Un­der the vi­brant Caribbean sun on Au­gust 26, 2025, the Uni­ver­si­ty of the West In­dies’ Cave Hill Cam­pus in Bar­ba­dos be­came a lit­er­ary haven for at­ten­dees of Car­ifes­ta XV’s Sym­posia. It was there, amid the hum of cul­tur­al ex­change, that To­bag­on­ian La­toy­aa Roberts launched her lat­est novel­la, The Tide Re­claims, a sto­ry root­ed in love, cli­mate re­silience, and the frag­ile beau­ty of is­land life.

At­mos­phere and read­ing

The launch felt like more than just a for­mal event; it was an im­mer­sion in­to the world of St Gyles, an is­land be­set by ero­sion, ris­ing seas, and shift­ing tra­di­tions. La­toy­aa’s read­ing for about 20 min­utes trans­port­ed lis­ten­ers di­rect­ly in­to this set­ting, with evoca­tive de­scrip­tions that brought alive turquoise waves carv­ing against storm-bat­tered shores, and vivid char­ac­ters like ma­rine bi­ol­o­gist Megan Rivera and re­formed ty­coon James Hall.

The read­ing was heart­felt and at­mos­pher­ic as she read from Chap­ter 8—Shift­ing Sands, an in­vi­ta­tion to en­vi­sion both dan­ger and prospect in the cor­po­rate board­room of New York that host­ed a dis­cus­sion that would de­ter­mine the fu­ture of a small is­land in the Caribbean. La­toy­aa’s voice car­ried the ur­gency of cli­mate change and the del­i­cate emer­gence of hope through com­mu­ni­ty heal­ing, as em­bod­ied in her pro­tag­o­nists’ Blue Cat­a­lyst Ini­tia­tive, which blends eco-tourism, coral restora­tion, sus­tain­able fish­ing, and re­new­able en­er­gy.

En­gage­ment
and dis­cus­sion

Fol­low­ing the read­ing, the at­mos­phere shift­ed in­to a con­ver­sa­tion­al space. At­ten­dees were in­vit­ed to give re­flec­tions not on­ly on the nov­el’s nar­ra­tive arcs but on broad­er themes: en­vi­ron­men­tal stew­ard­ship, lo­cal ac­tivism, and the emo­tion­al weight of com­mu­ni­ty bonds.

One at­tendee echoed the novel­la’s core mes­sage, not­ing how the sto­ry in­sists that “love for the en­vi­ron­ment is al­so part of that search,” a sen­ti­ment that the au­thor her­self high­light­ed, em­pha­sis­ing preser­va­tion of land and iden­ti­ty in the face of de­vel­op­ment and ero­sion.

The con­ver­sa­tion didn’t shy from re­al-world par­al­lels. Bar­ba­di­an and Caribbean lis­ten­ers raised ques­tions about coastal ero­sion, coral reef degra­da­tion, and how lit­er­a­ture like The Tide Re­claims might serve as both artis­tic ex­pres­sion and en­vi­ron­men­tal call to ac­tion. La­toy­aa re­spond­ed thought­ful­ly, shar­ing her own ex­pe­ri­ences on To­ba­go and oth­er is­lands where sub­tle shifts of de­clin­ing reef health, de­for­esta­tion, and shore­line loss re­veal the ur­gent need for aware­ness and col­lec­tive re­sponse.

Many at­ten­dees shared their per­son­al con­nec­tions to place, ex­press­ing con­cern over how the land­scapes they cher­ish are chang­ing. Oth­ers asked about Megan Rivera’s mo­ti­va­tions, her love for St Gyles, echo­ing their own ties to her­itage. These heart­felt ex­changes un­der­scored the nov­el’s pow­er, that it is not just as a love sto­ry but as a bridge be­tween fic­tion and com­mu­nal em­pa­thy.

Re­flec­tions on sto­ry
and sym­bol­ism

At its core, The Tide Re­claims is a love sto­ry, yes—but one that mar­ries ro­mance with en­vi­ron­men­tal ad­vo­ca­cy. Roberts’ nar­ra­tive choic­es—Megan’s sci­en­tif­ic ur­gency, James’ wealth-trans­formed stew­ard­ship, the Blue Cat­a­lyst Ini­tia­tive—mod­el how pas­sion and ini­tia­tive can in­ter­sect to heal eco­log­i­cal harm while forg­ing hu­man con­nec­tion.

The read­ing and sub­se­quent di­a­logue re­vealed the nov­el’s emo­tion­al and sym­bol­ic close­ness to Caribbean re­al­i­ties. This is a re­gion where the sea, while a source of iden­ti­ty, al­so presents ex­is­ten­tial threats. The sto­ry’s tides be­come metaphors for change—both threat­en­ing and re­demp­tive. In dis­cussing these, Roberts high­light­ed how fic­tion can in­spire—by awak­en­ing love for place, urg­ing proac­tive en­gage­ment, and cul­ti­vat­ing com­mu­nal re­silience.

Con­nect­ing sto­ry, au­di­ence, and place

What made this launch unique­ly com­pelling was the syn­er­gy be­tween the sto­ry and lis­ten­ers. Car­ifes­ta XV’s au­di­ence, artists, en­vi­ron­men­tal­ists, writ­ers, and every­day cit­i­zens weren’t pas­sive spec­ta­tors. They were liv­ing re­flec­tions of the nov­el’s dual themes: cul­tur­al root­ed­ness and en­vi­ron­men­tal pre­car­i­ty. Their ques­tions, their sto­ries, echoed Megan and James’ strug­gles. This ex­change trans­formed the event from a sim­ple read­ing in­to a col­lec­tive ex­pe­ri­ence: peo­ple joined in dream­ing so­lu­tions, imag­in­ing ini­tia­tives akin to the Blue Cat­a­lyst, and recog­nis­ing lit­er­a­ture’s abil­i­ty to fu­el re­gion­al con­scious­ness.

La­toy­aa’s ex­pres­sion—“live lo­cal, think glob­al”—felt ful­ly em­bod­ied in that room, at that mo­ment

La­toy­aa Roberts’ launch of The Tide Re­claims at Car­ifes­ta XV tran­scend­ed the usu­al bound­aries of a lit­er­ary event. It was a meet­ing of hearts, places, and pos­si­bil­i­ties, a mo­ment when fic­tion and au­di­ence con­verged to not just imag­ine change, but to feel its ur­gency deeply.

Through the read­ing’s emo­tion­al res­o­nance and the au­di­ence’s en­gaged re­sponse, the event il­lus­trat­ed how sto­ries ground­ed in Caribbean land­scapes and in cli­mate re­al­i­ty can awak­en both love and ac­tion. In that rich cul­tur­al space at UWI Cave Hill, The Tide Re­claims was not mere­ly in­tro­duced; it was em­braced, dis­cussed, and made part of a col­lec­tive call­ing to pro­tect the is­land spir­it we hold dear.

La­toy­aa Roberts is a com­mu­ni­ca­tions spe­cial­ist and a mem­ber of the Trinidad and To­ba­go Writ­ers Guild. To learn more about this mem­ber and the Guild call 1(868)620-5799 email Trinidad­To­bagoWrit­ers­Guild@gmail.com or on so­cial me­dia @TTWrit­ers­Guild