Still from Touch (video, 2002), by Janine Antoni, included in the exhibition Into the Mix

Twenty-two months later, the CRB is back. Our November 2013 issue, published today, includes reviews of recent books of poems by Edward Baugh, Loretta Collins Klobah, and Sasenarine Persaud; recent fiction by Merle Collins and Keith Jardim; as well as a critical study of the late John Hearne by his daughter Shivaun; a collection of the little-known later writings of Eric Walrond; and a study of “Caribbean–US crosscurrents in literature and culture.” You’ll also find two new poems by Trinidadian writer Shivanee Ramlochan; a review of the recent film The Stuart Hall Project (directed by John Akomfrah); and your Antilles blogger’s own notes on a 2012 exhibition that raised questions about the geographical balancing acts required of artists from certain parts of the world.

There’s a lagniappe to look forward to: later this month we’ll publish a long interview with writer Oonya Kempadoo, talking about her new book, All Decent Animals; and an “Also noted” column rounding up the most significant books we missed during the CRB’s 2012–2013 hiatus.

And keep an eye on Antilles in the coming weeks, where we plan to run a new series of blog posts called “Footnotes”, giving further information on books reviewed in the current issue of the CRB.

Happy reading!

It happens (and has happened before): a pause for breath, a short break to clear the head, a temporary halt under the world’s pressures becomes a more lingering withdrawal. Even if the hours seem to drag, days are fugitive and weeks speed by. Before you really grasp it, months have disappeared. In the case of Antilles, nineteen months — that’s how long it’s been since our previous post.

The CRB has been on a sustained hiatus since early 2012. In November 2013, at long last, we resume regular online publication, thanks to the support of the Bocas Lit Fest. We’re returning to the quarterly timetable of our original print edition, with new issues appearing in November, February, May, and August, mid-month. And Antilles is returning as well, to supplement the magazine’s literary and cultural coverage with news, links to and excerpts from interesting writing published elsewhere, and the occasional musings of the CRB editor (your Antilles blogger). The usual miscellany, in other words — on a frequent but irregular schedule, and with the enduring aim of provoking conversation about literature and the arts, and their role in the evolution of (lofty concept!) Caribbean civilisation. Or something like that.

“The Wake”, photograph by David Spinks, posted at Flickr under a Creative Commons license

Happy new year, dear readers, from your Antilles blogger. I hope 2011 is pleasant, productive, prosperous, and provocative (in the best way) for all of us.

The CRB’s most recent issue, November 2010, wrapped up just before Christmas, and the magazine is taking a brief year-end break, preparing to launch the new January 2011 issue. It’s a good time, I think, to catch up on anything you missed in the four issues we’ve published since the CRB relaunched last May. Where to start? Maybe with the ten most popular pieces we published in 2010, as determined by our web traffic. See the list below.

This is also a good time to thank all our readers and friends who contributed to the CRB’s year-end donation drive. We’re exceedingly grateful for your support. If you meant to make a donation and somehow forgot in the Christmas fray, it’s not too late: find out how right here.

Stay tuned for news of our January issue and everything else the CRB has planned for 2011. This is an anniversary year of sorts for the magazine, since our predecessor, the original Caribbean Review of Books published in Jamaica, was launched in 1991. More on that to come!

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Since the CRB relaunched in May 2010, we’ve published four new issues and dozens of book reviews, plus essays, interviews, poems and fiction, and pieces on Caribbean art, film, and music. Here are some of the past year’s highlights — as chosen first by CRB readers, and next by editor Nicholas Laughlin.

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Readers’ favourites

The ten most popular pieces published in the CRB in 2010, based on traffic to our website.

Questions of approach: Trinidadian writer Vahni Capildeo’s essay on her first visit to India (May).

“Writing worth keeping alive”: Peepal Tree Press founder Jeremy Poynting, interviewed by Nicholas Laughlin (May).

History’s garden: Nicolette Bethel’s review of Three Ancient Colonies: Caribbean Themes and Variations, by Sidney W. Mintz (July).

Brave new world: Annie Paul’s review of the Young Talent V exhibition at the National Gallery of Jamaica (July).

“I must make trouble for the nation”: Bahamian poet Christian Campbell, interviewed by Lisa Allen-Agostini (July).

Hungry for words: a portfolio of images from artist Karyn Olivier’s ACA Foods Free Library project (July).

Create dangerously: Haitian-American writer Edwidge Danticat’s essay on writing and reading in perilous times, excerpted from her latest book (September).

Could you be loved: Nicholas Laughlin’s review of Children of God, a feature film by Bahamian director Kareem Mortimer (September).

Portrait of the artist as an old man: St Lucian poet Jane King’s review of Derek Walcott’s White Egrets (November).

Ajaat to zwazo: Brendan de Caires’s review of Lise Winer’s Dictionary of the English/Creole of Trinidad and Tobago (November).

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Editor’s choice

I won’t say these ten pieces are the best we published in 2010, or even my personal favourites. They are, rather, ten excellent examples of what I hope are the CRB’s best qualities: breadth of curiosity and awareness, depth of insight and knowledge, elegance of expression, reasonableness of opinion, and openness of imagination.

