A collection of work from Caribbean writers addressing the theme of climate justice is set to debut at the Caribbean’s premiere literary festival.
Just shy of a year since announcing its Call for Submissions, The Cropper Foundation (TCF) will launch Writing For Our Lives: A Caribbean climate justice anthology, dedicated to friend of the Foundation, the late Professor Emeritus Funso Aiyejina, on Saturday, May 3.
The hybrid event takes place on the third day of the Bocas Lit Fest at the iconic Old Fire Station in Port of Spain at 3:30PM and will be livestreamed via the Bocas Lit Fest Youtube and Facebook pages.
Through their powerful stories, poems and essays, 18 established and emerging writers from eight Caribbean territories are bringing the climate crisis into sharp focus through the voices of those most affected yet least heard — the people and communities of the Caribbean.
Published by Peekash Press, the Writing For Our Lives anthology is part of the ongoing Today Today, Congotay! arts for climate justice project implemented by The Cropper Foundation with funding support from Open Society Foundations.
The launch will feature distinguished anthology co-editors Jamaican Diana McCaulay – prize-winning author and founder of the Jamaica Environment Trust, known for her environmental advocacy – and Trinidadian Shivanee Ramlochan, critically acclaimed poet and essayist, herself an alumna of The Cropper Foundation Residential Workshop for Emerging Writers.
In addition to readings from six of the 18 writers, the programme will include two significant contributors to the anthology: novelist and literary critic Merle Hodge presenting her dedication to Funso Aiyejina and the Caribbean man leading the UN Framework for the Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) Simon Stiell, with a video recording of his foreword.
With launch day just over one week away, CEO of The Cropper Foundation Cherisse Braithwaite-Joseph says, “We look forward to this book bringing together and engaging literary, environmental and social justice actors as a recognition of the intersectional approach required to address the deeply intersectional issues emerging from the impacts of climate change.”
Braithwaite-Joseph adds, “It’s a huge honour to be able to build on the work of enabling and integrating artistic expression as part of a Caribbean development ethos, one that John and Angela Cropper pioneered through the Foundation’s writer development programme started in 1999.”
The Writing For Our Lives anthology will be available for sale at the Bocas Lit Fest at NALIS, May 2-4 and at Paper Based Bookshop from May 5 onwards. An e-book will also be released for online purchase.
For more book and launch details, visit thecropperfoundation.org and the Foundation’s Facebook and Instagram channels using the handle @thecropperfndn.