I’ve been enjoying reading about Earl Lovelace, the great Trinidadian contemporary writer, in Bill Schwarz’s book Caribbean Literature After Independence: The Case of Earl Lovelace. What sets him apart from other post-independence writers like Naipaul and James is that Lovelace stayed at home and Schwarz shows brilliantly how through his immersion in the island folklore, Lovelace gives voice to the dispossessed of the island and embraces an aesthetic with seeks out the traces of Africa still living on in the traditions of the rural poor. The proof of good lit crit is if it does what Bill Schwarz’s book did, sent me back to Lovelace’s classic novels The Dragon Can’t Dance and Salt. If you haven’t tried him, plunge in.
Finally Seamus Heaney has the extraordinary honour of entering the world of cockney rhyming slang. At his 70th birthday party held by his publisher Faber last week, we heard that a Seamus Heaney is the term for Bikini…”She wore an itsy bitsy teeny weeny yellow polka dot Seamus Heaney” has got a ring about it. This confirms his reputation as a poet of the people!
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Report from the Author Lounge at the London Book Fair 2009 « Writers’ & Artists’ blog // April 20, 2009 at 8:29 pm
[...] Borthwick, director of the Arvon Foundation (read her posts on the Arvon blog), spoke about their residential courses, 96 in total, for any writer of any level, even if [...]
Author Lounge at the London Book Fair 2009 | Writers and Artists // July 3, 2009 at 8:48 am
[...] Borthwick, director of the Arvon Foundation (read her posts on the Arvon blog), spoke about their residential courses, 96 in total, for any writer of any level, even if [...]