Robert Antoni (born 1958) is a

West Indian A West Indian is a native or inhabitant of the West Indies (the Antilles and the Lucayan Archipelago). For more than 100 years the words ''West Indian'' specifically described natives of the West Indies, but by 1661 Europeans had begun to use it ...

writer who was awarded the 1999

Aga Khan Prize for Fiction The Aga Khan Prize for Fiction was awarded by the editors of '' The Paris Review'' for what they deem to be the best short story published in the magazine in a given year. The last prize was given in 2004. No applications were accepted. The winner ...

by ''

The Paris Review ''The Paris Review'' is a quarterly English-language literary magazine established in Paris in 1953 by Harold L. Humes, Peter Matthiessen, and George Plimpton. In its first five years, ''The Paris Review'' published works by Jack Kerouac, Phi ...

'' for ''My Grandmother's Tale of How Crab-o Lost His Head''. He is a Guggenheim Fellow for 2010 for his work on the historical novel ''As Flies to Whatless Boys''.

Early life

Robert Antoni was born in the United States of

Trinidadian Trinidadians and Tobagonians, colloquially known as Trinis or Trinbagonians, are the people who are identified with the country of Trinidad and Tobago. The country is home to people of many different national, ethnic and religious origins. As a ...

parents and grew up largely in the

Bahamas The Bahamas (), officially the Commonwealth of The Bahamas, is an island country within the Lucayan Archipelago of the West Indies in the North Atlantic. It takes up 97% of the Lucayan Archipelago's land area and is home to 88% of the a ...

, where his father practised medicine. He says his "fictional world" is "Corpus Christi", the invented island (based on Trinidad) that he introduced in his first

novel A novel is a relatively long work of narrative fiction, typically written in prose and published as a book. The present English word for a long work of prose fiction derives from the for "new", "news", or "short story of something new", itself ...

, ''Divina Trace'' (1991). Antoni studied at

Duke University Duke University is a private research university in Durham, North Carolina. Founded by Methodists and Quakers in the present-day city of Trinity in 1838, the school moved to Durham in 1892. In 1924, tobacco and electric power industrialist Jam ...

and in the

creative writing Creative writing is any writing that goes outside the bounds of normal professional, journalistic, academic, or technical forms of literature, typically identified by an emphasis on narrative craft, character development, and the use of literary ...

programme at

Johns Hopkins University Johns Hopkins University (Johns Hopkins, Hopkins, or JHU) is a private research university in Baltimore, Maryland. Founded in 1876, Johns Hopkins is the oldest research university in the United States and in the western hemisphere. It consi ...

, before joining the

Iowa Writers' Workshop The Iowa Writers' Workshop, at the University of Iowa, is a celebrated graduate-level creative writing program in the United States. The writer Lan Samantha Chang is its director. Graduates earn a Master of Fine Arts (MFA) degree in Creative ...

at the

University of Iowa The University of Iowa (UI, U of I, UIowa, or simply Iowa) is a public research university in Iowa City, Iowa, United States. Founded in 1847, it is the oldest and largest university in the state. The University of Iowa is organized into 12 co ...

,Lamech Johnson, "Lecturer Launches Writing Workshop"
Tribune 242, 16 April 2014. where he began working on ''Divina Trace''. He has said that he spent a total of ten years completing the novel, which won the

Commonwealth Writers' Prize Commonwealth Foundation presented a number of prizes between 1987 and 2011. The main award was called the Commonwealth Writers' Prize and was composed of two prizes: the Best Book Prize (overall and regional) was awarded from 1987 to 2011; the Best ...

for best first novel in 1992.

Career

Antoni lived for a time in

Barcelona Barcelona ( , , ) is a city on the coast of northeastern Spain. It is the capital and largest city of the autonomous community of Catalonia, as well as the second most populous municipality of Spain. With a population of 1.6 million within c ...

and taught at the

University of Miami The University of Miami (UM, UMiami, Miami, U of M, and The U) is a private research university in Coral Gables, Florida. , the university enrolled 19,096 students in 12 colleges and schools across nearly 350 academic majors and programs, i ...

from 1992 to 2001. In 2004, he began teaching at

Barnard College Barnard College of Columbia University is a private women's liberal arts college in the borough of Manhattan in New York City. It was founded in 1889 by a group of women led by young student activist Annie Nathan Meyer, who petitioned Columbia ...

