WESTERN BUREAU:
THE CALABASH International Literary Festival 2004 starts off May with a trio of publishing seminars, as the countdown to the climactic readings from May 28 - 30 at Treasure Beach, St. Elizabeth, begins in earnest.
The one-hour seminars begin at the Phillip Sherlock Centre for the Creative Arts, University of the West Indies, Mona, on Saturday, May 1, covering self-publishing, creative writing and the critic, in that order.
Audience participation is critical to the seminars, as a half-hour question and answer session anchors each discussion. And there should be a lot to ask, as a group of experts relevant to the topic will be presented on each seminar, with Calabash founder and artistic director Colin Channer, hosting all three.
Putting the day in wider context, in a release, Channer said, "the seminars are a vital part of our mission to transform the literary arts in the Caribbean".
In addition, he is not interested in 'space fillers'. "The discussions will have the liveliness and spontaneity of a get-together on a summer afternoon. We're going to designate the Sherlock Centre an official 'No Drone Zone'. Each discussion will be a picnic of opinions, thoughts and points of view expressed in clear language by some of the most respected and experienced professionals in the world of publishing, criticism and the literary arts".
Not only is there just so much seating available in the Centre, but as the seminars will be taped for broadcast, entry and exit will not be allowed during the discussions. The early birds get the chairs, with seating for the 9 a.m. seminar beginning at 8:15 a.m. There is a half-hour break between seminars.
For that seminar, officially entitled 'Publishing: Do It Yourself or Don't', the panellists are Manie Barron (literary agent, the William Morris Agency), Connie Bell (poet, host of Poetry Tuesdays at Weekenz), Valerie Facey (publisher, The Mill Press), Johnny Temple (publisher, Akashic Books) and David Wong Ken (self-published author of The Runnings.
The question and answer segment of the first seminar finishes at 10:30 a.m., with 'Can You really Teach Creative Writing' beginning at 11 a.m. Barbara Gloudon (playwright and communication consultant), Sharon Leach (fiction writer and columnist), Mervyn Morris (poet and literary critic), Deborah Williams (regional community relations manager, Barnes and Noble) and David Winn (assistant professor, Hunter College), who counts Colin Channer among his productive former students, will be the panellists.
The final seminar of the day, which begins at 1:30 p.m., promises to be a scorcher, as the critics will be in the open and open to questions for 'What Makes a Critic Good?' Jabari Asim (senior editor, The Washington Post Book World), Tanya Batson-Savage (The Gleaner), Christopher John Farley (senior editor, Time Magazine), Annie Paul (associate editor, Small Axe) and Rohan Preston (chief theatre critic, The Minneapolis Star-Tribune) are the critics who will give insight into their function and how they function.
This seminar will see two Jamaicans who have made a mark in the wider world giving back of their expertise to Jamaica and the Caribbean. Christopher John Farley was born in Kingston, growing up in Brockport, New York. The graduate of Harvard University is currently senior editor at Time Magazine, in charge of breaking news, and also does the weekly 'Chris Farley's Jukebox' music report on CNN Headline News.
He has managed to keep close to home, with Luciano and Ziggy Marley on his long and impressive list of interviewees, which also includes Prince, Bob Dylan and Aretha Franklin. He is now working on a biography of Bob Marley for Amistad/HarperColins.
Rohan Preston was also born in Jamaica, was raised in Brooklyn and educated at Yale, reaping four Flash Awards, given by the Star Tribune for scoop, initiative and general excellence.
When the question and answer section for the final session ends though, there will still be lots of treats left in the Calabash for the weekend. With the 2004 staging of the festival being supported by Air Jamaica, the Chase Fund, Jake's, the Jamaica Tourist Board and the Jamaica Tourism Challenge Fund, there will be a film, The Housekeeper, at 56 Hope Road on Sunday. The reel rolls at 11 a.m. and entry to the romantic comedy is free.
The weekend ends with a poetry reading at Velisa's, 11 Devon Road (near to Terra Nova), at 5 p.m. on Sunday.
