The 2023 IndyList

 

WELCOME to the 2023 ArtsEtc Independence Reading List.  This is the twelfth edition (already!) of our annual list of Barbadian literature to acquaint yourself with over the next twelve months.   

From the Archives: Word (on teaching a forty-year-old man to read)

 

He trusted me to break the word, crack
each segment open until the mystery expired.
Not so this morning.  He stared bewildered
at the board, the back at me.  “I never t’ought
dat word could be so small.  F…i…x,”
he mused.  “Dis word so small.”

How could his daily toil of hammer,
saw and nails; an old lady’s reckoning
of last month’s window
against the patching of a roof this week—
how could her life of sacrifice
and his of labour, sweat and boiling sun
be totalled up in this small word?

A Review of Shabine and Other Stories

HAZEL SIMMONS-MCDONALD is a Saint Lucian who has lived and worked in Barbados for over thirty years. She is Professor Emerita of Applied Linguistics at the University of the West Indies and has published textbooks on language learning as well as several articles on educational issues in Creole and Creole-influenced vernacular contexts.  Although in retirement, she continues to do research in this field and also devotes time to creative writing.  

An Excerpt from The Fall of Autumn Leaves

 

Chapter Seven
 
Cameron leaned back, reading the last sentence.  He smiled and then immediately frowned.  Looking around the apartment with its four rickety chairs and Formica-covered table, he wondered where all that effort expended in becoming a success had gone.  He had grasped the brass ring, and in America, had clambered up the greasy pole.  All he had needed was a wide pair of shoulders on which to stand.  He had found two. That thought brought his mind around to his cousin Fran. 

Ronald A. Williams 2021 Frank Collymore Literary Award Winner

2021 Frank Collymore Literary Award winner Ronald A. Williams.  Photo Copyright © 2022 by Ronald A. Williams.
 
 
Reprinted from centralbank.org.bb. Ronald Williams is the Top Entrant in the 24th Frank Collymore Literary Endowment Competition > Central Bank of Barbados > News
 
RONALD A. WILLIAMS emerged as the top entrant in the 24th Frank Collymore Literary Endowment (FCLE) Competition. This was announced during a scaled-down in-person awards ceremony at Frank Collymore Hall.

21 Quick Facts about Bajan Lit

 

1. The Frank Collymore Literary Award, launched in 1998, is the most lucrative writing prize in Barbados, with the top “Colly” winner receiving BDS$10,000.00 (US$5,000.00).

2. The National Independence Festival of Creative Arts (NIFCA) Literary Competition produced its first Winning Words anthology of medal-winning entries in 1999.

Winning Words: A Bajan Love Story

 

 

“TYRONE, YOU HEAR DAT?”

He grumbled and turned his back to her. 

“Tyrone,” she hissed again. “Get up, somebody outside de house.”

“Alright…alright,” he mumbled as he scratched his chest sleepily and crawled from beneath the bedsheet.

Winning Words: Resurrection 1

 

 

No kites up in the air this year
No singing angels’ majestic climb
No raging bulls
No dancing round-kite
Square-kite
Box-kite
Not a bat-kite in the blue sky

Little ones
Distracted by a different story 
Backs turned to this ascension 
Too busy
Plugged into their PlayStations
YouTube fingers google walking portable brains

Winning Words: If Only on the Outside/If Only on the Inside

 

 

If only on the outside
I am fat
so I cannot accept that
I am worthy
I know deep down
my bulging belly labels me obese
and I see
my heavier hips generate the most stares
I realize
my body is riddled with cellulite
and I understand
the mirror can only present its truth
I acknowledge that
my value is measured primarily as a number on a scale
so no one can make me believe
I am beautiful
if only on the inside

Pages