Toni Morrison, My Favorite Author

Early 1993, I switched on the television, and there, a writer whom I was seeing and finding out about for the first time was being interviewed. I asked myself, who is this thoughtful and regal woman? She was Toni Morrison, an African American. At my book events, I’m often asked who is my favorite author. Well, it's an easy question for me to answer. Because, by far, Toni Morrison is my favorite author. So it is my pleasure to share a brief video explaining why she is my favorite author and why I am so enamored with her.

In responding to this newsletter, please let us know who is your favorite author and why.

A Video Synopsis of Death by Fire

Did you know that Toni Morrison won the Nobel Prize on the basis of six novels? So I consider six books a milestone in the life of an author. With this in mind, I'm pleased to share that I am now the author of six books, including two novels, a memoir, a creative nonfiction, and two books on St. Lucian politics. My next book, My Mother, A Memoir of the Enduring Human Spirit, is scheduled for publication next year in time for Mother’s Day. At my book signings, many readers have advised me to present video synopses of my books. So in keeping with this advice, I'm happy to share in this issue of the newsletter a video synopsis of my first book, the novel Death by Fire.

Dr. Prosper Raynold—Olympic Glory, Hope and Opportunity

In the previous issue, we brought you The Scramble for Vieux Fort as our feature article. In this issue I'm pleased to share another thought-provoking feature article, but this time it's penned by a recently retired economics professor, Dr. Prosper Raynold, who, never mind the different spelling of our last name, happens to be my brother. As children, we used to engage in nonending intellectual discourses, wrapping our minds around everything under the sun. Apparently, this idiosyncrasy of ours has continued to this day. Olympic Glory, Hope and Opportunity is proof enough. Please read on.

Thanks, Rameau

Rameau Poleon, St. Lucia’s most renowned violinist and folk musician, passed away in July of this year. Also known as "Papa Kilte" (Father of Culture), Poleon hailed from my district of Vieux Fort (Vieux Fort North) and is a distant cousin. So I’m pleased to share with you, Thanks, Rameau, from the 2005 poetry collection Phases by award-winning St. Lucian poet Modeste Downes. Enjoy.

The Passing of a Great Man

September isn’t just the month that ushers St. Lucian children back to the classroom after their extended summer vacation or the penultimate month to the island’s all-consuming Jounen Kweyol Festival. It is also the month that George William Odlum (24 June 1934 – 28 September 2003), perhaps the nation’s most renowned (but definitely its most charismatic, controversial and enigmatic) politician, credited with raising the nation’s social and political consciousness, traded his earthly life for (what one suspects) a passage to Valhalla, where he is no doubt feasting lustily with the likes of other such fallen heroes as Walter Rodney, Morris Bishop, and Tim Hector. 

To commemorate the life of George Odlum and to get a better sense of why this Caribbean hero, who never became prime minister, has such a hold on St. Lucia’s collective imagination, we are pleased to invite you to sup on the book, They Called Him Brother George: Portrait of a Caribbean Politician (2023), and three secondary school student essays on The Greatness of George Odlum. 

We are even more pleased, delighted even, to share with you Modeste Downes’ poem, The Passing of a Great Man, which effectively immortalized the fallen hero.  Please read on.

FATED

“I chose to love and not hate. A life of cruelty wasn’t who I am and who my mom meant for me to be. She taught me to be a decent human being ... I needed to write about my childhood experiences, most of all about my mother, a decent woman, a humble soul. I couldn’t rest until I revealed to the world the untimely death of my mother by another woman, all because of jealousy.”

So motivated, the author, Sydney Tobierre, brings us a coming-of-age memoir in which the mysterious and suspicious death of the loving mother of a precocious, full-of-promise, seven-year-old boy, shatters the boy's world and changes the course of his life forever.

The memoir resonates well with me because it is set largely in and around my home district of Vieux Fort and the boy’s separation from his mother and the consequences of that separation have some common threads with my own childhood story.

For further insights into this book, we are pleased to share a book review by Modeste Downes.

Please read on.

The Ten Wonders of St. Lucia

Dubbed "Helen of the West," St. Lucia, by many accounts, is one of the most beautiful and enchanting islands in the world. The island having won the Caribbean Leading Honeymoon Destination World Travel Awards 15 times speaks for itself. In our previous issue we presented The Seven Natural Wonders of Vieux Fort, my hometown. In this issue, we are pleased to unveil the Ten Wonders of St. Lucia, my country of birth. Please let us know if you agree or disagree with this selection of "The Ten Wonders of St. Lucia."