IN THE two years of its existence the Calabash Literary Festival has earned a reputation for celebrating excellence in literature. Despite the heavy rains which pounded the island last May, the festival remained a superb event, presenting a cadre of poets, playwrights and novelists ranging from Oko Onoura to Earl Lovelace and back through to Sonia Sanchez.
This year they have introduced a new element. The festival will be offering three days of writing workshops focusing on poetry and creative fiction. The four workshops, 'Anatomy of a Poem', 'Poetry Aerobics', 'Crafting The Short Story', and 'Story Design', will be held simultaneously at Work-In-Progress at 4 Hopefield Road, Kingston.
The festival's president, Colin Channer, who will be teaching the 'Story Design' workshop, noted that the workshops are a result of the festival's intention to transform the literary arts in the Caribbean. Channer, who earned a Critics Choice award for his debut novel Waiting In Vain, will be aided by other award-winning writers. The 'Story Design' workshop is for intermediate to advanced writers. It will explore story design with the aim of helping writers to choose and effectively develop story ideas. Professor of English at Miami-Dade Community College, Geoffrey Philp, will conduct the 'Anatomy of a Poem' workshop. Philp has authored four collections of poems and a collection of short fiction. The 'Anatomy of a Poem' workshop is an introductory course based on the idea that excellence must be based on mastery of the basics. The elements of metaphor, syntax, voice and similes will therefore be explored.
Elizabeth Nunez will be teaching the fundamentals of writing short stories in 'Crafting The Short Story'. Nunez is Distinguished Professor of English at Medgar Evers College of the City University of New York. Her novel Bruised Hibiscus is a winner of the American Book Award.
Kwame Dawes will tutor in the fourth workshop, 'Poetry Aerobics'. This course is intended to teach poets how to slim down their work so that its meaning can be seen without the hindrance of extra words or blubber. Dawes heads the Master of Fine Arts in Creative Writing at the University of South Carolina, where he is a professor of English. Dawes work has earned him a Forward Award with Progeny of Air and a Hollis Summer award with Midland, two of his eight collections of poetry.
The organisers of the festival indicate that the workshop, which is free to all qualified participants, has very strict guidelines aimed at encouraging professionalism. The workshops will take place from May 9 to 11, and the deadline date for submissions is April 15. All hand- written submissions will be rejected out of hand, the organisers advised. All submissions should be flushed left, with a 1 inch margin, and include a cover page with the applicant's name, address, daytime telephone number and e-mail address if available. Return postage must also be included, or the manuscript will not be returned.
Submissions for the workshop on fiction should be no longer than 15 double-spaced pages and should either a short story or an extract from a novel. Submissions to a poetry course should include 10 single-spaced poems, not exceeding 15 pages.
The workshops also remain in Calabash's mandate by being free of charge. Organisers pointed out that the only merit on which persons can get into the scholarship is the work they submit. As such, neither educational background nor previously published work will be taken into consideration.
Channer likened choosing the work to submit to being a selector at a dance. "Every soun' man overstan' dis. Is not wha' inna yuh crate, is wha' yuh drop inna de dance," he said.
The Calabash Literary Festival returns to Treasure Beach, St. Elizabeth on May 23.
Submissions should be sent to:
The Calabash International
Literary Festival
Writing Scholarship
14 Montego Bay Freeport,
Montego Bay,
St James.
