Following a hiatus from 2018, the 15th edition of the renowned international festival, the Calabash International Literary Festival, was recently launched with the announcement of the 2023 lineup.
This year’s Calabash festival’s theme, “Onward Upward… For Word,” honors people’s tenacious will to persevere in the face of hardship while also acknowledging the difficulties of recent years.
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Co-founder Kwame Dawes remarked, “Some clichés are wholly necessary for they carry profound truths and in this instance; our unexpected absence has deepened the fondness we all have for this festival. We have not been idle in the interim, instead, we have worked hard to secure the future of our festival and to plan what we believe is a most dynamic and delightful Calabash roster. So, what we feel is gratitude for the continued faith that our audience has had in what we do.”
Calabash keeps blending up-and-coming authors with seasoned authors while consistently providing a range of genres. As always, the event is “earthy, inspirational, daring, and diverse.”
The 2023 program will undoubtedly be distinguished by its diversity and audacity, according to a press release, which noted that one of the ‘Reasonings’ conversations will feature Joyce Carol Oates, a literary giant who has written more than 70 books in her 50-year career. Oates’ ‘Sunday Talk’ with Paul Holdengraber is also expected to be controversial because Oates is known for being open and honest with her opinions.
Clients will be regarded to excerpts from the New York Times Editors’ Choice short story collection If I Survive You by Jonathan Escoffery (Ja/USA), a compelling historical study concentrating on Sam Sharpe by Tom Zoellner (USA), creative non-fiction by Cathy Park Hong (USA), whose book Minor Feelings: An Asian American Reckoning was a New York Times bestseller, and Kei Miller (Ja), a poet and novelist whose most recent book ” Things I Have Withheld”.Clients will be regarded to excerpts from the New York Times Editors’ Choice short story collection If I Survive You by Jonathan Escoffery (Ja/USA), a compelling historical study concentrating on Sam Sharpe by Tom Zoellner (USA), creative non-fiction by Cathy Park Hong (USA), whose book Minor Feelings: An Asian American Reckoning was a New York Times bestseller, and Kei Miller (Ja), a poet and novelist whose most recent book ” Things I Have Withheld”.
The New York Times praised Nicole Krauss (USA) as one of America’s most significant writers and a worldwide literary phenomenon, while the Financial Times referred to her as “one of the great novelists working today.” Her debut collection of short stories, To Be A Man, received the Wingate Literary Prize. She is the author of many books that have achieved international bestseller status.
The Harder They Come by Michael Thelwell, which was published 50 years after the publication of the film of the same name, will be honored at the festival. Readings from this genuinely enormous piece of Caribbean literature by four well-known Jamaicans. Authors from the Caribbean, including Kamau Braithwaite, Erna Brodber, John Hearne, Roger Mais, Jean Rhys, Neville Dawes, V.S. Naipaul, Claude McKay, and Orlando Patterson, have all had their works highlighted by Calabash in the past.
The Calabash Acoustic Ensemble, which consists of Ibo Cooper, Stevie Golding, Wayne Armond, and pals, will pay tribute to Third World on Sunday, fifty years after the formation of that ground-breaking band.
