I didn't officially mention it, but it's a new year around here and some things I started last year will be continued this year. For starters, the Caribbean Women Writers Romance series I started last year will be a major focus here again this year--once again, with no certain scope or dimension. I like the haphazard feel of it so far, and the ultimate thrill (I envision) I'll have trying to put it all in perspective at the end (some time this year).
I started this year's take on the series with Guyanese-born Karen King-Aribisala's Our Wife and Other Stories, and if I had to describe its contribution to the romantic theme right this moment, I'd say it gives us another look at the romance of migration, a recurring aspect of the romances featured so far. Elsewhere in the line-up for the series this year are eight works of fiction and two works of nonfiction, which I'm hoping will add to the richness of the theme as well as continue to show off the great work being done by Caribbean women writers living in the Caribbean and outside of it.
And in addition to the blog series, there is much else going on in the real world of Caribbean women and writing that requires pause for mention. Among other goings-on, poets Danielle Boodoo-Fortune and Debra Providence continue to stir and enchant with new poetry, Joanne Hillhouse's new novel is set to be released next month (she promises to be back to talk about it here), and five women are longlisted for the second installment of the Bocas Literary Prize, a major feature of Trinidad and Tobago's Bocas Lit Festival.
Five women writers from the Caribbean whose works have been selected for any prize is an occasion worth focusing on in this space, so I'm pausing from the series to focus on their nominated works. And (of course) in the event I can talk about their possible contributions to a "romance" category or theme, I will happily do so. The works nominated are (in no particular order) Merle Collins's The Ladies are Upstairs (short story collection), Tessa McWatt's Vital Signs (novel), and three collections of poetry, Fawzia Kane's Tantie Diablesse, Loretta Collins Klobah's The Twelve-Foot Neon Woman, and Shara McCallum's This Strange Land.
First up for review--to be posted next Wednesday--is Merle Collins's The Ladies are Upstairs, which I just completed reading and which I liked overall, but which (I'll say here initially) I found tapered off rather disappointingly into two or three final stories I wish didn't feel so sparse. Consider that my initial reaction only. Plus, I just finished the book and I hate finishing books. I'd rather have the magic (if there is any) go on indefinitely. And there is lots of magic in The Ladies are Upstairs. More on Wednesday. Meanwhile, get the books and read along with me.
Update: The shortlist for the Bocas Prize was announced today.
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