Columbia University Columbia University (also known as Columbia, and officially as Columbia University in the City of New York) is a private research university in New York City. Established in 1754 as King's College on the grounds of Trinity Church in Manhatt ...

and

The New School The New School is a private research university in New York City. It was founded in 1919 as The New School for Social Research with an original mission dedicated to academic freedom and intellectual inquiry and a home for progressive thinkers. ...

. In 2010, he was a

Guggenheim Fellow Guggenheim Fellowships are grants that have been awarded annually since by the John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation to those "who have demonstrated exceptional capacity for productive scholarship or exceptional creative ability in the ar ...

.John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation.
/ref> His novel ''As Flies to Whatless Boys'' was the overall winner of the 2014 OCM Bocas Prize for Caribbean Literature. At the award ceremony on 26 April, Antoni pledged to share the US$10,000 prize money with the other finalists, Lorna Goodison (winner of the poetry category for ''Oracabessa'') and Kei Miller (winner of the literary non-fiction category for ''Writing Down the Vision: Essays and Prophecies''). Kei Miller and Antoni were both features presenters at the 2018

Key West Literary Seminar The Key West Literary Seminar is a writers' conference and festival held each January in Key West, Florida. It draws an international audience for readings, panel discussions, and workshops. History The Seminar was founded in 1983 by David Kaufel ...

: Writers of the Caribbean. Antoni currently resides in

New York City New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the List of United States cities by population, most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the L ...

where he teaches Literature at The New School for Public Engagement.

Awards and honours

*1992 Commonwealth Writers' Prize: Best First Book, ''

Divina Trace ''Divina Trace'' (1991) is an experimental novel by Robert Antoni, and the winner of the 1992 Commonwealth Writers Prize for best first novel. It tells the story of the fictional island-nation of Corpus Christi coming into its own identity. The ...

'' *1999

, ''My Grandmother's Tale of How Crab-o Lost His Head'' *2010

for his work on the historical novel ''As Flies to Whatless Boys'' *2014 OCM Bocas Prize for Caribbean Literature (Fiction and overall winner), ''As Flies to Whatless Boys''

Bibliography

Novels

*''

'', Robin Clark, 1991, *''

Blessed Is the Fruit ''Blessed Is the Fruit'' is a novel by Robert Antoni. Published in 1997 by Henry Holt, it explores the fluid boundaries of race in the Caribbean The Caribbean (, ) ( es, El Caribe; french: la Caraïbe; ht, Karayib; nl, De Caraïben) is a r ...

'', Henry Holt and Co., 1997, *''

My Grandmother's Erotic Folktales My or MY may refer to: Arts and entertainment * My (radio station), a Malaysian radio station * Little My, a fictional character in the Moomins universe * ''My'' (album), by Edyta Górniak * ''My'' (EP), by Cho Mi-yeon Business * Marke ...

'', 2000; Grove Press, 2002, *''

Carnival Carnival is a Catholic Christian festive season that occurs before the liturgical season of Lent. The main events typically occur during February or early March, during the period historically known as Shrovetide (or Pre-Lent). Carnival t ...

'', Black Cat, 2005, *

Nonfiction

*1998 "Another Day Under the Black Volcano" in ''

Outside Magazine ''Outside'' is an American company and magazine focused on the outdoors. The first issue of ''Outside'' was published in September 1977. History Outside founders were Jann Wenner (the first editor in chief), William Randolph Hearst III (its first ...

'' *1999 "Blackbeard Doesn't Come Here Anymore" in ''Outside Magazine'' *2001 "Party in the Islands" in ''Ocean Drive Magazine''

Anthologies

*Robert Antoni, Bradford Morrow (eds), ''The Archipelago: New writing from and about the Caribbean'', Bard College, 1996,

Notes

References

*Gifford, Sheryl. “(Re)Making Men, Representing the Caribbean Nation: Individuation in the Works of Fred D’Aguiar, Robert Antoni, and Marlon James.” Diss. Florida Atlantic U, 2013. *. *Patteson, Richard Francis. ''The Fiction of Robert Antoni: Writing in the Estuary'', University of the West Indies Press, 2010,

External links

Official website

"Robert Antoni by Lawrence Scott" (interview)
''BOMB'' 91, Spring 2005. {{DEFAULTSORT:Antoni, Robert 1958 births Living people Trinidad and Tobago novelists Duke University alumni Iowa Writers' Workshop alumni The New School faculty Barnard College faculty Trinidad and Tobago male writers 20th-century male writers 21st-century male writers