Mel Cooke, Freelance Writer

Edward Baugh reads at the announcement of the winners of the 2008 Commonwealth Writers' Prize (Canada and the Caribbean Region) held at the Undercroft, University of the West Indies, recently.

Before the recent announcement of the Best Book and Best First Book winners in the Commonwealth Writers' Prize (Canada and the Caribbean Region), a cast of reader brought the finalists closer home.

At the beginning of the ceremony, held at the Undercroft of the UWI, Mona campus, regional chair of the annual contest, Dr Michael Bucknor, explained that 90 per cent of the submissions had come from Canada. And Jamaican Dr Erna Brodber's The Rainmaker's Mistake was the only non-Canadian finalist of the six in each category.

In the end, the Canadians took a double, The End of the Alphabet by C.S. Richardson winning Best First Book, and Lawrence Hill's The Book of Negroes Best Book.

However, it was not as simplistic an affair as ripping open an envelope and saying "and the winner is ...", a task performed by writer Olive Senior and Blair Bobyk, political and economic counsellor, Canadian High Commission, as a cast of readers made the books come to life through excerpts.

Among the readers were Carolyn Allen, Tanya Shirley, Edward Baugh, Mervyn Morris, Brian Heap and Michael Bucknor.

So, The End of the Alphabet proved to be an exploration of Ambrose's intention to see as much of the world as possible before he died from the illness he had been diagnosed with and discussing the choices with a woman named 'Zippa'. The exchange was poignant and it concluded "the love they made that morning was tender, lingering and generous, she before he".

Liretally brutal

Tanya Shirley reads at the announcement of the winners of the 2008 Commonwealth Writers' Prize. - Photos by Nathaniel Stewart/Freelance Photographer

On the other hand, the excerpt from The Book of Negroes was literally brutal, as Carolyn Allen as the slave and Brian Heap as the master brought the scene of a woman's clothes being burnt and her scalp shaved in public to searing life. Appleby, through Heap, justified the treatment with "we have a law in the province of South Carolina. Niggers don't dress good".

In the end, the slave woman said "I had no clothes, no hair, no beauty, no womanhood."

"I think it is important to reflect on Bob Marley's Redemption Song at this time," Bucknor said, after that reading. And Yekengele, who had earlier done Chopin's Minute Waltz, did an extended interpretation of the song on keyboard.

Along with other regional winners from Africa, Europe and South Asia, and South East Asia and the South Pacific, winners from Canada and Caribbean will be assessed for the overall Commonwealth Writers' Prize in both categories.

The announcement will be made in May in South Africa. The Overall Best Book winner will receive £10,000, while the Overall Best First Book will win the author £5,000.