News Releases

Shani Mootoo to read at UWI Campus Literature Week 2011

For Release Upon Receipt - March 15, 2011

St. Augustine


Shani Mootoo, poet, novelist, short-story writer and film-maker, will perform at the Gala Reading of Campus Literature Week 2011, hosted by the Department of Liberal Arts, The University of the West Indies (UWI).

The Gala Reading, which will take place on Friday 18th March at 7 pm at the Centre for Language Learning Auditorium, UWI St. Augustine, is the culmination of the Campus Literature Week which runs from March 14th-18th, 2011.

Shani Mootoo was born in Dublin, Ireland of Trinidadian parents. She is an internationally acclaimed writer, artist, and experimental filmmaker. Her written works include a collection of short stories (Out on Main Street), a book of poetry (The Predicament of Or), and the novels Cereus Blooms at Night, which was shortlisted for the Scotiabank Giller prize and the Chapter's First Novel award, and long listed for the Man Booker prize; He Drown She in the Sea, long listed for the Dublin IMPAC award, and Valmiki's Daughter, long listed for the Scotiabank Giller prize. The highlights of her filmmaking and visual arts career include a solo screening at New York City's Museum of Modern Art and exhibition in the Transculture show at the Venice Biennial.

Mootoo has held the position of Writer in Residence at the University of Guelph and at the University of Alberta, and currently at the St. Augustine campus of The University of the West Indies. Her novels have been translated into fourteen languages and regularly appear on course syllabi at universities around the world. Mootoo is using the Writer in Residence position at The University of the West Indies to complete a novel. She currently resides in Canada.

During the week, there will also be a series of daily Lunchtime Readings from noon to 1.30 pm, in the Audio Visual Room of The Alma Jordan Library (formerly The Main Library). All readings are free of charge and open to the public.

Schedule of Lunchtime Readings:

 

Monday 14th March

Andre Bagoo, Jennifer Rahim and John Hagley

Tuesday 15th March

Danielle Boodoo-Fortune, Laura Ortiz-Garrett, Leshanta Roop and

Merle Hodge

Wednesday 16th March

Barbara Jenkins, Ishmael Ho, Barbara Lalla and Vladimir Lucien

Thursday 17th March

Sharon Syriac, Alake Pilgrim, Willi Chen, Dionyse Mc Tair

Friday 18th March

Sharon Millar, Amilcar Sanatan, Michael Anthony, Innette Cambridge

 

For more information, please contact Dr Giselle Rampaul at Giselle.Rampaul@sta.uwi.edu or (868) 662 2002 Ext. 3025, or Dr Geraldine Skeete at Geraldine.Skeete@sta.uwi.edu or 662 2002 Ext. 3029. For the latest UWI News, click http://sta.uwi.edu/news.

 

About The Annual Gala Reading

This annual event, instituted in 1999 by Prof Funso Aiyejina, has provided a forum for writers in the UWI Masters in Fine Art (MFA) programme to showcase their work. The MFA Programme hosts a Writer-in-Residence, who gives public readings, talks about his/her writing and about literature with UWI students. The Department has hosted several esteemed writers including Earl Lovelace (1999, 2005, 2008), Olive Senior (2000, 2003), Jan Carew (2001), Austin Clarke (2002), Lawrence Scott (2004), Erna Brodber (2006), John Stewart (2007), Rachel Manley (2009), and M. NourbeSe Philip (2010).

 

For the latest UWI News, click http://sta.uwi.edu/news.

 

About UWI

Over the last six decades, The University of the West Indies (UWI) has evolved from a fledgling college in Jamaica with 33 students to a full-fledged University with over 40,000 students. Today, UWI is the largest and most longstanding higher education provider in the English-speaking Caribbean, with main campuses in Barbados, Jamaica and Trinidad and Tobago, and Centres in Anguilla, Antigua & Barbuda, The Bahamas, Belize, British Virgin Islands, Cayman Islands, Dominica, Grenada, Montserrat, St Christopher (St Kitts) & Nevis, St Lucia, and St Vincent & the Grenadines. UWI recently launched its Open Campus, a virtual campus with over 50 physical site locations across the region, serving over 20 countries in the English-speaking Caribbean. UWI is an international university with faculty and students from over 40 countries and collaborative links with over 60 universities around the world. Through its seven Faculties, UWI offers undergraduate and postgraduate degree options in Engineering, Humanities & Education, Law, Medical Sciences, Pure & Applied Sciences, Science and Agriculture, and Social Sciences.

 

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