S., James teaches literature at Macalester College in St. Paul, Minnesota. He is also a faculty lecturer at St. Francis College's Low Residency MFA in Creative Writing."Master of Fine Arts in Creative Writing" St. Francis College. Early life and education James was born in Kingston, |
Kei Miller
Kei Miller (born 24 October 1978) is a Jamaican poet, fiction writer, essayist and blogger. He is also a professor of creative writing."Profile: Dr Kei Miller" Department of English, Royal Holloway, University of London. Early life and education Kei Miller was born and raised in Kingston, Jamaica. He read English at the University of the West Indies, but dropped out short of graduation.Daviot Kelly[...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Mervyn Morris
Mervyn Eustace Morris OM (born 21 February 1937) is a poet and professor emeritus at the University of the West Indies, Mona, Jamaica. According to educator Ralph Thompson, "In addition to his poetry, which has ranked him among the top West Indian poets, he was one of the first academics to espouse the importance of nation language in helping to define in verse important aspects of Jamaican culture." Biography Mervyn Morris was born in Kingston, Jamaica, and studied at the University College of the West Indies (UWI) and as a Rhodes Scholar at St Edmund Hall, Oxford. In 1970, he began lecturing at UWI, where he went on to be appointed a Reader in West Indian Literature. In 1992 he was a UK Arts Council Visiting Writer-in-Residence at the South Bank Centre. He lives in Kingston, Jamaica, where he is Professor Emeritus of Creative Writing & West Indian Literature. In 2009, Morris was awarded the Jamaican Order of Merit. In 2014, Morris was appointed the Poet Laureate of Jamai ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Tishani Doshi
Tishani Doshi (born 9 December 1975) is an Indian poet, journalist and dancer based in Chennai. In 2006 she won the Forward Prize for her debut poetry book ''Countries of the Body''. Her poetry book ''A God at the Door'' has been shortlisted for the 2021 Forward Prize under best poetry collection category. Early life and education Doshi was born in Madras, India, to a Welsh mother and Gujarati father. She completed a bachelor's degree in the United States, at Queen's College in Charlotte, North Carolina. She graduated with a master's degree in creative writing... from the Johns Hopkins University. Career Doshi works as a freelance writer and journalist. She has worked with choreographer Chandralekha. Her short story "Lady Cassandra, Spartacus and the dancing man" was published in its entirety in the journal ''The Drawbridge'' in 2007. Her poetry collection, ''Everything Begins Elsewhere'', was published by Bloodaxe Books in the UK in 2012 and by Copper Canyon Press in the U ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Chigozie Obioma
Chigozie Obioma (born 1986) is a Nigerian writer. He is best known for writing the novels ''The Fishermen'' (2015) and ''An Orchestra of Minorities'' (2019), both of which were shortlisted for the Booker Prize in their respective years of publication. His work has been translated into more than 25 languages. , Obioma is James E. Ryan Associate Professor of English at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln. Early life and influences Of Igbo descent, Obioma was born in 1986 into a family of 12 children — seven brothers and four sisters – in Akure, in the south-western part of Nigeria, where he grew up speaking Yoruba, Igbo, and English. As a child, he was fascinated by Greek myths and British writers, including Shakespeare, John Milton, and John Bunyan. Among African writers, he developed a strong affinity for Wole Soyinka's ''The Trials of Brother Jero''; Cyprian Ekwensi's ''An African Night's Entertainment''; Camara Laye's ''The African Child''; and D. O. Fagunwa's '' Ògbà ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Linton Kwesi Johnson
Linton Kwesi Johnson (born 24 August 1952), also known as LKJ, is a Jamaica-born, British-based dub poet and activist. In 2002 he became the second living poet, and the only black one, to be published in the Penguin Modern Classics series. His performance poetry involves the recitation of his own verse in Jamaican patois over dub-reggae, usually written in collaboration with reggae producer/artist Dennis Bovell. Early life Johnson was born in Chapelton, a small town in the rural parish of Clarendon, Jamaica. His middle name, "Kwesi", is a Ghanaian name that is given to boys who, like Johnson, are born on a Sunday. In 1963 he and his father came to live in Brixton, London, joining his mother, who had immigrated to Britain as part of the Windrush generation shortly before Jamaican independence in 1962. Johnson attended Tulse Hill School in Lambeth. While still at school he joined the British Black Panther Movement, helped to organise a poetry workshop within the movement, and ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Caryl Phillips
Caryl Phillips (born 13 March 1958) is a Kittitian-British novelist, playwright and essayist. Best known for his novels (for which he has won multiple awards), Phillips is often described as a Black Atlantic writer, since much of his fictional output is defined by its interest in, and searching exploration of, the experiences of peoples of the African diaspora in England, the Caribbean and the United States. As well as writing, Phillips has worked as an academic at numerous institutions including Amherst College, Barnard College, and Yale University, where he has held the position of Professor of English since 2005. Life Caryl Phillips was born in St. Kitts to Malcolm and Lillian Phillips on 13 March 1958. When he was four months old, his family moved to England and settled in Leeds, Yorkshire. In 1976, Phillips won a place at Queen's College, Oxford University, where he read English, graduating in 1979. While at Oxford, he directed numerous plays and spent his summers workin ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
