Caribbean writers within the operating throughout Ebook Award season
By Stephen Weir
April marks the start of Ebook Award season, and this week has seen important prize bulletins from three totally different Canadian awards, impacting Caribbean authors and poets.
The $130,000 Griffin Poetry Prize, introduced yesterday morning in Toronto, unveiled its 2024 shortlist. This 12 months, no Caribbean Canadian made the listing, however Ishion Hutchinson from Port Antonio, Jamaica, is among the many 5 poets vying for the celebrated June fifth poetry prize. The 40-year-old Jamaican poet is nominated for his guide “Faculty of Directions,” which delves into the experiences of West Indian volunteer troopers in British regiments throughout World Warfare I. The poetry assortment captures the psychological and bodily challenges confronted by these Black troopers within the Center East theatre of struggle, refracting their battle towards the colonial energy they served. The narratives of the troopers intertwine with the story of Godspeed, a younger schoolboy dwelling in rural Jamaica within the Nineteen Nineties. The winner shall be introduced on the Griffin Poetry Prize Readings at Koerner Corridor in Toronto on Wednesday, June 5.
The KOBO 2024 Rising Author Prize shortlist has simply been introduced! With the Rising Author Prize, Rakuten Kobo goals to raise the profiles of debut authors by recognizing distinctive books by first-time Canadian authors in three classes: Literary Fiction, Nonfiction, and fiction (Thriller).
The shortlist includes 17 authors, together with one Caribbean contender for the $10,000 Rising Writer Award in fiction: Kai Thomas. His novel, “Within the Higher Nation,” has already garnered a number of different literary accolades since its launch a few years in the past. The guide follows the intertwined destinies of two unforgettable ladies—one embarking on a journey of self-discovery and reckoning, whereas the opposite fulfils her life’s remaining very important act—on the terminus of the Underground Railroad.
Kai Thomas is a author, carpenter, and land steward. He’s Afro-Canadian, born and raised in Ottawa, with ancestry tracing again to Trinidad and the British Isles.
On June 18th, Rakuten Kobo will announce the winners of its tenth annual Rising Author Prize in Fiction, Nonfiction, and Thriller. Every class winner will take residence $10,000.
Saying the 2024 CBC Massey Lecturer: Giller Prize winner Ian Williams. The acclaimed Caribbean Canadian creator of fiction, nonfiction, and poetry has obtained recognition by way of awards such because the Scotiabank Giller Prize and the Griffin Poetry Prize. Established in 1961, the Massey Lectures—initially created by CBC and now in partnership with Home of Anansi and the College of Toronto’s Massey School—have addressed urgent problems with our time. Earlier notable audio system embrace Martin Luther King Jr., Ursula Franklin, Jane Jacobs, and Thomas King. Williams will ship public lectures throughout 5 provinces, together with his Massey Lecture broadcasted on the CBC. The cross-Canada tour is ready to begin in August.
What’s going to Williams be discussing? Based on the CBC, his Massey Lecture will concentrate on the theme of communication. “Why can’t we discuss to one another? How can we discuss to one another? And what do we have to speak about proper now?” These are the questions that the award-winning author and English professor Ian Williams will discover. Born in Trinidad 45 years in the past, Williams is now a Canadian poet and fiction author. His assortment of brief tales, “Not Anybody’s Something,” gained the Danuta Gleed Literary Award, and his debut novel, “Replica,” clinched the 2019 Giller Prize. His work has been shortlisted for varied prestigious awards.
