Wasn't Michael Anthony's visit to our LITS 2508 class last week special and memorable? Having read one of his novels (The Year in San Fernando), and taught another (Green Days by the River) as well as two of his short stories ("Peeta of the Deep Sea" and "They Better Don't Stop the Carnival"), it was a delight for me to hear him talk about his craft and philosophy as a writer in his own words. It's always special to meet and talk with authors of books we've read for leisure or study.
It was intriguing to hear him talk about his interaction with other West Indian authors we've read and are now studying who belong to that successful group of writers who were in England in the 1950s and 1960s. Interesting, too, were his own affirmations about the intentions and responsibilities of a writer - what he had to say was unexpected wasn't it? But, perhaps not, because critics like Edward Baugh have observed that quality (to which Anthony attests) in his work. We'll talk more about that in class.
Tell me what you think of this author's visit, how it impacted you, and what are some of the things he said that are for you the most memorable.
i could have listened to him all day, i took a day off to make it to class on time that week. it was a pleasant surprise hearing him talk, i felt connected somehow, because my mother is from Mayaro, but i never spent much time there. "Green days by the river" was always one of my favorite books when i did literature in secondary school, its the only west indian literature book i read in secondary school that i didnt feel like i had to read it for class, i read it more for the enjoyment of reading. i am really glad i got that opportunity to meet him and listen to him, thank you Dr. Skeete
ReplyDeleteWhat you say, Carima, is similar to the writer Shani Mootoo's own testimony (in Michael Anthony's presence during Campus Literature Week) of how much she was impacted when as a 13-year old girl she saw for the first time the words 'San Fernando' in the title of a novel. She could relate to the book since at the time she lived and went to school in San Fernando.
ReplyDeleteI grew up in Marabella (on the outskirts of San Fernando), but I was born at the hospital in San Fernando and went to secondary school there. So, yes, there's always that extra feeling you get as a reader when you can identify with a story in a real kind of way as regards place and time, for example.
I told Mr. Anthony at the start of the class how fascinating it was for me to see the places in Mayaro that he mentioned in his other novel. I'm glad because of your family connections that the book resonated with you in a different way, too.