Despatches: BookFusion, Lignum Vitae Awards, Talking Trees Literary Fiesta

 

 Bookfusion: Weeks  ago I should have mentioned BookFusion, an enterprise recently established by a young couple.  They did a presentation at one of our coffee mornings. It’s a space where you can buy Jamaican books  (children’s; yes, children’s!) and it’s also the digital library for books from the Ministry of Education. This is what we always said we wanted and here we are dragging our feet again. Instead of sending a hallelujah chorus (no disrespect especially at this time of year) and taking advantage of it, we are  wandering around and wondering what next to do.  (This is directed to myself as I am not having the big writing weekend I planned.  A little bit  devastating to find you have all the time really and you’re still stuck  . . .)

Heaps of Ministry books are on it, (you know the ones you can’t buy, because the Ministry doesn’t sell books): Dr. Bird Reading Series, the Blue Mahoe (which came after the Dr. Bird) for grades 7-9, and even Literacy 1-2-3, that great series I managed and was so upset that they weren’t in all schools or available for sale.  Well they  are there in all their splendour!  And you can borrow for free.  I was at a meeting with some educators (vague enough for all to be unidentified) and I mentioned it, and someone was quite astonished, said he had heard nothing about it, and looked it up immediately. Delighted! I gather information had been sent out to all. However, I suppose sometimes more than one messenger has to go out  with the news.

So please look up BookFusion and pass the word around.  Be another messenger. There are two sections, one the digital library (please note this, all those schools that wanted access to Literacy 1-2-3),  and the other, the bookstore. Below is a link to an article about BookFusion.

http://beta.jamaica-gleaner.com/article/business/20170106/bookfusion-adds-new-clients

“Since its capital injection from First Angels, the company has added Carlong Publishers, Blue Banyan Books, LMH Publishing and a "few other local publishers" to its client list.” (Quote from the article above)

This is a link to the bookstore.

https://www.bookfusion.com/books?category=Children%27s+Books

 

Lignum Vitae Awards 2017: The next piece of news is that the Lignum Vitae Awards are on this year. Please check the Jamaican Writers Society website.  Entries for this year should be sent in by June 30, 2017.

https://jamaicanwriterssociety.wordpress.com/2017/04/03/lignum-vitae-awards-2017-rules-of-entry/

My dear fellow writers, I know that you have been working on your story/novel since the last  awards in 2015, either because you couldn’t finish the story for the 2015  competition, or you didn’t get shortlisted then, or  you just got the idea to start it then when you realized that maybe you could be just as good as some of those who won, or. . . .

Talking Trees Literary Fiesta  is also on this year, May 27 at Treasure Beach. The last time I went it was beautiful. I wrote a story (first draft) the next weekend as a result of all the inspiration  and creativity I felt.

“The Fiesta will feature poet and author, Olive Senior. She will share the stage with the newly named Jamaican Poet Laureate Lorna Goodison, who was the featured reader in 2015. Other readers include Malachi Smith, Roland Watson-Grant, Margaret Bernal, Ann-Margaret Lim, Yashika Graham . . . . (quote from the Website.)

This promises to be wonderful.

Why write if nobody is going to read it? If a tree falls in the forest . . .

 

You’ve seen this question, or versions of it, asked before: Would you still write if you knew that no-one would read it? It reminds me of the question first introduced to us in university. If a tree falls in the forest , and nobody hears it, does it make a sound? We were young; how we pondered that question, our introduction to philosophical thought. That was long ago. Today’s students would know the answer to that, and no doubt have far more serious concerns. Little did I know that that question might arise again. It has, after what I call the failure of the great Amazon experiment/expedition (for another blog).