— Nicholas Laughlin

Travellin’ woman: Joshua Jelly-Schapiro on Paule Marshall’s coming of age (May).

This Zinc Roof and Some Definitions for Song: two poems by Kei Miller (May).

The godfather: John T. Gilmore’s review of Frank Collymore: A Biography, by Edward Baugh (July).

Sweet grouper throats: glimpes of contemporary Miami in an essay-cum-poem by Mark Dow (July).

Her scarlet tongue: Vahni Capildeo’s review of A Leaf in His Ear: Collected Poems, by Mahadai Das (September).

Holding the strain: Mervyn Morris on the life and poetic achievement of the Trinidadian writer Wayne Brown (September)

Woodsmoke and ground-doves: John Robert Lee on the late singer Sesenne Descartes’s classic recording St Lucia’s First Lady of Folk (September).

Stranger than paradise: a portfolio of recent work by Bahamian artist Blue Curry, with an interview by Melanie Archer (November).

The anthropologist: Elizabeth Walcott-Hackshaw’s review of three recent English translations of fiction by Dany Laferrière (November).

Last one standing: F.S.J. Ledgister’s review of Edward Seaga and the Challenges of Modern Jamaica, by Patrick E. Bryan, and My Life and Leadership, by Edward Seaga (November).

The best way you can support the CRB? Read the magazine. Second best? Contribute to our year-end donation drive. Got those both covered? You can also show us some love at your personal website or blog, by adding a CRB web badge, like the one above. There are four options, at different widths and heights, and you can grab the code here. Go ahead, let everyone know you’re a CRB reader!

It’s six months since the CRB relaunched online with a new website and a renewed sense of purpose — that purpose being the sustained and serious, insightful and intelligent, but also accessible and entertaining coverage of contemporary Caribbean books and writing alongside art, film, and music.

The CRB is the only magazine in the anglophone Caribbean devoted to this kind of broad literary and cultural criticism for a general audience. Since our relaunch, we’ve published three bimonthly issues — dated May, July, and September 2010 — filled with dozens of book reviews, as well as profiles and essays, original poems and fiction, interviews, artists’ portfolios, and film and music reviews. The full contents of each issue are freely available — there is no subscription fee — and we’re gradually transferring our six-year archive to the new website.

And what keeps the CRB engine running? The hard work of our small staff and our contributing writers. The generosity of the Prince Claus Fund for Culture and Development, who currently support the maintenance and growth of our website and archive. And you, dear readers.

The enthusiasm of our audience is the CRB’s chief motivation, but we also depend on you more tangibly. Our semi-anniversary is a good moment to ask you to show your support for the magazine with a donation.

The CRB’s operating costs are small, but real. Our budget maintains our website, covers basic administrative costs (like posting books to reviewers), and — most important — pays our contributors (modestly). The CRB is a registered non-profit, so we’re not in this for the money, but the magazine’s longevity does depend in part on our readers’ willingness to support us by dipping into their pockets.

If you’ve never donated to the CRB before, now is a good time to start. If you have donated in the past, I hope you’ll make it a regular habit. Our “support the CRB” page explains how you can chip in, with your credit card or otherwise.

Please take a couple of minutes to contribute to our donation drive — then take a couple more to spread the word to your friends and colleagues.

Dedication plaque inside the current C.L.R. James Library in London. Photograph by sarflondondunc, posted at Flickr under a Creative Commons license

Antilles has been silent the past few weeks — not because there’s nothing going on, but rather the opposite: there’s been too much happening for your Antilles blogger to keep up. The Port of Spain contemporary art centre Alice Yard — which, wearing another hat, I help run — marked its fourth anniversary with a programme of exhibitions and artists’ projects and talks. Then there was the trinidad+tobago film festival. I’ve also been keeping an eye on Carifringe, a new arts and culture festival launched in the Bahamas. Meanwhile, the CRB has been publishing reviews, essays, fiction, and poems every week — you can catch up with those here.

As we prepare to wrap up the current issue and launch the next, Antilles will return to a more active posting schedule — look out for an overview of the CRB’s special film coverage in September and October, firsthand accounts of some key Carifringe events, and our usual coverage of Caribbean literary and cultural happenings.

Finally, some good news. In the previous post, I reported the proposal to rename the C.L.R. James Library in London, and pointed Antilles readers to the online petition to stop this dismaying development. Well, enough people around the world raised their voices to persuade the Hackney Council that the renaming plan was a truly bad idea. Today it was officially announced that the new library building will continue to bear the name and honour the memory of C.L.R. James. (Now if only we could get the Trinidad and Tobago government to name a library after James in his home country . . .)

The first bimonthly online-only issue of the CRB — no. 21, dated May 2010 — wrapped up publication last week, with the third and final part of Vahni Capildeo’s vivacious essay on visiting India, “Questions of approach”. You can see the full contents of this issue here, just in case you missed something.

And now the CRB’s very small editorial team — that’s me, dear reader — is taking a short breather, and prepping to start publication of issue no. 22, dated July 2010, early next week. Stay tuned!