As long as she's known herself, Monique Roffey has been a writer. The author of Sun Dog and The White Woman on the Green Bicycle (a runner-up for the Orange Prize 2010), has been shortlisted for the 2013 OCM Bocas Prize for her latest work, Archipelago, published last year.
Her journey as a writer started in T&T, where she was born, and has led her to a literary life in London. Now, it's brought her right back home.
"I don't think I've ever not written," she says. "My earliest memory was writing on everything around me. I used to write on the walls at home. I remember drawing all over the bed and the furniture.
In fact she says she's thought of herself as a writer, on such a fundamental level, and for so long, that it's become a bit of a problem. Life as a successful published author has inevitably made her a target for criticism. "I get read," she says, "and some of the feedback is negative. That can be incredibly destabilising. She's had to create space between the two identities. "I've had to develop a split, so that the writer and the 'me' are separate."
She compares this to "putting up a public shop front," especially when she has to do public readings: "It's part of the job these days for the writer."
Like all good writers, she is a reader. She devoured mystery and adventure books as a child in Trinidad. "It was not until much later, in my teens, that I began to read more mature books."
She studied the requisite Shakespeare and classics at high school in England, where, as a student of the "B" class, she shook up the status quo by winning a prize for writing.
"I still treasure that prize," she said. "It was a victory for the outsider."
That outsider status remains a feature of her adult life, dividing her time as she does between the UK and Trinidad.
"You encounter a bit of 'you're not really from here' from both places. Your authority is questioned."
Roffey read English and Film at the University of East Anglia, and fell in love with American and South American writers. "My first love affair was with Flannery O'Connor, Steinbeck, Faulkner."
But it was not until her early 20s that she discovered Caribbean writers: "It took me some time to reach my own back yard."
Her first exposure was the work of Jean Rhys, Aim� C�saire and Franz Fanon. Later, she discovered local lights like Lovelace and Naipaul. But these days, her work with CALAG (Caribbean Literature Action Group), and as a creative writing teacher, working with promising authors, has placed her right into the beating heart of the regional literary scene.
"I feel privileged, lucky to have worked with some of the emerging poets and fiction writers here." She notes: " The standard here is as high as anywhere else I've taught.
"What I find interesting is the fact that more women are writing � and the diversity of their work." She says each of the students she coaches is writing from her own background and experience, in her own original voice.
"Coming here and offering workshops has been a wonderful way to witness their courage and be part of their struggle, their journey towards publication. There's lots happening here, as there is across the region."
She sees plenty of potential for Caribbean writers: "Things have changed dramatically for anyone who wants to write. Only 40 years ago, a working class woman of colour in this part of the world would have had no opportunity. Publishing was an extremely closed, elite world.
"Now, we're living in an era of globalisation. The internet is a really powerful tool for artistic professional people to hook up, and be included." She says the mentality that "people from a little island should be excluded has melted away".
She says NGC Bocas Lit Fest, which runs from April 25 to 28, "is fantastic showcase" that brings score of industry people here. People working in the publishing industry "must make the most of having all these writers here for four days. Local writers must come talk to people, come to events," and make the most of the "power of social networking".
For herself, being in Trinidad is inspiration. "I came here to write a book. But in the time I've spent, I already have ideas for short stories, another novel, and a film project � another three years of writing".
When she's here, she says, "I am constantly tripping over ideas for writing. Trinidad provides almost an overload of ideas. The history, culture and politics are so rich, I can't stay indifferent. I can't not get caught up, impacted on � spiritually, emotionally, psychologically. This is not a little place I can take or leave, or outgrow. Every time I come back I get completely snared.
"I was born here. It's home."
And now that she's working on her fourth novel, she feels she has reached a level of "maturity born from years and years of actual writing, as a craftsman and as a person".
"I feel only now that I know who I am as a writer."
The NGC Bocas Lit Fest begins today at NALIS, for information about the sessions visit www.bocaslitfest.com.
Today's ScheduleNGC Bocas Lit Fest
FESTIVAL WELCOME
The 2013 NGC Bocas Lit Fest officially kicks off!
Writers vs Politicians with Martin Daly, Paula Gopee-Scoon, Sunity Maharaj, and Ralph Maraj.
