Mel Cooke, Freelance Writer

There was a sense of pride as Kei Miller's short story collection Fear of Stones and other Stories, which was shortlisted for the regional section of the Best First Book, Commonwealth Writers Prize 2007, was launched on Wednesday afternoon.

It was done on home ground of sorts, at the main library of the University of the West Indies, Mona campus, where Miller was a student. And the launch, chaired by Mervyn Morris and hosted by the West Indian Association of Commonwealth Literature and Language Studies and the Department of Literatures in English, took the tone of a family affair. Head of the Department, Anthea Morrison, expressing pride in Miller's progress.

"Just about a year ago, I introduced him (to a class) as a-soon-to- be published poet. They looked respectful. Six months later, I introduced him as published poet Andrew Miller," Morrison said. That has now been expanded to published poet and fiction writer, the latter with its attendant nomination. Keyboard player Yekengale, a relative of Miller, kept it in the family vein, personalising Marley's Coming In From the Cold. And guest speaker Tanya Shirley went back to first meeting Miller at the then Harry's Bar (now Weekenz) and the development of their friendship before going into critical mode.

Disappointment

Miller

"My only disappointment was that many of the stories left me wanting more," she said. "That is not to say these stories are incomplete. These stories are tightly woven masterpieces." Shirley said the stories bleed into each other, so at the end you feel that you have met a group of people who belong to the same community, the community of the disenfranchised and dispossessed.

She examined some of the stories briefly, including the title story in which he 'highlights the struggle of the homosexual male - who struggles with heterosexual hegemony'.

And Miller, after expressing his gratitude all around, read from the beginning and end of Love In the Time of Fat, saying "I think I will start with a story that is a little depressing". And, after a quotation from Buju Banton's Deportee, he delved into a room where there was a cuckoo clock on the wall, 'fifteen paintings ignominiously stacked between the wall and the folding ironing board' and 'at least seven dirty cups'.

Lighter tone

His tone was lighter and more in Jamaican tongue as he read the humorous Read Out Sunday in its entirety, chuckles rising as he told the tale of a woman who, having learnt of forgiveness, lost her virginity every Saturday night and got it back in church on Sunday.

When she found out she was pregnant at first, she could not understand it: "... and that's when it came to her. Mary, the mother of Jesus! Immaculate conceptions. Sue fell down on her knees in astonishment and whispered a prayer, 'Thank you Lord, thank you fi choosing me'."