Theme: “Travel, migration, Diasporas in Caribbean literatures”
The Regional Council of Guadeloupe, in collaboration with the Association of Caribbean Writers is organising the 4th Congress of Caribbean Writers, from April 15th to 18th 2015, at the Creole Beach Hotel in Gosier, Guadeloupe. The guest of Honour will be Guadeloupean novelist and poet, Daniel MAXIMIN.
Earl_Lovelace.Trinidad and Tobago
Close to fifty participants from throughout the Meso-American sphere, including 21 Caribbean islands and territories on the American continent, will come together for this encounter, the only one of its kind in the Caribbean, to discuss themes relating to travel, migration and Diasporas. These themes make up the foundation stone of our regional literature.
This biennial event, is now, more than ever, a symbol of the mixing of languages and cultures, welcoming writers from Antigua, Barbados, Colombia Cuba, Guyana, French Guiana, Haiti, Martinique, Panama, Puerto Rico, The Dominican Republic, Saint Lucia, Trinidad and Tobago, Venezuela and, of course, Guadeloupe. They will present and discuss matters pertaining to their capacity to combine reality, symbolism and the imaginative world.
Key events of the Congress
Throughout the Congress, the writers will be meeting with high school and university students in Pointe a Pitre, Basse Terre and on the Saint Claude University campus. At the end of these sessions, readings by the authors themselves and book signings will be organised. Exchanges with the wider public on their literary experiences have also been programmed.
Wednesday 15th April
6:00 p.m.: Opening ceremony
Thursday 16th Apvril (Créole Beach Hotel, Gosier)
Main theme of the day: General overview – travel, migration, Diasporas: issues and figures of deterritorialization
Tribute to Maryse Condé
11h: Exchange with members of the media
Friday 17th April (Créole Beach Hotel, Gosier)
Main themes of the day:
- Migratory processes in Caribbean literatures : periodization, routes
- Diasporas in Caribbean literatures
Saturday 18th April (Ilet Brument)
Visit to the Mémorial ACTe
Prize-giving ceremony – 2015 Grand Prix Littéraire of the Association of Caribbean Writers.
Daniel Maximin (Guadeloupe) Guest of honour
Guest of honour: Daniel Maximin
For the first time ever, at this year’s Congress, Francophone literature will be celebrated, with the naming of Guadeloupe’s Daniel Maximin as the guest of honour. Appointed in 2013 as a member of the French National Observatory on Secularism, this novelist, poet and essayist has been the recipient of numerous prizes and awards throughout his career.
Daniel Maximin is therefore following in the footsteps of Derek Walcott, Nobel Prize winner in the field of literature, for the first edition, Marcio Veloz Maggiolo for the second and Russel Banks for the third.
The Spirit of the Congress
This Congress will be an incredible journey of discoveries and exchanges, with a myriad of lucid views on Caribbean history, transposed with talent into pieces of writing. It will serve as a communion among writers and lovers of Belles-lettres, who are passionate about the history of migrant peoples, an indisputable aspect of popular cultures. The key objective of this event is to promote and improve knowledge of Caribbean culture.
“We, the Caribbean people, are a fatherless people. The past is there, lost in the immensity of the ocean that surrounds us and that is our true origin. Blood from all continents flows in our veins.” Daniel Maximin
