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UWI TODAY
– SUNDAY 3RD APRIL, 2016
LITERATURE
What does it mean for you to be writer-
in-residence in 2016?
I did it before in 2004, but it’s always nice to come
back to UWI. I’ve known Prof. Aiyejina for a long time,
40 years. I came back to live in Trinidad in ’77 and he was
a young student and we were young aspiring writers. At
UWI, I also did a lot of research at West Indiana (special
collection at the Alma Jordan Library). So UWI played a
big part in my development right from the beginning.
How did you decide to get into writing?
It goes back to the time I met Funso, I always wanted
to write. I came back here to teach and it was during that
period, I was able to find myself and able to start writing.
Earl Lovelace was very significant in that time for me just
to see him and talking to him, seeing a writer functioning.
I started writing in those years… being in Trinidad and
discovering, that’s what I want to write about and now I’m
slightly moving away from here.
Are there any rituals or exercises that
you use to stay creative?
You need to be writing all the time. Every day. You
need to have a notebook. And what I learned in “
Light
Falling on Bamboo
,” research is very important. Writing
is about reading... you should be searching for the best
writers… find out how it’s done by imitating them.
Walcott said that sometimes he’d write over the light of
an established poet and copied. That learning by model
is very important and reading widely... that culture
of writing every day, constant reading. I discovered a
magnificent writer called Colm Tóibín, one of his books
was made into a film “Brooklyn,” simply fantastic.
Some people view writing as an
impractical profession in the time of a
recession, what are your thoughts?
I think it’s part of a holistic education. In creative
writing, you’re exploring your emotions; you’re becoming
empathic in writing characters, to enter into other lives.
All that is part of education... I think more literature,
more writing, but for education, not necessarily “I’m
going to be a writer.” If you’re going to be a writer, you’re
going to be a writer. You’re going to find a hut in the
forest to go and write or maybe a bedroom in the back of
your house that you feel comfortable, but you’re going to
write.
The
Education
of aWriter
Lawrence Scott instructs writers while relearning himself
In themidst of a recessionwhat dowe need?
“I thinkmore literature, more writing,” says Lawrence Scott, second-time writer-in-residence at the Department
of Literary Cultural and Communication Studies. Scott was also the featured guest speaker for Campus Literature Week 2016 commemorating the 400th
anniversary of Shakespeare’s death. Jeanette Awai sat down with the renowned writer of works such as “
Leaving by Plane Swimming Back Underwater,”
and
“Light Falling on Bamboo”
among others, to discuss his growth as a writer under the influence of “Funso” (Professor Emeritus Funso Aiyejina), how
his writing led him to love historical research and the difficult themes being grappled by the current crop of MFA in creative writing students.
Trinidad is in the
world,
it’s like the
world and it’s a very
small place and has
things like motor cars,
the Internet, crime…
all the ingredients of
the modern world,
impacting on a very
small place.
PHOTO: ANEEL KARIM
