Suzan Palumbo’s Caribbean Gothic

-- Originally published on October 3, 2021 in the Stabroek News Photo of the author, Suzan Palumbo If anyone had taken me aside last month and asked me what came to mind when I heard the phrase “gothic horror”, I would have given them a very narrow description. I would have told them about dilapidated …

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Post-climate change dystopia as indigenous rebirth- Trail of Lightning by Rebecca Roanhorse

-- Originally published on September 5, 2021 in the Stabroek News In early August, the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate change (IPCC) released an updated report on scientists’ current understanding of the state of global warming and its implications for our present and future. This review of current climate literature is a sobering warning for our …

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Cover of The Rainmaker's Mistake by Erna Brodber

Overcoming post-Emancipation stagnation in Erna Brodber’s The Rainmaker’s Mistake

Today is Emancipation Day, and millions of Afro-Caribbean people within the Region and across the diaspora will be celebrating the 183rd anniversary of the abolition of slavery across the British Empire. We have come a far way since this first Emancipation Day, but there are still many ingrained colonialist systems and thought processes that we …

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Magic is Chaos and Catharsis on This One Sky Day in Popisho – A Novel Review

I attended my second Bocas Lit Fest back in April and was once again introduced to many Caribbean writers whose work I am excited about. One of these writers is Leone Ross, whose most recent novel, This One Sky Day (aka Popisho), was featured in the Imaginary Homelands panel. Before the hour was up, I …

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“Manhood isn’t a monolith” and other lessons for Queer youth in George M. Johnson’s Memoir-Manifesto “All Boys Aren’t Blue”

June is Pride Month. Throughout this month, members of the Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender, Asexual, Interest and Queer communities and their allies - both in Guyana and across the globe - recognise, acknowledge, and celebrate the influences and achievements of the LGBT+ community through the millennia. These communities also use Pride month to highlight the …

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Mothers, Mental Health and Pre-Independence Drama – A review of The Shadow Bride by Roy Heath

May is a month brimming with themes for Guyana. Labour Day, Indian Arrival Day, Mother’s Day and our upcoming 55th Independence all hold heavy historical and cultural significance for us. May is also Mental Health Awareness Month internationally, and Guyana has been making strides to raise awareness of and do more to promote good mental …

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Female representation in game development is here to SLAY

Last Thursday, 87 countries - including Guyana and many of the CARICOM Member States - celebrated International Girls in ICT Day under the theme “Connected Girls, Creating Brighter Futures”. The International Telecommunications Union created this event ten years ago to foster “a global environment to encourage girls and young women to consider careers in ICT …

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The picture shows the cover of Elizabeth Gilbert's book "Big Magic". The cover reads "Elizabeth Gilbert, author of Eat, Pray, Love. Big Magic: Creative Living Beyond Fear, published by Bloomsbury". The cover has bursts of what looks like violet, magenta, yellow and blue powder.

Big Magic – Five steps to creativity without fear

I don’t read self-help books very often, but last October, my good friend, the artist Maharanie Jhillu of artful.592, introduced me to Elizabeth Gilbert’s Big Magic: Creative Living Beyond Fear. At the time, I was stressed about a writing project that was not going well. While I was grumbling to her, she recommended Big Magic. …

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Rivers Solomon’s The Deep is fanfiction as commentary on history and transgenerational trauma

When I saw the cover of The Deep by Rivers Solomon, my mind immediately bounced back to the 2013 Animal Planet docufiction Mermaids: The Body Found. A friend of mine had told me that The Deep was more about memory and history, but still with the image of that mockumentary in my head, I somehow …

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Take Us to A Better Place – A roadmap for a more health-conscious and equitable future

Contrary to our hopes for this year, the spectre of 2020 has followed us into 2021. The COVID-19 pandemic is still raging on across the world, and now a new, more infectious mutation of the virus that forced England into lockdown has already jumped borders and oceans. The year is already off to a bad …

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