Stephen Weir articles, editorials and popular social media weir postings

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 t...

2018 Books in Review – 8 For 18.  By Stephen Weir (original story from edited version in the Caribbean Camera)   Caribbean Canadians and authors who write about Caribbean issues in the Great White North continued to hold their own on the Canadian literature scene this year. From award-winning novels to children’s titles about the black experience, these are top 10 books that book sellers, the media and of course the Caribbean Camera recommend you consider before the clock ticks out on 2018. Esi Wins  - Photo From The Giller Prize 1. WASHINGTON BLACK.   Esi Edugyan’s latest novel is truly the book of the year in Canada, and, is also racking up sales the US and the Caribbean.   No, she isn’t Bajan – the BC writer’s parents are from Ghana -- but she nails 19 th  century slaving Barbados better than anyone else in Canada ever has.   Her most recent novel,  Washington Black , won this year’s $100,000 Scotiabank Giller Prize...

--> Giller Prize Longlist Has a Familiar Face  By Stephen Weir for Caribbean Camera The Scotiabank Giller Prize announced early this week its longlist for the 2018 Canadian book award. There are 12 works of fiction in the running for this year’s   $100,000 prize. Esi Edugyan, is one of the authors longlisted for Canada’s most prestigious Fiction Prize. She has been nominated for her new book Washington Black . Washington Black tells 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 – inspired by a true story – of a world destroyed by slavery and the search to make it whole again. Esi Edugyan made history in 2011 by being the first Black woman to win the Scotiabank Giller Prize for her novel  Half-Blood Blues ....