Saturday afternoon at Calabash Marlon James, novelist and MC The first Calabash open mike session started a little late, but the audience (now almost filling the big tent) were probably glad for a breather. Marlon James was a genial MC, cracking jokes at his own expense, and deftly enforcing the three-minute time limit–if one of [...]

Friday night at Calabash Joe Meno reading in the main tent at Calabash tonight Calabash 2007 began with a sort of “meet and eat”–a pre-performance crowd eating seafood, drinking Red Stripe, and schmoozing on the lawn near Jack Sprat, the official Calabash restaurant. I stumbled upon Marlon James chatting up a Canadian film crew–tomorrow Marlon [...]

Garnette Cadogan’s bedside books Friday again, dear readers–”bedside books” day. Here’s a list compiled by Garnette Cadogan, who last reviewed a slew of recent Bob Marley books in the February 2007 CRB. From the size of his bedside book stacks, it’s clear Garnette must get very little sleep. Some throat-clearing before I submit my list [...]

In support of the Stabroek News Today several newspapers across the Anglophone Caribbean have published a statement condemning the Guyanese government’s advertising boycott of the Stabroek News, which began last November (see this Reporters Sans Frontières report for background). Here is the text of the statement, taken from the Barbados Nation. (Separate editorials on the [...]

Caribbean lit links – In the Jamaica Gleaner, an anonymous interviewer talks to Kwame Dawes, co-founder of the Calabash International Literary Festival, about the event that has come to dominate Jamaica’s literary calendar: Calabash is a brand. Colin Channer’s gift is in developing a brand and then making it one that can shape and direct [...]