A fellow writer, no doubt feeling as low as I did at the time, asked if people aren’t buying our books why write? She indicated that writing was her life, so what now? At the time,  I was concerned with unexpected family affairs and had no time to even consider the matter. However, I think I have an answer, and it is this. There is always somebody, reading. Have faith in that, and if even one person/child reads you story and finds comfort, finds himself/herself, finds something of merit, perhaps a glimmer to light his/her way through life, then it is worth writing. And in a way, like workers in some ancient colony or social organization, we have to write; that is our destiny. Perhaps this is worth a coffee morning of discussion with fellow authors.

A few weeks ago, I read a column by a young columnist in one of our newspapers. It was after The Olympics and we were just full up with gratitude to our athletes, and especially happy for our Usain Bolt. The writer said that he had read this book when he was in school about great sportsmen of the world, Mohammed Ali and Pele ( I think he mentioned those), and he wondered if he would ever see any greats like that again  in the world, and here he was seeing  our own Usain Bolt, as great an athlete as ever there was in the world. I was amazed. I wondered if he was referring to the Dr. Bird Series (he remembered the books arriving at his school in a box), provided by the Ministry of Education, and written by Peggy Campbell (of blessed memory), Karl Phillpotts and I.  This particular non-fiction piece, Some of the World’s Greats,  was written by Peggy or Karl, not by me. ( I thought that the title included  . . .in sports” but it isn’t written like that on my list, so apologies to the writer or heirs , if the title isn’t quite right). I could see the book, I searched for it in my collection of originals (so I could scan it for this blog), but there was no copy there. I concluded that I gave it to a library when I was doing one of my ‘culling of books exercises’, when I decided that I would only keep copies of those that contained stories written by me.  Hard decisions like this have to be made when you perceive that there is a danger that one day you may not be able to get into your study because of books, books, books, everywhere.

The point is, guys, the book made a lasting impression on him. He remembered it even as an adult. Finally, he had his own ‘world’s great in sports’. I think that is reason enough to write.

Here is another example, just in this last week, as a comment on one of my blog posts:

I am the quality person I am today because of your inspiring writings. My ability to ready had more to do with the interesting and captivating plots in your  short stories that had me engaged as a child. Now as an adult, I would like to collect them all. How possible is that?

By the way, I get requests from people about how to get the Dr. Bird Series ( I presume the above is about the Dr. Bird Series).  We get no royalties from these books, but I count it as one of the greatest blessings of my life that I was able to write on that series, with two great writers.

Then there is Abigail: Abigail’s Glorious Hair  created quite a stir. I thought it would be The Happiness Dress, the Commonwealth Prize winner. But Abigail is the one that touched a spark in us about our hair, brought back memories for some, made little girls absolutely sure that they had glorious hair. Earlier this year, I read at the International Association of School Librarianship (IASL) conference held here in Jamaica, (along with Diana McCaulay, (Gone to Drift – see my previous blog), and A-dZiko Simba Gegele (All Over Again), both Burt Prize winners.  Again, there was that wonderful reception for Abigail. Someone from Belize asked that in signing her copy of the book, I also write, “You have beautiful hair”. This, she said, was for a little girl who didn’t think her hair was beautiful because it was too curly. Aah, my friends. Definitely reason enough to write?

But, you say, you are talking about books that people are buying and reading. Yes, guys, but when I wrote Abigail I had no idea. It was for my grandchildren, inspired by them. ( Rachel Wade, whose illustrations are so delightful, was actually sent pictures by me of my granddaughter’s hair, so that she could get the image right.) As I said, I thought it would be The Happiness Dress that would carry the two books. And in truth, children have found happiness dresses in their closets, and wear happiness dresses to my readings, as a couple of the girls did for  a recent reading at the Kingston and St. Andrew Parish Library. The  important thing is, you never know when a book will drop a ray of hope or love into a child’s heart or mind.  Definitely reason to write!

 As a postscript, at this time, hopefully Abigail will  enlighten, comfort, sing a hallelujah chorus. A story can quietly make a mighty noise.









Credits for image of forest: :https://www.google.comjm/search?sourceid=navclien