SUNDAY 14 MAY, 2017 – UWI TODAY
17
LITERATURE MATTERS
there needs to be more reading done. People are reading
Caribbean literature, but there’s a whole other literature that
has not been had. It’s a problem in England as well.
Do you want to elaborate?
There are so many writers outside of the Caribbean that
should be read, Sarah Hall, Rupert Thompson, Edward P.
Jones, Colson Whitehead. I’m really keen on getting writers
of colour to read other writers of colour from all over the
diaspora and making a concerted effort to read these guys as
a matter of importance for your own craft.
We’re taught to privilege the traditional English canon
and Shakespearean canon, but let’s look at what we did
and what we’re doing. Shakespeare is relevant to me as a
kind of faraway anchor, but he’s not really relevant to what
I’m writing. But I believe there are people out here who
have that level of intelligence and wordplay in their use of
language; they’re alive! Just support that.
What kinds of issues or themes have you
seen the MFA students grapple with?
What it means to be a Trinidadian now and the
complexity of that. Which is not to say they are focused
in a kind of a “who am I?” kind of identity, they’re more
focused on “this is me” which is very different. This is my
makeup, what I love. The writing I’ve been encountering
is very celebratory. It needs to be nurtured and not taken
for granted, going to a positive rather than a negative.
Whereas in England, because the focus has been so much
on narratives that are about identity and ability like we
don’t know who we are, are we Caribbean, British, Nigerian,
whatever; that’s led to people thinking that’s the way you
articulate our culture and I find that strange, because I don’t
feel that.
What advice would you have for your
younger self as a writer?
Don’t use as many adverbs. (laughs). Just enjoy the
process. When I was first published I was very lucky. I was
published at 23 then I published another four books, but I
was unhappy, I didn’t know who I was. I think I shouldn’t
have been so afraid about losing myself because of that
juxtaposition between where I was going and where I was
coming from. I think I would have an easier time if I had
just gone with it.
Do you think it’s possible
to be a full-time writer?
I’ve been writing for 20 years as a full-time writer. It’s
possible, I’ve done it. Have a safety net. Parents could be
more encouraging about what nurtures people’s soul versus
what nurtures their pockets, and if they can do that, they’d
be much more likely to have happy kids.
What’s next for you?
Working on a collection of science fiction and short
stories called “Cosmogramma” (title of the third album by
the band Flying Lotus). It’s about African diaspora tales of
speculative fiction, mainly British-based but some set in
Barbados.
In hushed tones,
a motley crew of students, lecturers
and literary enthusiasts gathered in the Centre for
Language Learning (CLL) Auditorium on April 7 for
the 19th annual
Campus LiteratureWeek Gala
Reading
and Closing Ceremony under the theme,
Create Life.
Write.
As is customary, first-year students from the
MFA in Creative Writing programme managed the
evening’s festivities with Rakhee Kissoon and June
Aming serving as Masters of Ceremonies. Head of the
Department of Literary, Cultural and Communication
Studies Dr. Maarit Forde emphasised the two distinct
phases in the process of writing – solitary and social
and the need for events like the gala that allow writers
to “immerse themselves in the worlds they create.”
New MFA programme coordinator, Dr. Muli
Amaye requested a moment of silence to reflect on
the loss of one of their own, Dr. Giselle Rampaul – an
instrumental figure in shaping Campus Literature
Week well beyond its humble beginnings. Amaye
paid tribute to Rampaul, Sir Derek Walcott and other
literary figures who passed away in 2017 by reciting
one of her own poems, “A Gift” that showed the
capacity to love. As a teaser to the night’s featured
reading by Writer-in-Residence, Courttia Newland,
the Department of Creative and Festival Arts’ (DCFA)
activism and educational-based dramatic ensemble,
Arts-in-Action (AiA) performed their interpretation
of stories taken from an anthology featuring Newland’s
work and other male writers –
Being Dad: Short Stories
About Fatherhood
reimagined as “Faddacity” much to
everyone’s delight.
MFA Students at the Gala, from left: Rakhee Kissoon, Randy
Ablack, June Aming, and Rebecca Care with the Department’s
Senior Administrative Assistant, Adeltrude Bain.
The UWI now owns the Anne Walmsley Collection.
Dr. Anne Walmsley is renowned for her research and
writing on Caribbean arts and her work in publishing
Caribbean writers through Longman’s Press. For
her outstanding contribution in this field, she was
conferred with an Honorary Doctorate, D Litt. by The
UWI at the Mona Campus in 2009.
The citation for this award records her
contribution to the Caribbean Artists Movement:
“Dr. Anne Walmsley has long crossed over from
being a distant enthusiast or detached observer of
the still flowering Caribbean literary and artistic
tradition: rather we can comfortably recognize her as
an integral and active component of the Caribbean
Artists Movement.”
In 2012 Dr. Walmsley met with librarians at
the Alma Jordan library after participating in the
Bocas Literary Festival, where her latest book,
Art in
the Caribbean: an Introduction (New Beacon 2010)
,
co-authored with Stanley Greaves, was discussed.
They established a relationship which resulted in
the donation of her collection of documents on
Caribbean art [papers] in 2016-7. In the near future
researchers will be able to access the collection
Before immersing the audience in the 1980s black
British hip hop scene, Newland also honoured the
shining lights of Caribbean and British literature that
had been too quickly extinguished with a reading of
Derek Walcott’s poem, “Love after Love.”
He radically changed the mood with his energetic
readingof “Soundboys”which the audience unanimously
agreed during the Q&A portionwas “incredible.” People
readily linked Newland’s crafted Caribbean household
to their lived experience and expressed great interest in
reading more diasporic tales of Caribbean immigrants
in London.
(Jeanette Awai)
A NIGHT TO JUBILATE
Gala lifts writers from the solitude of the craft
for primary source materials such as exhibition
catalogues, information about artists, interviews and
correspondence with artists, photographs and other
ephemera relating to art in the Caribbean.
For more information
on this and any other
Special Collection, kindly contact the
West Indiana
and Special Collections, Alma Jordan Library
at 662-2002 ext. 83365 or
The Anne Walmsley
COLLECTION
Dr. Anne Walmsley was conferred with an Honorary Doctorate
by The UWI at the Mona Campus in 2009.
