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Poet and ArtsEtc founding editor Linda M. Deane, circa 2008.

MAPPING BARBADOS’ LITSCAPE is an ArtsEtc project to track and document Barbados’ very rich and diverse literary tradition. At our house, the need to better connect readers to this landscape and region has taken many forms over the years.

Barbadian Literature, The Bajan Reporter, Days Books, Frank Collymore Literary Award (The Collys), green readings, NIFCA Winning Words Anthology

A Review of Watching Out for Mummy

Norma Meek sure knows how to pack a bariffle of pre-teen troubles into 150 pages.

In Watching Out for Mummy, which the author wrote twelve years ago and is still her only novel, we meet 11-year-old Shawn Austin at a moment of transition: he’s about to swap life in Barbados for life in New Jersey in the United States, where his mum lives.

Barbadian Literature, Barbados, New Jersey, Norma Meek, YA

A Review of Natives of My Person

Aboard the Reconnaissance, the vessel where Natives of My Person takes place, a member of the crew, a young and boastful carpenter, banters with a more experienced crewmember who tells the carpenter that he has much to learn. “You are too young to have much history,” he warns the carpenter. The carpenter’s pride is hurt, so he boasts of the skills and achievement of his ancestors, of the lineage of craftsmen to which he was born and he says, “I have a lot history in my hands.”

Barbados, Barbadian Literature, Historical Fiction, George Lamming, Natives of My Person, Novel

The 2019 IndyList

THE ArtsEtc Independence Reading List is now nine years old!

The IndyList, as we like to call it, is a selection of 12 Barbadian books to make friends with over the coming year.

The list, which first appeared in 2011, is part of the Editors' ongoing "Mapping Our Literature" mission, which promotes awareness of and celebrates Barbadian books and their authors. Each year, we recommend new, classic, and noteworthy titles in fiction and non-fiction, poetry, and children’s literature.

And we encourage you to discover and add your own!

Barbadian Literature, Barbados' Independence, Caribbean Literature

Truth She Wrote — A Found Poem and Collected Thoughts on Toni Morrison

Barbadian writers share their thoughts and feelings on Toni Morrison. ArtsEtc lands the found poem "Truth She Wrote" in the process. Read on or click the writers' images below...

ArtsEtc, authors, Bajan Literature, Barbados, Beloved, The Bluest Eye, Daria Cave, Linda M. Deane, Zoanne Evans, found poem, Margaret Gill, Racquel Griffith, Sharon Hurley Hall, Nailah Folami Imoja, Toni Morrison, Esther Phillips, Song of Solomon, Sharma Taylor, writers

Hazel Simmons-McDonald 2018 Frank Collymore Literary Award Winner

THE TOP SPOT at the Frank Collymore Literary Awards went to Hazel Simmons McDonald on January 5, 2019.

Simmons-McDonald, a retired University of the West Indies professor and poet, took second place in the 2018 competition. She won for her manuscript A Collection of Short Stories.

For the third time in its twenty-one-year history, the committee decided not to award a first prize from the shortlist.

Performer and poet Sonia Williams, for the second year running, took third place with her poetry manuscript On Livity.

A Review of Frontiers of the Caribbean

Compelling and emphatic language toned down by academic speak. A stitched-together structure that is both focused and diffuse. The folk voices of Philip Nanton’s Frontiers of the Caribbean nevertheless come across, especially the accounts of his fellow Vincentians from interviews—or from personal profiling: “I cannot say that I knew my father well. Perhaps he did not want to be known. What I remember of his characteristics could fit on a postage stamp, but there were identifiable tendencies that were almost archetypal.” The book could have done with more of such illustrative a

The American West, Caribbean Civilization, Frontier Literature, Philip Nanton, St Vincent and the Grenadines

A Review of The Thunder Beneath Us

In Nicole Blades' second novel, The Thunder Beneath Us, a talented but self-sabotaging writer is forced to grapple with her painful past as years of secrecy and shame come back to haunt her. Best Lightburn is an ingenue making a name for herself in the New York magazine world; she is surrounded by fabulous, fun friends and is dating a handsome movie star. But things take a bad turn when her boyfriend, Grant, has a breakdown and her beloved boss leaves the style magazine where she works.

Nicole Blades, Magazine Industry, New York, Survivor's Guilt

The Caribbean has a powerful, modern tradition of fantastic literature that’s on full display in this anthology of original fiction by writers from Barbados, Trinidad and Tobago, and Bermuda. Some stories in New Worlds, Old Ways: Speculative Tales from the Caribbean, edited by Karen Lord, are science fiction and some fantasy, but all are firmly rooted in the rich folk tradition of the islands.

Tammi Browne-Bannister, Tobias S. Buckell, Caribbean Folklore, Caribbean Mythology, Nalo Hopkinson, Karen Lord, Publishers Weekly

A Review of Prickett's Well

Edison T. Williams' Prickett's Well is a long fuse with a slow burn, where the sparks are visible but the time to detonation is unknown. Anticipation, therefore, is built throughout this carefully constructed novel set in Barbados.

Barbados, Holetown, Royal Barbados Police Force, St Lucy, Edison T. Williams, Ronald A. Williams

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