Caribbean Writer

by C.D. Valere
I just completed my reading of Karen King-Aribisala’s The Hangman’s Game. As you recall, last month it won the 2008 Commonwealth Writers’ Regional Prize for Best Book (African region). The author is Guyanese-born, and lives in Nigeria. Here’s my (brief) review of The Hangman’s Game.

The novel is an interweaving of two tales of events leading up to, and shortly after societal upheavals in two countries. One is a tale of a slave revolt in Guyana (1823); the other is a tale of a coup in contemporary Nigeria. The narrator (a writer) is a Guyanese immigrant in Nigeria who is married to a Nigerian, and is pregnant with her second child. [Read more]

Courttia Newland was born in 1973 to parents of Caribbean heritage. In 1997 he published his first novel, The Scholar. Further critically acclaimed work followed, including Society Within (1999), and Snakeskin (2002). He is the editor of the anthology IC3: The Penguin Book of New Black Writing in Britain (2000) and has short stories featured in many other anthologies including The Time Out Book of London Short Stories and England Calling. His latest books include a novella, The Dying Wish, and a book of short stories, Music for the Off-Key (both 2006).  [Read more]

Signifyin’ Guyana: Drums, a musical saw, hilarious stories, poetry, call and response moments, songs of Guyana, prayers by a Pandit, an Imam, and leaders from several Christian denominations, and of course Ol’ Higue, Backoo, and Jumbie were all part of the celebratory tributes in a home-going service for Wordsworth McAndrew yesterday evening.
It was a celebration befitting a man who embraced and informed many of all aspects of Guyanese culture.

The Arts Forum emerged in 2002 out of the need to support the creative arts and to give space and voice to artists in Guyana whose works were under-represented and hardly existed in the national consciousness.

The work of THE ARTS FORUM is to hold art exhibitions, organize lectures, workshops, seminars and other related activities that might increase awareness of the relevance of the humanities, art and culture to individual growth and development and, hence, to national life. [Read more]