FORMER president and prime minister Arthur NR Robinson, with the assistance of his granddaughter Anushka, is scheduled to read excerpts from his recently published memoir In the Midst of it to kickstart this year’s National Gas Company (NGC) Bocas Lit Fest, as Joel Julien reports in Trinidad’s Express.
This was revealed yesterday by festival director of the NGC Bocas Lit Fest, Marina Salandy-Brown, at a press conference to outline the itinerary for the second annual installment of the literary festival at the National Library in Port of Spain.
“The NGC Bocas Lit Fest is the first major literary festival held in Trinidad and Tobago and the southern Caribbean and an exciting addition to the region’s cultural calendar,” Salandy-Brown said.
This year’s festival gets going in Tobago on March 31 with children’s storytelling sponsored by KFC in the morning at the Lowlands Mall and an evening of readings and performances at Pigeon Point.
Robinson is scheduled to read from his autobiography at Pigeon Point.
Earl Lovelace is also expected to read from his most recent novel Is Just a Movie in Pigeon Point.
Lovelace is the winner of the fiction category of the 2012 OCM Bocas Prize for Caribbean Literature.
Lovelace is among three authors vying for the 2012 OCM Bocas Prize for Caribbean Literature of US$10,000, sponsored by One Caribbean Media, the largest media house in Trinidad and Tobago and owner of TV6, Express and Hott 93.
Apart from Lovelace, the 2012 OCM Bocas Prize for Caribbean Literature short-list includes, The Twelve-Foot Neon Woman by Loretta Collins Klobah of Puerto Rico, the winner of the poetry category, and George Price: A Life Revealed by Godfrey P Smith from Belize, the winner of the non-fiction category.
The Express will be publishing extracts from the three short-listed books, veteran journalist Lennox Grant, who delivered remarks on behalf of OCM chief executive officer Dawn Thomas, said yesterday.
The winner of the 2012 OCM Bocas Prize for Caribbean Literature is scheduled to be named on April 28.
Grant said the NGC Bocas Lit Fest has gained international recognition.
“The Bocas Lit Fest has already gained international recognition among those interests with a mandate to foster reading and writing. OCM thus welcomes the formation of the Caribbean Literature Action Group, CALAG, which is due to be launched on April 25, on the eve of this year’s festival,” Grant said.
“The action group will comprise, apart from Bocas, the British Council and Commonwealth Writers, an entity within the Commonwealth Foundation. We are confident about realisation of the aim described as ‘an infrastructure to support writers, writing and publishing in the Caribbean,” Grant said.
On behalf of the Express, Grant presented Salandy-Brown with a copy of The Best of Keith Smith, a selection of Smith’s columns and other pieces.
Smith, the former editor-at-large of the Express and columnist, died on February 8 last year.
This year’s four-day festival is scheduled to run from April 26 to April 29 and is based at the National Library and the adjoining Old Fire Station in Port of Spain.
For the original report go to http://www.trinidadexpress.com/news/Robbie_to_read_from__memoir_at_Lit_Fest-143592346.html
