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  Caribbean Writers in the Running and the Road Is Talking Ian Williams April marks the beginning of Book Award season, and this week has seen significant prize announcements from 3 different Canadian awards, impacting Caribbean authors and poets. The $130,000 Griffin Poetry Prize , announced yesterday morning in Toronto, unveiled its 2024 shortlist. This year, no Caribbean Canadian made the list, but Ishion Hutchinson from Port Antonio, Jamaica, is among the five poets vying for the prestigious June 5th poetry prize. Ishion Hutchinson The 40-year-old Jamaican poet is nominated for his book “School of Instructions,” which delves into the experiences of West Indian volunteer soldiers in British regiments during World War I. The poetry collection captures the psychological and physical challenges faced by these Black soldiers in the Middle East theatre of war, refracting their struggle against the colonial power they served. The narratives of the soldiers intertwine with the story of God

Ian Williams reaches the Stars with his Poems and Books By Stephen Weir One day earlier this month Trinidadian Canadian writer Ian Williams passed over from being a rising talent to that of an honest to goodness literary star.  In September the award winning poet and author was made a spokesman for Canada’s richest fiction prize, was featured in an exclusive magazine for the country’s well-heeled and oversaw the publishing of his new book of poems. Williams was born in Trinidad in 1979 and moved to Brampton with his family when he was 9.   He earned his PHD at the University of Toronto and is currently a professor of poetry at the University of British Columbia. Last year his first novel, Reproduction won the $100,000 Giller Prize and was shortlisted for two other significant Canadian book prizes. Williams’s poetry books have been shortlisted and won many Canadian Literary Prizes!  W ord Problems , his latest book is a mash-up of poetry and prose and is currently being printed

Caribbean Canadian writers continue To pen Their own success stories during the Shutdown By Stephen Weir   KAIE KELLOUGH . Back in May of this year  Kaie Kellough  won the richest poetry prize in the land.  The Guyanese Canadian poet Kaie Kellough was awarded the annual $65,000 Griffin Poetry Prize for his book,  Magnetic Equator.  Kellough was born in British Columbia and now lives in Montreal.  His maternal family is originally from Guyana and much of his poetry revolves around that Caribbean heritage and life experiences. Earlier this week Queen’s University’s Creative Writing department announced that Kellough will be the 2020/2021 Writer-in-Residence, beginning in January 2021.  The University is located in Kingston, Ontario. As well he will be in Toronto on October 6th to speak at Harbourfront about his 2020 novel  Dominoes at the Crossroads . In this collection of linked stories from the Caribbean Canadian diaspora. Kellough’s characters navigate race, history, and coming-of-age

                         Salad Days of Literature Brings Lots Of Cabbage to Ian Williams These are salad days for Caribbean Canadian authors. Earlier this week another Trinidadian-born author won big, really big, and the country has sat up and taken notice. On Tuesday evening  Ian Williams  won the 2019 Scotiabank Giller Prize for his very first novel “ Reproduction ”, published by Random House Canada, taking home $100,000. Earlier this month Trinidadian Canadian author  André Alexis  won big as well capturing the $50,000 Writers’ Trust fiction prize for his English language novel “ Days by Moonlight ”. He is only the second author in the country to capture the award twice. Days by Moonlight  is his seventh novel. The book is about Alfred Homer who takes a Southern Ontario road trip to investigate the story of John Skennen, a poet whose ghost haunts a few souls around the province. If the two men won big, two other writers Trinidadian Canadians  David Chariandy  a

Ian Williams Up For Big Book Prize By Stephen Weir Trinidadian born Ian Williams is considered to be one of the country’s top poets.   However, he is in the news these days for Reproduction, his first novel.   The 38-year old’s book tells the story of three generations of a Caribbean Canadian family living Toronto. Reproduction is one of five novels that have made the $60,000 First Novel Award.   Given out annually by Amazon Canada and The Walrus Magazine, the prize honours the achievements of Canadian authors and their debut novels. Williams left T&T in 1988 and moved to Brampton with his older brother and parents.   He turned out to be a brilliant student earning his doctorate in English from the University of Toronto at just 25 years of age. He is currently an assistant professor of poetry in the Creative Writing program at the University of British Columbia.  His first book, You Know Who You Are, was a finalist for the ReLit Poetry Prize.   His poetry c

Esi signs a deal and plans for two May appearances in Brampton Barbados slave saga soon moving from books to our TV By Stephen Weir Washington Black is not going away soon. In fact the story of the young Barbados slave who ends up travelling the world, will be coming to television, now that the rights to Esi Edugyan’s award winning novel have just been purchased by Hollywood! Edugyan’s Washington Black was truly the book of the year in Canada last year and is now proving to a world-beater in sales. It won the $100,000 Scotiabank Giller Prize and was a finalist for both the prestigious UK Man Booker Prize and Canada’s 2018 Rogers Writers’ Trust Fiction honours. Washington Black is the story of George Washington Black; an eleven-year-old field slave living on a Barbados sugar plantation. From the brutal cane plantations to the icy waters of the Canadian Arctic, from the mud-filled streets of London to the eerie deserts of Morocco, Washington Black is the tale – ins