Anthony Kellman is the author of three novels and five volumes of poetry; most recently, winner of the 2018 Casa de las Americas Literary Award for Anglophone Caribbean Literature for the novel Tracing Jaja. He is also the originator of the Barbadian poetic form tuk verse, based on the metrics of the island’s indigenous folk music.
Why do you do what you do? Writing, for me is a form of talking to oneself. A way of comprehending one’s reality, both private and public. It can therefore take the form of a summons to action—interior or exterior.
Since I see the writer and the reader as dialoguing partners, I hope that my writing will provoke discussion and enable readers to deal with their issues that might have found some echo or parallel echo in my work. In this way, reader and writer can engage in meaningful mutual community relations even if separated by geography.
How do you do what you do? Any obstacles? I feel very integrated in the three genres I’ve practised since high school: poetry, fiction and song lyrics. I’ve always followed my own nose. When an idea comes, I put it down on paper. If I can’t start writing then, I can come back to it later without fear of losing the idea. It’s of course best to work the idea as soon as possible when it’s still fresh in your mind.
Who or what are your influences and inspirations? I think I’ve lost touch with literary influences (although George Lamming’s In The Castle of My Skin is the book that initially led me down this path). I would love for someone to read my poetry and fiction and tell me what influences they perceive. With respect to music, the tuk bands have inspired my creation of the tuk verse poetic form, based on the metrics of tuk.
Achievements? There are two awards I’m particularly proud of: The Prime Minister’s Award (Barbados) and a USA National Endowment for the Arts Award, both for poetry. Winning the 2018 Casa de las Americas Literary Award is very special due to its regional range and the translation of the novel, Tracing Jaja, into Spanish.
About Tracing Jaja:
“It is a passionate work of historical fiction drawing on actual events to uncover one of the many atrocities of British colonial history. The novel engages the reader on both the emotional and cerebral level. We admired, and were moved by, Kellman’s portrayal of Jubo Jubogha, the African king, his resilience and refusal to submit to the indignities imposed on him by his British colonial jailers.
“Much of the strength of Kellman’s work lies in his lyrical evocation of place, especially the Caribbean landscape. His portrayal of the people of Barbados captures both their pride in their African past and the suffering they endured. Tracing JaJa is a remarkable novel about human endurance, our capacity to find beauty and love even in the darkest of circumstances.” —from the Casa de las Americas Award Jury Members
An excerpt:
When the Administrator told Jaja he would be leaving Barbados on Monday, May 11, the king felt something like a warm breeze waft inside him. The thought of one day reuniting with Becka and their child in his palm-rich Opobo brightened his spirits as the steamer H.M.S. Comus propelled out of Carlisle Bay. He turned on the bed to face the far side of the cabin and saw his faithful Oko Jumbo curled in sleep. He dreamed to see his place, see his people’s faces, drink palm wine from an intricately carved gourd, eat bitter nut, kola nut and alligator pepper, laugh and talk in a circle of friends, feel his feet on the clay yard of his compound, hear the laughter of children at play echoing between the huts, their little feet slapping as they ran about, like a drummer’s hands lightly tapping out a rhythm near the rim of a djun djun.
With Becka’s help, Jaja had written a precautionary letter to his chiefs just a week or two before his departure. He urged them to be discreet in their actions and not to do anything, however insignificant it might appear, that might jeopardize his return. The British had broken their promises so many times before. Until he set foot on Opobo’s soil, he would not lessen his mistrust.
Favourite words:
Apprehend (because of its multiple applications to grasp or arrest not just a thief but a concept)
Lambent (for similar reasons as above; there’re figurative multiplicities as in lamb, the animal, the Lamb of God, its softness, meekness, innocence, along with its light….)
Selected bibliography:
Books, poetry
South Eastern Stages. Yorkshire: Peepal Tree Press, 2012.
Limestone: An Epic Poem of Barbados. Yorkshire: Peepal Tree Press, 2008.
Wings of a Stranger. Yorkshire: Peepal Tree Press, 2000.
The Long Gap. Yorkshire: Peepal Tree Press, 1996.
Watercourse. Yorkshire: Peepal Tree Press, 1990.
Books, novels
Tracing Jaja. Yorkshire: Peepal Tree Press, 2016.
The Houses of Alphonso. Yorkshire: Peepal Tree Press, 2004.
The Coral Rooms. Yorkshire: Peepal Tree Press, 1994.
Anthologies
Editor. The Caribbean. Atlanta: Poetry Atlanta, 1997.
Editor. Crossing Water: Contemporary Poetry of the English-Speaking Caribbean. New York: The Greenfield Review Press, 1992.
CD recordings
Come Again: The Best of Anthony Kellman. Atlanta: Greater Light Productions, 2011.
Blood Mates. Atlanta: Greater Light Productions, 2009.
Limestone. Atlanta: Greater Light Productions, 2005 (musical CD companion to the book by the same title).
Wings of a Stranger. Yorkshire: Peepal Tree Press, 2000 (musical CD companion to the book by the same title).
__
