On being shortlisted for a major award and other revelations

 

How does it feel to be shortlisted for the inaugural Burt Award for Young Adult (YA) Literature for Island Princess in Brooklyn? It feels sort of wonderful! Even though we know that  Island Princess in Brooklyn will go no further than the shortlist, (because those to read at Bocas have appeared on their programme posted on their website), I still feel sort of wonderful. It is an honour to be shortlisted and the others with me are talented writers.  For those who do not know, the Burt Award for the Caribbean has been established by CODE, a Canadian charitable organization involved in advancing literacy and learning for 55 years, in collaboration with William Burt and the Literary Prizes Foundation. The idea is to address  the need for young adult material in the Caribbean, and consequently, to encourage the writing of it. The prize is being administered by the Bocas Lit Fest, Trinidad and Tobago, and the prizes (these are 1^st, 2^nd and 3^rd) will be announced at the Bocas Lit Fest in April.

There are 3 Jamaicans on the shortlist, which of itself is sort of wonderful for YA material. We, including myself, will have to stop saying that Jamaicans  don’t read, because it is clear that we do write, so it follows . . . The thing is, it holds great promise for the future.

The other Jamaicans  are A-dZiko Gegele for All Over Again (Blouse and Skirt Books – a new, young publisher, Tanya Batson-Savage, so congrats to them both). I love A-dZiko’s lyrical style; and Inner City Girl by Colleen Smith-Dennis (LMH Publishing), and I have always liked this book, as you know (see post of Dec, 12, 2010 - you can click on the image to the right of this post ). Others shortlisted are: Barrel Girl by Glynis Guevara, Trinidad and Tobago (manuscript), Musical Youth by Joanne Hillhouse, Antigua and Barbuda (manuscript) and Abraham’s  Treasure by Joanne Skerrett, Dominica (Papillotte Press). I’m so delighted for us in the Caribbean that this award now exists and thankful to those who have brought it into being.

To foster interest in YA material, CODE had decided to do workshops on the writing of it,  and these were held this month. Richard Scrimger, a Canadian award winning writer, and I were the facilitators for Jamaica, and Richard and Paloma Mohammed for the Guyana leg. We hope that these will result in even more entries for the next judging period. Exciting prospect! When I was  facilitating that workshop I had no idea that I’d be shortlisted. So it was more so of a revelation. I had forgotten that workshops may also stimulate the facilitators to write. So that's a lovely bonus. In addition, things come to the fore to do with your writing which you may not have recognized, or allowed yourself to realize. Therefore I'll have to write a future blog on what I learned from doing that workshop.

When I wrote my children’s picture book, Cordelia Finds Fame and Fortune, my message, one might say, was fame and fortune can be found at home. There is no need to migrate. The old lady in that story tells Cordelia that she has been all over the world but has not found it. They discover together that it is right here in Jamaica. That book was inspired by my younger daughter, who like Cordelia, stands out as being different. I did not know that until someone brought it to my attention. So that was a revelation!

Island Princess in Brooklyn was inspired by my older daughter’s experience in her short sojourn with her family in the USA. So by then I must have understood  the intertwining of emotion and family with my writing. As I said in my blog for Brown Bookshelf, “This circle of family, of story, fills me with wonder.” ( http://thebrownbookshelf.com/2014/02/19/day-19-diane-brown/ ). However another  revelation,   it seems is that, yes, I can now face up to the fact that it’s not only all right to migrate, it may be essential for some. Elementary, you say; after all,  all island people migrate. Yes, indeed,  but it is not necessarily emotionally accepted deep in one’s heart.

Urban legend  has it that as many Jamaicans live outside Jamaica as live here.

 When Princess meets the old man on the subway with the 'Jamerican'  accent, she begins to think she might be okay.  He is one of us. All the migrations of my extended family before I was born, and my immediate and extended family in the seventies,  did not truly  meld those away with those here. But Princess McQueen did it. She said, ‘We are the same. Our stories are your stories and they deserve also to be told’. Perhaps, just as Princess, who resists the idea that she should need to leave her beloved Jamaica, comes to accept that  both countries can be in her heart, so too, I have accepted this concept, and that only occurred to me recently. The stories of Jamaicans abroad are part of the stories of home. What a revelation!

 

 

 

 

Despatches: More painting, running a writing workshop for children and a guest blog

Quite a lot has been happening really. I completed two more of my paintings of illustrations for Things I Like. I really like the one in the bedroom at night with the light from the moon on the curtain. The one eating . . . Hmm. I think maybe I’m running out of inspiration. Interestingly enough though, I found the artist after all these years (1984) and he has seen my paintings on my blog and thinks I have some talent. I’m very pleased. Mind you, he hasn’t seen the breakfast one yet.

So why I was distracted  from my painting? Here are the reasons.

First, Brown Bookshelf, a group of African American writers who seek to promote  the work of black writers  and illustrators of children’s books,  asked me to write a blog about my journey in writing,  publishing, and  the back story to a recent publication. I am, of course, honoured that they asked me. Although I’m not an American, they also select people from the Caribbean and the UK . They are highlighting a different person for each of the 28 days of Black History Month. My blog came out on February 19. For the full text please see the link:
http://thebrownbookshelf.com/2014/02/19/day-19-diane-brown/

I hope that this exposure will help us to form links in the USA, and might I say, bring our Caribbean books to their notice. I know it’s a dream. But who knows, eh? I didn’t know that this group would contact me.  So you just never know. We go forward in good faith, making links with one another on our journey.

Very interesting also, I was asked to facilitate a writing workshop for children by the Observer newspaper. It’s their Learning Corner Junior Writers’ Club. We had our first workshop last week Saturday. There are 8 children around age 10, selected from both government primary and private prep. schools. They are so keen, keen to write and to read. When we had break for snacks or for lunch, they could be seen reading the books I’d brought with me while waiting for the next session to begin. I’d forgotten what it was like to be a child and to read books in recess.  I am delighted to be working with these children. I’m very pleased that the other sponsor, National Baking Company has joined with the Observer for this initiative. Stories written by the children will be published in the Jamaica Observer’s Learning Corner.

One of the most wonderful things is to be still open to learning. What have I learnt so far? I have learnt yet again that this gift for writing is a gift to be shared over and over again as much as possible, and that children, each generation comes fresh to the excitement of the world; they are not jaded by the mistakes made by previous generations. Everything is new again and it is a blessing to be able to help with this newness. What else have I learnt? This idea for the workshops/club came about because one little girl wrote in suggesting it, and one of the facilitators  at the Observer thought it was a good idea, and the rest, as they say, is history. This little girl is taking part in the workshop. And we grown-ups sometimes think that it’s a waste of time sharing ideas because now one will pay us any mind. Let us never forget the power of one (this little girl), which can lead us to two, and three, and . . . I’ve learnt this anew.