The Commonwealth Writers, a cultural initiative by the Commonwealth Foundation, will next month be launching a book, titled ‘We Mark Your Memory: writing from the descendants of indenture,” and hosting a writing workshop in Guyana.
The book launch and workshop will be held on May 7th and 8th respectively, at the Moray House Trust, located at Camp and Quamina streets, in Georgetown.
At the book launch, which is free and open to the public, there will be readings and conversations with poet Gabrielle Hosein and writer Kevin Jared Hosein, who is the overall winner of the 2018 Commonwealth Short Story Prize and one of the feature writers of the anthology. Another featured author, Anita Seti and performance poet Mr Gee, will also be part of conversations at the event.
‘We Mark your Memory: writing from the descendants of indenture,’ is a compilation of short stories, poetry and prose, about indentured histories from Madeira to the Caribbean, China to the Caribbean, West Africa to the Caribbean and Mauritius to South Africa, which are written by writers from across the Commonwealth. The book will be on sale at the event. In relation to the workshop, writers interested in participating are required to email a paragraph outlining their writing history, a sample of their work (1000 words maximum) and which genre they would like to be considered for and why, (500 words maximum). The deadline for applications is April 25th, after which the writers will be selected.
The writing workshop will span three genres: short fiction, creative non-fiction and performance poetry. There will also be a session on performance and stagecraft for writers.
Seti, a writer and journalist, will lead the non-fiction session; spoken word poet, Mr Gee, the poetry session; Emma D’Costa, who is the Senior Programme Officer for Commonwealth Writers, the short fiction; and Janet Steele, the performance and stage craft sessions.
There will also be public readings, which are also free, scheduled to start from 6 pm on May 8th.
