Inspiring Writers & Friends

Kazuo Ishiguro and Caryl Phillips: a friendship ‘paved with books’

Kazuo Ishiguro’s nickname is not Kaz, as one may expect. Caz is the nickname of fellow author Caryl Phillips. Ishiguro is known as Ish. “I thought we needed some clarification,” Ishiguro told two audiences on Wednesday night in New York.

And while the opening of each talk was similar – the first with high school writers as part of the Unterberg Poetry Center’s Schools Project Program and the second at a bigger 92Y event – their more intimate conversation with the students about identity, memory and friendship became the evening’s highlight.

Ishiguro and Phillips have been friends for 30 years, since both their novels were “discovered” by editor Robert McCrum, and their relationship, and similarities, were a frequent topic.

“I don’t know if Caz and I have ever discussed each other’s work,” Ishiguro noted, when comparing how authors approach the work of their colleagues and peers. And while they may not have traded critiques, Phillips noted that their friendship has been a journey “paved with books”.

“When Ish writes a book, I read it. More terrifyingly, I teach it,” Phillips quipped.

Both writers were also immigrants to Great Britain: Ishiguro was five years old when he moved with his parents from Japan. Phillips was only four months old when he arrived with his parents from the island of Saint Kitts in the West Indies.

When asked about their impulses to write, both cited the desire to understand their parents, and their lives, better. “I wanted to understand where my parents came from, which is ultimately where I came from,” Phillips said. Ishiguro also expressed a curiosity for what life was like for his parents, but added that it’s selfish since “it’s really about myself”.

Elaborating further on his connection to the past in his writing, Phillips said it was a cliche, but true: “If you don’t know where you come from, you don’t know where you are. If you don’t know where you are, then you don’t know where you’re going.”

But both Ishiguro and Phillips added later that, as immigrants, there should be no obligation to explore the connection between their two cultures: “I can’t find much artistic energy for this as a novelist.”

Read further @ The Guardian

BookIsh Plaza @ Afro Chic Event Let’s Talk

BookIsh Plaza will be present with its Caribbean books at the upcoming Afro Chic Event. Let’s talk indeed of natural hair, identity and being proud of who you are. There will be lectures, workshops and discussions on the topic. Also everything about how to take care of black hair. The famous TV presenter Sylvana Simons will give an inspirational talk. The renown MC Shay from FUNX radio will lead the event.

Afro Chic Let’s Talk is the biggest event for natural hair in The Netherlands, where naturalistas will be heard. It concerns a hair event for naturals by naturals, where everybody is welcome! The Afro Chic Event is intended for young people with frizzy or curly hair, for parents who have children with this hair type and for all those who want to know more about frizzy hair.

weareAfroChic

New Edition on Hispanic Caribbean Literature of Migration

Vanessa Pérez Rosario’s Hispanic Caribbean Literature of Migration: Narratives of Displacement (2010) was reissued in paperback edition this August by Palgrave Macmillan.

Hispanic Caribbean Literature of Migration: Narratives of Displacement is a collection of thirteen chapters that explores the literary tradition of Caribbean Latino literature written in the U.S. beginning with José Martí and concluding with 2008 Pulitzer Prize winning novelist, Junot Díaz. The essays in this collection reveal the multiple ways that writers of this tradition use their unique positioning as both insiders and outsiders to critique U.S. hegemonic discourses while simultaneously interrogating national discourses in their home countries. The chapters consider the way that spatial migration in literature serves as a metaphor for gender, sexuality, racial, identity, linguistic and national migrations.

Doris Sommer (Harvard University) writes: “Hispanic Caribbean Literature of Migration: Narratives of Displacement is an impressive accomplishment. The essays explore key moments in the history of Caribbean Latino literature and bring expert critical attention to trends over the past 150 years. Latino, meaning of Spanish speaking heritage in Anglo-America, is a word that points to contrapuntal doubling from the richly informative Introduction by Vanessa Pérez Rosario and throughout the dozen excellent essays. The collection foregrounds the work of both established and younger scholars in the field, all of whom tackle a major author and deepen our appreciation through rich contextualization and fine readings. No other book I know on Latino literature is as timely, broad, and welcome.”

VANESSA PEREZ ROSARIO is an assistant professor of Puerto Rican and Latino Studies at The City University of New York – Brooklyn College.

Source: Repeating Islands, August 2012

 

Yesterday St. Martin identity was open for discussion

GREATBAY/MARIGOT, St. Martin (May 28, 2012)—“Imagining the St. Martin Nation” in two books by Lasana M. Sekou was the subject of a pre-book fair discussion taking place at Philipsburg Jubilee Library on Tuesday, May 29, from 7:30 pm – 9 pm.

“A panel of experts discussed the St. Martin people, identity, nationhood and notions of sovereignty as explored in Sekou’s short stories and poetry,” said Jacqueline Sample of House of Nehesi Publishers (HNP).

The experts or discussants were Dr. Rhoda Arrindell, linguist, researcher, educator (St. Martin), Emilio Jorge Rodríguez, author, essayist, scholar (Cuba), and Dr. Maria van Enckevort, historian, researcher, educator (St. Martin).

The books that got the critical treatment were Brotherhood of the Spurs (on the 15th anniversary of its publication), and The Salt Reaper, the critically reviewed poetry collection.

The general public was both invited to attend and encouraged to participate in the discussion of the ideas and books that some of them might have read, said Shujah Reiph, coordinator of the 10th annual St. Martin Book Fair.

Both books by the St. Martin author were published nearly 10 years apart. Have there been any changes in direction in the St. Martin reality or in the author’s two works? Are any of the dreams in the books being fulfilled in the St. Martin of today? “These are some of the questions that were going to be addressed, said Reiph.

It was Reiph who came up with the idea “to put the two books under a critical hard stare in plain view for all to interact with the discussion,” said Sample. This may be the first time that a St. Martin literary text will be so discussed on the island.

The reader of selections of both titles was Marie Richardson, assistant principal at St. Dominic School.

The 10th annual St. Martin Book Fair will take place on May 31 – June 2,2012, and opens at Belair Community Center on Thursday at 8 pm.

The St. Martin Book Fair is organized by Conscious Lyrics Foundation and HNP  in collaboration with St. MaartenTourist Bureau, the Ministry of Education & Culture (MECSY), the Collectivity of St. Martin, and the University of St. Martin.

For book fair updates visit The St. Martin Book Fair site

 

Brotherhood of the Spurs            The Salt Reaper               National symbols of St. Martin

All these books are available @ BOOKISH PLAZA