The Calabash International Literary Festival is a three-day festival in
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 His ...
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
Kwame Dawes
Kwame Senu Neville Dawes (born 28 July 1962) is a Ghanaian poet, actor, editor, critic, musician, and former Louis Frye Scudder Professor of Liberal Arts at the University of South Carolina. He is now Professor of English at the University of N ...
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 affirmation of the steady movement towards an unfolding of a vision of something that began modestly, but full of hope and giddy ambition 15 years ago".
Now acknowledged as "a world-class literary festival", Calabash takes place in the village of Treasure Beach on Jamaica's south coast. Among the international authors who have taken part are
Salman Rushdie
Sir Ahmed Salman Rushdie (; born 19 June 1947) is an Indian-born British-American novelist. His work often combines magic realism with historical fiction and primarily deals with connections, disruptions, and migrations between Eastern and We ...
,
Zadie Smith
Zadie Smith FRSL (born Sadie; 25 October 1975) is an English novelist, essayist, and short-story writer. Her debut novel, ''White Teeth'' (2000), immediately became a best-seller and won a number of awards. She has been a tenured professor ...
,
Jamaica Kincaid
Jamaica Kincaid (; born May 25, 1949) is an Antiguan-American novelist, essayist, gardener, and gardening writer. She was born in St. John's, Antigua (part of the twin-island nation of Antigua and Barbuda). She lives in North Bennington, Vermo ...
,
Colum McCann
Colum McCann is an Irish writer of literary fiction. He was born in Dublin, Ireland, and now lives in New York. He is a Thomas Hunter Writer in Residence at Hunter College, New York.
McCann's work has been published in over 40 languages, and h ...
,
Wole Soyinka
Akinwande Oluwole Babatunde Soyinka (Yoruba: ''Akínwándé Olúwọlé Babátúndé Ṣóyíinká''; born 13 July 1934), known as Wole Soyinka (), is a Nigerian playwright, novelist, poet, and essayist in the English language. He was awarded t ...
Junot Diaz Junot is a French name that may refer to the following notable people:
;Given name
*Junot Díaz (born 1968), Dominican American
;Surname
* Laure Junot, Duchess of Abrantes (1784–1838), French writer
* Jean-Andoche Junot, 1st Duke of Abrantès (17 ...
,
Michael Ondaatje
Philip Michael Ondaatje (; born 12 September 1943) is a Sri Lankan-born Canadian poet, fiction writer, essayist, novelist, editor, and filmmaker. He is the recipient of multiple literary awards such as the Governor General's Award, the Giller P ...
Russell Banks
Russell Banks (born March 28, 1940) is an American writer of fiction and poetry. As a novelist, Banks is best known for his "detailed accounts of domestic strife and the daily struggles of ordinary often-marginalized characters". His stories usua ...
,
Edwidge Danticat
Edwidge Danticat (; born January 19, 1969) is a Haitian-American novelist and short story writer. Her first novel, ''Breath, Eyes, Memory'', was published in 1994 and went on to become an Oprah's Book Club selection. Danticat has since written or ...
,
Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie
Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie ( ; born 15 September 1977) is a Nigerian writer whose works include novels, short stories and nonfiction. She was described in ''The Times Literary Supplement'' as "the most prominent" of a "procession of criticall ...
,
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 ...
,
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 p ...
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 fo ...
,
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 In ...
,
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.Marlon James,
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 In ...
, and many others.
An anthology entitled ''Much Things to Say: 100 Poets from the First Ten Years of the Calabash International Literary Festival'' was published in 2010.
In 2021, the Calabash festival won the Madam C.J. Walker Award from the
Hurston/Wright Foundation
The Zora Neale Hurston/Richard Wright Foundation is an American literary nonprofit organization that supports the development and careers of Black writers. The Foundation provides classes, workshops, an annual conference, and offers the Hurston/Wr ...