JavaScript is disabled in your web browser or browser is too old to support JavaScript. Today almost all web pages contain JavaScript, a scripting programming language that runs on visitor's web browser. It makes web pages functional for specific purposes and if disabled for some reason, the content or the functionality of the web page can be limited or unavailable.

Saturday, July 12, 2025

What to read in 2016

by

20160110

Last year, 2015, was an out­stand­ing year for Caribbean read­ing. If you were in at­ten­dance at the NGC Bo­cas Lit Fest, odds are you've got a gen­er­ous stack of se­lect ti­tles from the fes­ti­val, still await­ing com­plete ab­sorp­tion. This year is shap­ing up to be no less re­mark­able, with new re­leas­es from fic­tion and po­et­ry favourites, as well as the promis­ing de­buts of writ­ers worth watch­ing.

At Sun­day Arts, I'm es­pe­cial­ly look­ing for­ward to writ­ing that's in­no­v­a­tive, push­ing against the bar­ri­ers of mis­con­cep­tions, stereo­types, and com­pla­cen­cies: these ti­tles ren­der both the Caribbean and the world be­yond it in as­ton­ish­ing­ly keen-eyed vi­sion. They are ev­i­dence of the mas­sive groundswell in Caribbean book pub­li­ca­tion. Here's a quar­tet of forth­com­ing se­lec­tions that you'll want to ink in­to next year's book­ish cal­en­dar:

Mea­sures of Ex­pa­tri­a­tion

by Vah­ni Capildeo (Car­canet Press)

Ex­pect­ed Pub­li­ca­tion: Jan­u­ary 2016

If you think you know where you're head­ed in Trinida­di­an Vah­ni Capildeo's po­ems, guess again: these vers­es are strewn with en­gage­ments in cu­rios­i­ty, splen­dour and ar­cane por­tents, re­sid­ing in even the most seem­ing­ly do­mes­tic minu­ti­ae. Noth­ing can be tak­en for grant­ed, the po­et shows us, and in her newest col­lec­tion, Mea­sures of Ex­pa­tri­a­tion, she is poised to un­veil the world we take for grant­ed, pre­sent­ing a re­al­i­ty that is at once ours, and even sharp­er in its truths than that which we in­hab­it.

Con­tem­plat­ing home, ex­ile, and the navel-string con­nec­tiv­i­ty we feel to places we des­ig­nate as ours by birth or af­fec­tion, these po­ems won The Po­et­ry So­ci­ety's Spring 2016 Book Award. This ho­n­our pre-short­lists the col­lec­tion for the 2016 TS Eliot Prize, award­ed to the best col­lec­tion of verse pub­lished in the UK and Ire­land. I'll be busi­ly root­ing for Vah­ni, while buried deep in her newest of­fer­ing.

The Re­pen­ters

by Kevin Jared Ho­sein

(Peepal Tree Press)

Ex­pect­ed Pub­li­ca­tion: Ju­ly 2016

Trinida­di­an Kevin Ho­sein's The Re­pen­ters is an am­bi­tious ar­rival on the re­gion­al lit­er­ary scene: it's the first full-length nov­el from the win­ner of this year's re­gion­al arm of the Com­mon­wealth Short Sto­ry prize. Earn­ing that ac­co­lade con­fers se­ri­ous promise and po­ten­tial: Ho­sein's de­but nov­el is as un­con­ven­tion­al­ly-told and framed as his Com­mon­wealth win­ner, The King of Set­tle­ment 4.

With one col­lec­tion of short fic­tion for young read­ers, Lit­tle­town Se­crets, tucked be­neath his belt, the au­thor's lit­er­ary ca­reer seems poised on the thresh­old of a sig­nif­i­cant break­through. This nov­el por­trays the swift dis­so­lu­tion of child­hood in­no­cence, told by an un­ortho­dox nar­ra­tor with more than his fair share of cryp­tic con­ceal­ments: it may well deep­en Ho­sein's tri­umphant ad­vent.

Rid­ing Bound­aries

by Col­in Robin­son

(Peepal Tree Press)

Ex­pect­ed Pub­li­ca­tion: June 2016

Per­haps Peepal Tree's most ex­cit­ing po­et­ry se­lec­tion in its an­nounced line-up of 2016 books thus far, Robin­son's first col­lec­tion an­nounces a nec­es­sary Trinida­di­an voice in verse, by turns au­da­cious, whim­si­cal and re­flec­tive. In po­ems that think hard and un­stint­ing­ly on what it means to present, and rep­re­sent, mas­cu­line sex­u­al­i­ties in the Caribbean, de­sire is a cor­ner­stone of Rid­ing Bound­aries, but it's not the on­ly citadel of con­cerns from which Robin­son hoists his flags.

Any­one who's not fa­mil­iar with the po­et's work would do well to read his se­lec­tion in Com­ing Up Hot: Eight New Po­ets from the Caribbean. His work with­in that 2015 an­thol­o­gy is her­ald­ed by Peepal Tree's as­so­ciate po­et­ry ed­i­tor, Kwame Dawes, as "a qui­et un­earthing of the com­pli­ca­tions of af­fec­tion and love." This is what I have re­turned to re­peat­ed­ly in Robin­son's po­ems: a stead­fast­ness of in­ter­ro­ga­tion, and an ut­ter lack of com­pla­cent verse–and it is to these things that I most look for­ward in Rid­ing Bound­aries.

On the radar

Oth­er 2016 Caribbean ti­tles on the Sun­day Arts Sec­tion's radar in­clude:

�2 Au­gus­town, by Kei Miller

�2 The Colour of Shad­ows, by Judy Ray­mond

�2 Mad­woman, by Shara Mc­Cal­lum

�2 House of Lords and Com­mons, by Ish­ion Hutchin­son

�2 In the Eye of the Storm: Edgar Mit­tel­holz­er 1909�2009: Crit­i­cal Per­spec­tives, by Juani­ta Cox

�2 Kingston But­ter­cup, by Ann-Mar­garet Lim

�2 Strange Fruit, by Ka­mau Brath­waite


Related articles

Sponsored

Weather

PORT OF SPAIN WEATHER

Sponsored