Do we properly promote Caribbean Writings?
What does the above convey? It conveys that Caribbean Writings will be:
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In forms that they can be easily picked up on the Internet – the world's communication medium
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Available in all the major bookstores of the world and especially on Amazon and Barnes and Noble
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Located in many of the region's libraries
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Properly cataloged in some form and constantly updated
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Known by Title and author across the Caribbean
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Up front on the Google Pages
The reality is that Caribbean writings are often difficult to locate.
A major Concern
Alexander Street Press, a major book publisher, notes however “Works (Caribbean Literature) are often hard to find or altogether lost. Thomas MacDermot’s Becka’s Buckra Baby (1904) is said to mark the beginning of modern Caribbean writing, and yet today this work is listed neither in WorldCat nor Amazon, and many of the major libraries of the world have no copies. Other seminal works published by Jamaica’s first indigenous publishing house, such as MacDermot’s One Brown Girl And ¼ (1909), E.A. Dodd’s Maroon Medicine (1905), and W.A. Campbell’s Marguarite: A Story of the Earthquake (1907), also are not easily accessible. Even today, authors from the region struggle to get their works published.
Is Caribbean Writings Easily located on the Internet?
The reality is that even the region's libraries are not readily located on the internet. The question therefore has to be asked about how prepared are Caribbean organizations to promote Caribbean Writings.
If you do a Google search for writers of the Caribbean you will get coming up first a website called
Writers of the Caribbean. This is by East Carolina University Department of English, Multicultural Literature Programme. The website states “This site offers biographies, bibliographies, and links to information about some of the most prolific writers of the Caribbean
Another top listing on Google is site called
The Caribbean Writer by University of the Virgin Islands. It states “The Caribbean Writer (TCW) – The Literary Gem of the Caribbean – is an international, refereed, literary journal with a Caribbean focus, founded in 1986 and published annually by the University of the Virgin Islands.” It features new and exciting voices from the region, and beyond that explore the diverse and multi-ethnic culture in poetry, short fiction, personal essays, creative non-fiction, and plays. Social, cultural, economic and sometimes controversial issues are also explored, employing a wide array of literary devices. Also, The Caribbean Writer publishes translations, book reviews, interviews, one-act plays etc.
Another big website is
“Alexander Street Press which was founded in May 2000 in Alexandria, Virginia, which has more than 80 employees with offices in the United States, China, Brazil, and the United Kingdom. This company has a Caribbean literature site.
It is fair to say that most of the available websites on Caribbean writings that are place high up in Google are by organizations outside of the Caribbean.
What can we do?
We need to set the platform to market Caribbean writings and ensure a web presence high up on Google.
WE CAN:
Produce writings that focus on:
Life skills training with particular reference to our culture/situations
Informing persons of important and topical issues/problems in business and project management and ways to resolve them
Informing persons of best practices and lessons learnt in project management in the Caribbean so that they can adopt the good lessons/ best practices and avoid repeating the bad experiences.
Informing persons of issues that they need to take into consideration as they try to re position themselves or their businesses to keep abreast of the ever changing environment
Exposing persons to support systems that exist for businesses/persons in the Caribbean
Exposing persons to relevant training / mentoring/coaching that can address their concerns/problem areas or just assist them to move to another level in their business and/or career
Just supplying information on best practices in the Caribbean in the various subject areas or matters of interest- what everyone is doing so that there is a current data base of information.
Online sources area available to assist would be authors to write.
WE CAN
Visit the site of Business, project management and Life skills writers of the Caribbean and join the group.
Visit the Website www.Caribbeanwritersmarketplace.com and join as a subscriber
Visit the Website www.Caribbeanwritersmarketplace.com and fill out the submittal form so our information can feature on the website
Send us information about important Caribbean websites, libraries, books etc.
WE CAN
Locate persons who are informed about writings and things like intellectual property, use of the Internet etc to guide us. FIND PERSONS WHO CAN HELP US GET OUR MATERIAL TO APPEAR HIGH UP ON THE SEARCH ENGINES.
We have to write at the level that the ordinary man can understand or we will lose many and just be as so many of our conferences in which many persons sit and listen, nod and smile but do not understand and so cannot benefit or contribute