GREAT BAY, ST. MARTIN (April 22, 2004) — The 2nd annual St. Martin Book Fair is scheduled for June 3-5, 2004, at the University of St. Martin (USM), said Shujah Reiph, book fair coordinator and president of Conscious Lyrics Foundation.
“We are very happy to work with an education leader like USM. The university has offered to open its campus to exhibitors, book buyers, workshop participants, and the many expected visitors from throughout the island and around the Caribbean,” added Reiph.
The award-wining novelist Austin Clarke and master calypsonian Hollis “Chalkdust” Liverpool are among the world famous, regionally acclaimed, and St. Martin authors and scholars that will be signing new books, addressing general sessions, or conducting workshops at the three-day fair, said Lasana M. Sekou, projects director at House of Nehesi Publishers.
With the thematic slogan of “The History We Make …” and dedicated to the Haitian bicentennial, book fair organizers Conscious Lyrics and House of Nehesi Publishers will be collaborating this year with USM, a partnership that was struck at the initiative of university president Josianne Artsen-Fleming during the 2003 book fair held at the Chamber of Commerce Building in Marigot.
Reiph, Artsen-Fleming, Sekou, and USM literature instructor Rhoda Arrindell have been meeting over the last few weeks on the book fair’s planning details. “We are working toward a repeat success story of the first ever St. Martin Book Fair in 2003.
“We know that if we give the St. Martin people our best, the book fair will benefit all of us and our regional and international guests,” said Reiph.
Book writing, book parties, and book buying have been on a noticeable upswing to the point of being cultural chic in St. Martin over at the last 20 years, amounting to what Fabian Badejo called “a literary renaissance” in his new book Salted Tongues.