Local luminaries read portraits of politicians–hilarious, ironic, tragic–from classic and contemporary works of Caribbean fiction by Jamaican John Hearne, Barbadian Austin Clarke, Trinidad-born Monique Roffey, and Guyanese Pauline Melville.
9�10 am �2 Old Fire Station
WORKSHOP
Getting started with Marlon James.
For new writers: how to find your subject and voice, and break through the barrier of the opening line.
10 am�12.30 pm �2 1st Floor, Seminar Room
FATHER FIGURES
Colin Grant and Hannah Lowe chaired by Ruth Borthwick.
Prose and verse portraits of Jamaican fathers, by the authors of Bageye at the Wheel and Chick.
10.30�11.30 am �2 Old Fire Station
POETRY
Marion Bethel and Cyril Dabydeen, chaired by Nicha Selvon-Ramkissoon.
Readings by poets from the Bahamas and Guyana.
10.30�11.30 am �2 AV Room
NEW TALENT SHOWCASE
Danielle Boodoo-Fortun�.
The first of our New Talent Showcase writers reads from her poems and discusses her work.
Noon�12.45 pm �2 Old Fire Station
PERFORMANCE POETRY
AND OPEN MIC
Lunchtime jam
A selection of performance poets take their vibe to the streets of the city. Plus a chance for budding writers to share their work.
Noon�1 pm �2 Abercromby Street Arcade
FILM
Barbado'ed, dir Shane Brennan and Paul Arnott.
The poorest community in Barbados is the Redlegs, the direct descendants of Scots transported to Barbados in the 17th century. Scottish author Chris Dolan discovers what they know about their roots, and what their prospects are.
Noon�1 pm �2 AV Room
FORGOTTEN STORIES
Andrea Stuart and Chris Dolan, chaired by Margaret Busby.
Forgotten parts of the history of Barbados, retold by the authors of Sugar in the Blood and Redlegs.
1 �2 pm �2 AV Room
WORKSHOP
Length matters with Cyril Dabydeen.
There are stories that need a few dozen pages, and some that need a few dozen words. An introduction to short-short fiction.
1.30�4 pm �2 1st Floor, Seminar Room
DISCUSSION
Beyond a Boundary at 50
with Deryck Murray and Arnold Gibbons, chaired by Kenneth Ramchand.
CLR James's great book on sport, politics, and society celebrates its half-century in 2012. A panel of sportsmen and scholars discuss its continuing relevance.
1.30�2.30 pm �2 Old Fire Station
MUSIC
Lovey and Co with John Cowley.
The first Trinidadian musicians ever to be recorded were Lovey's Original Trinidad String Band, in 1912. The author of Carnival, Canboulay, and Calypso tells the story, and discusses Lovey's legacy with Trinidad Express features editor Deborah John.
2�3 pm �2 AV Room
FICTION
Courttia Newland and Ifeona Fulani, chaired by Ryan Durgasingh.
A reading of new fiction by the authors of The Gospel According to Cane and Ten Days in Jamaica.
2.30�3.30 pm �2 Old Fire Station
FICTION
Kerry Young and Diana McCaulay, chaired by Giselle Rampaul.
Jamaican family histories transformed into fiction by the authors of Pao and Huracan.
4�5 pm �2 Old Fire Station
SHORT TALK
Alison Donnell and Michael Bucknor talk to Barbara Lalla about the Routledge Companion to Anglophone Caribbean Literature, and our evolving literary canon.
4�5 pm �2 AV Room
ONE-ON-ONE
Marina Warner
The British author of Alone of All Her Sex and Stranger Magic talks to Lawrence Scott about myths, history, and stories.
5�6 pm �2 Old Fire Station
FILM
A Dream to Change the World: A Tribute to John La Rose, dir. Horace Ov�, CBE.
A documentary about the life of the late John La Rose, poet, essayist, publisher, trade unionist, cultural and political activist, and founder of New Beacon Books and chairman of the George Padmore Institute in London.
5�7 pm �2 AV Room
BOCAS HENRY
SWANZY AWARD
The presentation of the inaugural Bocas Swanzy Award, recognising distinguished service to Caribbean letters, to John La Rose (posthumously) and Sarah White of New Beacon Books.
7�8.30 pm �2 AV Room
