From the Jamaica Gleaner:
Jamaica lost one of its most revered cultural figures last night when Professor Rex Nettleford, vice-chancellor emeritus of the University of the West Indies (UWI) and founder of the National Dance Theatre Company (NDTC), died, just hours before he would have celebrated his 77th birthday.
Nettleford passed away at George Washington Hospital in Washington, DC, one week after suffering a heart attack at a hotel in the United States capital.
Last night, Prime Minister Bruce Golding said he was deeply saddened at the news of Nettleford’s death.
“Jamaica and the entire world have lost an intellectual and creative genius, a man whose contribution to shaping and projecting the cultural landscape of the entire Caribbean region is unquestionable,” Golding said.
“Rex Nettleford was an international icon, a quintessential Caribbean man, the professor, writer, dancer, manager, orator, critic and mentor. He has left a void in our world that will be a challenge to fill.”
Rest in peace, Professor Rex Nettleford.
My second novel won a Colly! Second prize went to a play by Glenville Lovell, an accomplished novelist and playwright whose works have won first prize, third prize (twice!) and a commendation in previous years. Third prize was awarded to a collection of short stories by Heather Barker, my classmate from last year’s Masterclass in Fiction Writing led by Dr George Lamming (who gave the feature address at the awards ceremony). Dr Lance Bannister’s work was given the Prime Minister’s Award.
I promised to post a preorder link from my publishers as soon as it became available. Well, it’s up now, but there’s something more important going on that I have to tell you about.
I invite you to look here:
Fundraising for Franciscan Children’s Hospital.
Meet Ursula, the amazing and adorable daughter of Kelly Link and Gavin Grant of Small Beer Press. She’s had a very challenging start to life, but with the help and support of her parents, doctors, nurses and therapists, she’s coming along well.
Bostonians take note of the 93.7 Mike-FM fundraiser on Friday 11 December, and everyone take note of the Small Beer Press book sale, especially those in the US and Canada (shipping is included in the book price). $1 from every book sold goes to Franciscan Children’s Hospital, but if you buy the book at full price, the difference between that and the sale price also goes to Franciscan.
All preorder titles are also on sale (including Redemption in Indigo!). Sale ends 31 December 2009.
The ArtsEtc site goes live! Go explore; it’s worth a look. There’s a page of quotes and photos from a June event, Green Readings 2009, where I did a reading.
Small Beer Press (my publishers) has posted a number of interesting links.
It seems that two days after including Redemption in Indigo in the post 20 Science Fiction Books We Can’t Wait To Read in 2010, io9 then put Small Beer Press on their list of independent publishers who are reinventing the future.
Cheers, Small Beer!
Redemption in Indigo has been mentioned in the io9 post 20 Science Fiction Novels We Can’t Wait To Read in 2010!
And I’m personally looking forward to Blackout by Connie Willis. I adore her time-travelling Oxonians.
The short story ‘Out of Body’ by Bajan-American author Glenville Lovell appears in the anthology Best African-American Fiction 2010 which was Publisher’s Weekly’s Pick of the Week on 19 October.
Put it on your list for next year!
Redemption in Indigo is now on IndieBound.org.
“The impish love child of Tutuola and Marquez. Utterly delightful.”
—Nalo Hopkinson
View the comment here on the publisher’s site.
Words cannot express my glee! I am forced to break into emoticons. 
I’ve added a new page titled Caribbean Writers. I’ll be gradually adding links to websites by Caribbean writers.
Disclaimer: not intended to be an exhaustive list!
