Missing the list By now, every literary blog in the English-speaking world has probably linked to the 2007 Man Booker Prize longlist. What’s the buzz? There’s only one really big-name writer on the list (Ian McEwan), and for a Booker longlist it’s actually rather short: just thirteen books. But what stood out for me–as for [...]

Links, links, links – Geoffrey Philp explains “The Top Ten Things Every Writer Should Know”. I’m particularly keen on number 6: “Read!” – Ian McDonald muses (in last Sunday’s Stabroek News over “losing the art of waiting awhile”: Consider the joy of writing and receiving letters. Delay is an essential ingredient in the pleasure of [...]

All Men Come to the Hills View towards the south coast of Jamaica from near Whitfield Hall I’m just back a few days ago, dear readers, from a week in Jamaica, where I was again the guest of my friend and colleague Annie Paul in Mona. It was a busy and sociable week–I spent time [...]

“No contradiction between the sensual and the spiritual” I have always found comfort in the opportunity and permission to be devotional about sensuality and about the wonders of erotic love. The Song of Songs serve as a wonderful purpose in that regard. As a poem of sensuality it is exemplary and instructive. As a poem [...]

2006 Guyana Prize shortlists The shortlists for the 2006 Guyana Prizes for Literature have been announced, according to an article in the Stabroek News. On the shortlist for the best fiction prize: Cyril Dabydeen’s Drums of My Flesh; Mark McWatt’s Suspended Sentences (which won a Commonwealth Writers’ Prize last year; the Guyana Prizes are biennial); [...]