Nature Island Literary Festival and Book Fair heats up

Mark your calendars! The NATURE ISLAND LITERARY FESTIVAL AND BOOK FAIR, which was launched in 2008, is now in its fourth year.  This year, it’s scheduled to be held from Friday, August 5th to Sunday, August 7th. The Festival will be on the grounds of the University of the West Indies Open Campus on Elmshall Road, Roseau.

But even before the Festival, you can take part in a few great FREE workshops and sessions made possible by the tireless work of those involved in the Festival. These include a workshop on Self-Publishing by Olivia Williams (U.S.) on Tuesday, August 2nd; a workshop on Writing for Children by renowned writer Trish Cooke (U.K. and Dominica) on Thursday, August 4th; a fiery and must-see Spoken-Word performance by the great Gino Morrow (U.S.), also on Thursday; and a series of workshops on Saturday, August 6th, which are Travel Writing with veteran Paul Crask, Opening Doors to Children’s Literacy, an Issues & Ideas session hosted by Gino Morrow and Keegan Maharaj (an explosive rising talent from Trinidad), and Playwriting with the famed and controversial U. K. playwright, Snoo Wilson.

Like what you see? You can easily register for them by heading over to the Festival’s official website, dominicalitfest.com. Registration only takes a moment, and you can sign up for as many workshops as you can attend. For more information, including times and location, please visit the website.

Over the past three years the Festival has been able to attract large crowds who listen to readings by leading local and regional writers including Nobel Laureate Derek Walcott of St. Lucia, Earl Lovelace from Trinidad and Tobago, Marie Elena John from Antigua, Cynthia Wilson and Esther Phillips from Barbados, Phillip Nanton from St. Vincent, Muhammed Muwakil from Trinidad and Tobago, Kwame Dawes, Colin Channer, Kei Miller and Esther Figueroa from Jamaica, Caribbean publisher Ian Randle, and noted film producer Rudy Langlais from Los Angeles.

Want to purchase some excellent books and Festival items? The accompanying Book Fair exposes the public to a number of Caribbean works and writers and opens the public to the wide range of possibilities for careers in literature. It is a unique chance to get a hold of some great books—and many are available at unbeatable prices or for wonderful deals. Whether you love to read and need to find that new book to disappear into, or if you want to find a great gift, this may just be the perfect place to be on the first weekend in August.

To make this another unforgettable event that will have a positive impact on our writers, readers, thinkers, and anyone with any degree of interest in Dominican culture, as well as our publishers and community as a whole, a programme has been developed that includes notable writers from the region and diaspora.  Special invitees include some notable names mentioned earlier, as well as many moreL Snoo Wilson and Trish Cooke from the UK, Lisa Paravasini-Gebert , Gino Morrow and Joanne Skerret from the US, Beverly East-Davenport from Jamaica, Ken Corsbie from Guyana, Keegan Maharaj from Trinidad and Tobago,  Kendel Hippolyte from St. Lucia and Paulette Jno.Baptiste from Guadeloupe. For bios and photos, check out our website.

For further information on the workshops or on anything Festival-related, feel free to visit us online at www.dominicalitfest.com or www.facebook.com/NatureIslandLiteraryFestival. You can also find us on our YouTube channel, where we have clips of past performances and more.