Monique Roffey, the Costa-winning author of The Mermaid of Black Conch, on the lit-boom that’s happening on the Caribbean islandLast week, Trinidadian writer Lisa Allen-Agostini’s novel The Bread the Devil Knead landed a coveted spot on the Women’s prize shortlist. As a fellow Trinidadian writer, this is both exciting and unsurprising. These days Trinidad is producing world-class female writers hand over fist. Allen-Agostini’s shortlisting comes on the heels of the announcement, two weeks ago, that Trinidadian writer Amanda Smyth had made the Walter Scott prize for historical fiction shortlist, the only woman on the list, and the first Caribbean writer ever to be chosen. Meanwhile, Celeste Mohammed has become the fifth woman (and third Trinidadian woman) to win Trinidad’s regional OCM Bocas prize.Something has happened in Trinidad, in our small but dense hothouse of a literary world. Perhaps it’s 12 years of the Bocas literary festival, or five waves of feminism, or maybe it’s to do with the internet opening up opportunities for those from developing countries, but in the last decade Trinidad has produced a host of outstanding female writers. It’s a trend that anyone in Caribbean literary circles knows about. Myself, Smyth, Allen-Agostini, Mohammed and others are part of a “lit-boom”, and most of this boom is female. We are finding ourselves on the global stage, on prestigious shortlists in North America and the UK. This huge generational and gender shift would have been... Continue reading at 'The Guardian'
[ The Guardian | 2022-05-03 13:03:34 UTC ]
Get into the life of a Civil Rights icon when she's still a girl, learn about Nigerian women protesting, and more. Continue reading at Book Riot
[ Book Riot | 2024-09-04 15:35:00 UTC ]
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Books that break the fourth wall, a major lawsuit goes after book banes, historical fiction set in Hawaii and more today on Book Riot. Continue reading at Book Riot
[ Book Riot | 2024-08-29 16:05:10 UTC ]
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August book clubs read historical fiction set during the Vietnam War, historical mysteries based in Black American and Jewish neighborhoods, dragon-filled romantasies, time traveling romance, and more. Continue reading at Book Riot
[ Book Riot | 2024-08-28 15:40:00 UTC ]
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Exploring the Burning Questions: A Conversation with Cara Lopez Lee, by Susan Blumberg-Kason Interviews [email protected] Tue, 08/27/2024 - 15:32 I first came across Cara Lopez Lee on a listserv group (remember those!) for authors who write about... Continue reading at World Literature Today
[ World Literature Today | 2024-08-27 20:32:44 UTC ]
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Fall book club picks, historical fiction for kids, the most interesting questions in books, and more today on Book Riot Continue reading at Book Riot
[ Book Riot | 2024-08-21 16:25:00 UTC ]
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Can anyone unseat Kristin Hannah as the bestselling historical fiction book of the moment? Continue reading at Book Riot
[ Book Riot | 2024-08-20 10:15:00 UTC ]
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Plus: historical fiction set in Nigeria and weeding in libraries: what it is, what it isn't, and why you should care. Continue reading at Book Riot
[ Book Riot | 2024-08-16 15:15:00 UTC ]
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Nigerian historical fiction is thriving. Here are some excellent books to get you started. Continue reading at Book Riot
[ Book Riot | 2024-08-16 12:00:00 UTC ]
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Something about historical fiction + fantasy just hits different. What are your faves? Continue reading at Book Riot
[ Book Riot | 2024-08-07 15:30:00 UTC ]
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As the literary world is roiled by fights over politics and war, are we losing sight of the writer’s purpose? Continue reading at The New York Times
[ The New York Times | 2024-08-05 09:03:35 UTC ]
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War, Trauma, and Human Courage: A Conversation with Zhang Ling, by Yan Lu Interviews [email protected] Mon, 07/22/2024 - 16:20 Zhang Ling is the author of ten novels, including A Single Swallow (trans. Shelly Bryant) and Where Waters Meet, the... Continue reading at World Literature Today
[ World Literature Today | 2024-07-22 21:20:19 UTC ]
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If you had a sudden urge to review the 2016 memoir for some reason, you might be out of luck right now. Yesterday, former president Donald Trump announced his running mate for the 2024 election: Senator JD Vance of Ohio. Vance, a onetime fierce critic of Trump, is a relative newcomer to... Continue reading at Fast Company
[ Fast Company | 2024-07-16 12:25:00 UTC ]
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Amazon Prime built its popularity by offering subscribers faster free shipping, access to streaming movies and TV shows, and exclusive deals (most noticeably during the company’s Prime Day dealfest, coming again July 16 and 17). But Prime membership includes other perks, too: Everything... Continue reading at PC World
[ PC World | 2024-07-01 13:28:52 UTC ]
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The bestselling books of the week, the best historical fiction of 2024 so far, book banning updates, and more. Continue reading at Book Riot
[ Book Riot | 2024-06-29 15:00:00 UTC ]
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“A memoir is closer to historical fiction than it is to biography” writes artist and author Jill Ciment in her retrospective memoir Consent. At seventeen, Ciment had an affair with her forty-seven-year-old painting teacher. The two married, and Ciment wrote the original account of the affair in... Continue reading at Literrary Hub
[ Literrary Hub | 2024-06-24 08:55:21 UTC ]
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This trio of novels ushers readers into three different but equally mesmerizing long-ago worlds. Continue reading at The New York Times
[ The New York Times | 2024-06-12 13:28:10 UTC ]
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The days are long, but this summer’s bounty of historical fiction will remind you that the years are short. Continue reading at The New York Times
[ The New York Times | 2024-05-31 09:01:00 UTC ]
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Can We Truly Be Free of Our Past? A Conversation with Wendy Chen, by Xixuan Collins Interviews [email protected] Mon, 04/29/2024 - 15:10 An epic family saga that spans over one hundred years and two countries, Wendy Chen’s powerful, lyrical debut,... Continue reading at World Literature Today
[ World Literature Today | 2024-04-29 20:10:46 UTC ]
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With March Madness and the Super Bowl recently crowning champions and the Grammys and Oscars awarding music and movies, it’s finally time for the literary world to have its own big moment in the sun. And that can only mean one thing: It’s Pulitzer time! While there are many book awards that... Continue reading at Electric Literature
[ Electric Literature | 2024-04-19 11:15:00 UTC ]
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PEN America has faced an enormous amount of criticism from the literary world for, among other things, failing to call Israel’s six-month assault on Gaza a genocide, and is now facing a wave of withdrawals from two of its signature events, the literary awards and the World Voices Festival. In... Continue reading at Literrary Hub
[ Literrary Hub | 2024-04-18 14:26:32 UTC ]
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