{"id":544,"date":"2012-05-15T14:31:35","date_gmt":"2012-05-15T14:31:35","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/houseofnehesipublish.com\/sxm\/?p=544"},"modified":"2015-04-27T14:32:05","modified_gmt":"2015-04-27T14:32:05","slug":"george-lamming-on-rodney-wena-poon-on-books-are-boring-homemade-ice-cream-to-lively-up-st-martin-book-fair-2012","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/houseofnehesipublish.com\/sxm\/2012\/05\/15\/george-lamming-on-rodney-wena-poon-on-books-are-boring-homemade-ice-cream-to-lively-up-st-martin-book-fair-2012\/","title":{"rendered":"George Lamming on Rodney, Wena Poon on \u201cBooks are boring!\u201d & homemade ice cream to lively up St. Martin Book Fair 2012."},"content":{"rendered":"

GREAT BAY\/MARIGOT, St. Martin<\/span> (May 15, 2012)<\/span><\/strong>\u2014The 10th annual St. Martin Book Fair, with \u201cForward \u2026\u201d as its theme, will run from May 31 to June 2, 2012, at Belair Community Center, USM, Marigot Public Library, schools and other venues throughout the island, said Shujah Reiph, coordinator of the book fair.<\/p>\n

Some 14 visiting authors and artists will participate in the \u201cbook fair for the entire family,\u201d said Reiph.<\/p>\n

Among the famous and fast-rising writers coming to St. Martin will be the illustrious Caribbean novelist\/thinker George Lamming, from Barbados. He will head up the book fair\u2019s Presidents\u2019 Forum at USM on June 2.<\/p>\n

Lamming\u2019s unique presentation and conversation with the audience will focus on the late Dr. Walter Rodney, the legendary historian and political activist who was assassinated in Guyana in 1980. Copies of Rodney\u2019s classic How Europe Underdeveloped Africa<\/span>, will be available at the book fair, said Reiph.<\/p>\n

Also confirmed for the St. Martin Book Fair is novelist, playwright, performer, poet, attorney Wena Poon from Singapore. Her books include Lions in Winter<\/span>, The Biophilia Omnibus<\/span>, and Alex y Robert<\/span>, which has been serialized in London by BBC Radio 4.<\/p>\n

Poon has won literary awards in the UK, France, and Singapore for her writings. The subjects of her books range from the Chinese diaspora, modern tales about \u201ca serious English banker, a sexy Taiwanese ingenue, and a dapper Hong Kong leading man,\u201d to bull fighting in Spain by an American woman, and a science fiction series, described as \u201can absorbing video game with a love story embedded in it.\u201d (Quest Quest Magazine)<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cBut we see the St. Martin Book Fair as a way of introducing Wena Poon to the Caribbean,\u201d said Reiph.<\/p>\n

The fact that the Harvard-trained lawyer speaks English, French and numerous Chinese languages, and that French and Chinese are sometimes used in her English-language fiction, puts her right up the St. Martin multilingual neighborhood, said Reiph.<\/p>\n

Poon\u2019s workshop at the St. Martin Book Fair is called, \u201cBooks Are Boring! Rethinking the Art of Consuming & Creating Fictional Narrative.\u201d The workshop is scheduled for June 2, at USM.<\/p>\n

On Saturday, June 2, the university campus is the home of the main exhibition of books, multimedia tools, children\u2019s games and storytelling, workshops, and symposia.<\/p>\n

The all-day Saturday fare also includes a St. Martin film screening and discussion with the director and actors; and a cooking and homemade ice cream-making demonstration by new Caribbean vegan cookbook author Taymer Mason.<\/p>\n

However, before the rush on Saturday, there is Friday. On June 1, the Yacht Club Restaurant, at Fort Louis Marina on the Marigot Waterfront, will host the annual literary evening of the St. Martin Book Fair.<\/p>\n

About 11 authors from countries and territories such as Haiti, Antigua, Barbados, USA, Italy, Singapore, and Martinique, will treat the audience to \u201csome really great selections\u201d from their original poetry and fiction, said Reiph.<\/p>\n

As a 10th anniversary feature, two promising young St. Martin writers that are working on their first manuscripts will read at the evening concert of words. \u201cUsually only writers of published books read at the poetry and fiction recital,\u201d said Reiph.<\/p>\n

The Book Fair Committee (BFC) and organizers have been meeting over the last few months to put an exciting anniversary program together. \u201cWe are busy ironing out the tough wrinkles. We are working hard to give the St. Martin people and our visitors a world-class St. Martin Book Fair,\u201d said Reiph.<\/p>\n

The BFC will coordinate over 20 book fair and pre-book fair activities for the festival, said Reiph. All book fair activities are free for the general public to attend.<\/p>\n

Conscious Lyrics Foundation and House of Nehesi Publishers, both NGOs, organize the St. Martin Book Fair, in collaboration with St. Maarten Tourist Bureau and the University of St. Martin.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n

Wena Poon, award-winning novelist, poet, playwright from Singapore. (Courtesy WP)<\/span><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

George Lamming (L), novelist, poet, essayist, short story writer, orator.
\n<\/span><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Taymer Mason, author of the new Caribbean vegan cookbook.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

GREAT BAY\/MARIGOT, St. Martin (May 15, 2012)\u2014The 10th annual St. Martin Book Fair, with \u201cForward \u2026\u201d as its theme, will run from May 31 to June 2, 2012, at Belair Community Center, USM, Marigot Public Library, schools and other venues throughout the island, said Shujah Reiph, coordinator of the book fair. Some 14 visiting authors […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[15],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-544","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-book-fair-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/houseofnehesipublish.com\/sxm\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/544","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/houseofnehesipublish.com\/sxm\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/houseofnehesipublish.com\/sxm\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/houseofnehesipublish.com\/sxm\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/houseofnehesipublish.com\/sxm\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=544"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"http:\/\/houseofnehesipublish.com\/sxm\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/544\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":545,"href":"http:\/\/houseofnehesipublish.com\/sxm\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/544\/revisions\/545"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/houseofnehesipublish.com\/sxm\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=544"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/houseofnehesipublish.com\/sxm\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=544"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/houseofnehesipublish.com\/sxm\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=544"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}