TCW Launches Volume 34 With a Hybridized Variety Webinar in the Spirit of the VI Lit Fest: Featuring Award-Winning Authors as well as Readings From Volume 34 Submissions
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Contact: Editor, Alscess Lewis-Brown
July 8, 2020
The Caribbean Writer, under its 2020 theme “Diasporic Rhythms: Interrogating the Past, Re-imagining the Future,” invites the general public to the 2-day online launch of its 34th volume on Saturday, July 18 and Sunday, July 19, 2020 from 2pm to 5pm with simulcasting on Facebook and VILF (VI Literary Festival and Book Fair) platforms. Volume 34 explores ideas about Dignity, Power and Place in the Caribbean Space.
According to Editor Alscess Lewis-Brown, the upcoming variety webinar is a sort of hybridized Volume 34 Book Launch with the VI Lit Fest which was postponed this year because of COVID-19. It will feature conversations with large-as-life personalities including Poet Laureate of Trinidad and Tobago, folklorist, poet, comedian Paul Keenes Douglas and Calypsonian, Calypso King of Trinidad and Tobago, poet, historian and author Dr Hollis “The Mighty Chalkdust” Liverpool, as well as award-winning literati including South African scholar and author Rozeena Maart, and Virgin Islands authors nationally and internationally renowned: Tobias Buckell, Tiphanie Yanique, Richard Georges and Cadwell Turnbull. In addition to the readings from Volume 34 submissions, the webinar will also feature writing and poetry workshops as well as conversations with the authors.
As a prodigious first, and because of the new launch medium occasioned by the new normal, TCW contributors from across the diaspora will have the opportunity to engage in 5-minute readings/presentations of any of their pieces published in TCW’s 34 volumes. “It’s all in the spirit of amity and our abiding love of Caribbean literature,” Lewis-Brown said. Interested persons can sign up to participate at https://www.eventbrite.com/e/110682775160
She also expresses continued appreciation to the many sponsors who are supporting the webinar and The Caribbean Writer through the purchase of 30 and 60 sec ads. They include The VI Lottery, The Department of Tourism, the St Croix Foundation, VIVOT, VIYA and the University of the Virgin Islands.
“The Caribbean Writer is a gem of the University that has garnered the support of each President since its existence, and I am honored to follow in that grand tradition,” said UVI President David Hall. “That support has been consistent because of the obvious and inherent worth and value of this publication, and its centrality to the mission of the University of the Virgin Islands.”
Indeed, The Caribbean Writer has provided a “forum for a wealth of varied literary expressions and presented the same in a high quality publication that is now known, read, and respected around the globe,” said Lewis-Brown, a widely published author of young adult literature and a member of the University’s Adjunct Faculty since 1990, teaching courses in literature, writing and the humanities.
Looking ahead to volume 35, two persons have joined the Editorial Board: namely, the notable Saint Lucian author, poet, columnist and radio personality Mr. John Robert Lee, and UVI English professor Dr. Valerie Combie. Dr. Vincent Cooper, UVI’s linguistic professor and a previous Editorial Board member, has now joined the ranks of the Advisory Editorial Board.
“May their collective service be fruitful and abiding as we forge ahead with renewed courage and optimism,” Lewis-Brown said.
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