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 2017 JUDGES for the 20th Annual Frank Collymore Literary Endowment Award were DeCarla Applewhaite, Professor Jane Bryce, Ayesha Gibson-Gill, Dana Gilkes, Christine Matthews, Professor Mark McWatt, Esther Phillips, Chairman Antonio “Boo” Rudder, and Andy Taitt.  The following is what they had to say about this year’s awardees: 

Honourable Mention

ArtsEtc Editor and 2nd-place Colly winner Linda M. Deane with top awardee Kerry Belgrave. Between them is then Governor of the Central Bank of Barbados DeLisle Worrell. Photo Copyright © 2017 The Barbados Advocate.

THERE WERE some repeat performances for the 2016 Frank Collymore Literary Awards.

The three winners had all taken first place in previous years, but this time Kerry Belgrave came out on top with his poetry collection @bb.now/tek culture?.

He took home the coveted prize—and $10,000—for his latest effort.

During the 50s and 60s—after the Second World War, before independence—hundreds of Barbadians left their island home for countries like England, the United States, Canada. They left in search of a better life they felt they could not or would not achieve if they stayed in Barbados.

Some of these expatriates succeeded brilliantly in their quests, distinguishing their country of birth (Barbados broke away peacefully from Britain in 1966) as much as themselves. Others were less fortunate. All faced hardships: racism, joblessness, the cold comforts of an alien environment.