Writers with Dominican background to be featured at literary festival

Skerret (left), Cooke

Two successful writers for young people are among the invited participants at this weekend’s Nature Island Literary Festival and Book Fair. Talking about their work will be Trish Cooke, an award-winning children’s writer from the UK whose Dominican heritage shines through her many books, and Joanne Skerrett, born and brought up in Dominica but now living in the US. Ms Skerret is launching her first book for young people, Abraham’s Treasure (published by Papillote Press), at the festival.

Trish Cooke will be holding two workshops in Dominica. The first one, Writing for Children, will introduce participants to techniques and ideas when writing for children. This will be held on Thursday, 4 August, at 4.30pm at the UWI Centre, Elmshall Road. Dominicans also have a chance to meet and talk with Trish Cooke on Saturday morning, 6 August, at 9.00am at the UWI Centre, for a workshop entitled “Opening Doors to Early Reading”.

This workshop, led jointly by Ms Cooke and Barbara Bully-Thomas, will look at ways to encourage literacy in young children. Ms Cooke says: “I will be using some of my books to demonstrate how to engage pre-school children in reading and how to encourage their participation.” At the same workshop, Ms Bully-Thomas will be giving a presentation on techniques for parents to teach reading.

The other workshops – all are free – to be held on Saturday morning are: playwriting with the award-winning UK playwright

Snoo Wilson, travel writing with Paul Crask, author of the excellent Bradt Guide to Dominica, and  “Ideas and Issues” with American poet-performer Gino Morrow and Trinidadian Keegan Maharaj. To register for all these Festival workshops, go to: www.dominicalitfest.com or fill in a form at the UWI open campus office.

Trish Cooke will also be discussing her work at the Festival on Saturday afternoon when she and Joanne Skerrett will be talking about their writing, and reading from their books, at 3.00pm at the UWI campus. Ms Skerrett’s book, Abraham’s Treasure, described by an award-winning English children’s author as “A moving coming of age story packed with tropical adventure” is a great read. Set in Dominica, Ms Skerrett says, “The location of the story is paramount. Dominica remains a big part of my identity even though I live in the United States. I really hope to be able to write more about Dominica in the future and also to see more Dominican writers doing so. We have so many rich stories to tell. Our island herself is probably the most interesting literary character one could wish for.”

Ms Skerrett, who has had four novels published, says that she wanted to write a book for young people because the books she read while growing up featured characters that were familiar but the societies and cultures represented were not. She says, “I thought it would be great if I could create likable and relatable characters that children or readers growing up in the islands could actually identify with. Although with television and the Internet lifestyles have become more homogenized, I still think there is a uniqueness to growing up in the islands.”

In the same way that Ms Cooke hopes to encourage a love of reading through her books, Ms Skerrett says that she hopes that “the story will encourage kids and other readers to engage their imagination and also to treasure the truly wonderful gift of their heritage – wherever it is they are from.”

Abraham’s Treasure will be on sale at the Festival where Ms Skerrett will be available for book-signing on Saturday afternoon. Ms Cooke’s books will also be at the Festival’s Book Fair alongside works by local writers and the new edition of the Bradt Guide to Dominica by workshop leader Paul Crask. The Book Fair will also feature a Book Exchange in which everyone is encouraged to bring unwanted books for exchange – “Bring a Book, Take a Book” is the slogan.

The Festival opens on Friday in an opening ceremony attended by the President. This will  provide a taster of the literary offerings to come: among the overseas guests, along with our own local writers, are US poetry slam champion Gino Morrow, Lisa Paraivisni, biographer of Phyllis Shand Allfrey, performance poet from Trinidad Keegan Maharaj, and veteran story-teller Ken Corsbie. There’s something for everyone – as the Festival slogan has it, get  “Hooked on Books”.

For the full Festival programme see: www.dominicalitfest.com

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3 Comments

  1. island girl
    August 3, 2011

    what about mr henery he has writen like 3 or 4 books now if i am not mistaken.

  2. Sandra
    August 3, 2011

    What happen to our local writers?????????Are they not invited.

    • Andrina
      August 4, 2011

      Very good question about the local writers.

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