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Monday, July 14, 2025

Shani Mootoo at The Writers Centre

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22 days ago
20250621
Shani Mootoo

Shani Mootoo

Ac­claimed writer Shani Mootoo will read from and dis­cuss her lat­est col­lec­tion of po­et­ry, Oh Wit­ness Dey! (Book*hug Press), at The Writ­ers Cen­tre, 14 Al­cazar Street, St Clair, on Tues­day at 5.30 pm. 

Mootoo, born in Dublin to Trinida­di­an par­ents, raised in Trinidad, and based in Cana­da, has earned in­ter­na­tion­al ac­claim for her body of lit­er­ary work, which in­cludes her ground­break­ing first nov­el, Cereus Blooms at Night, pub­lished in 14 coun­tries.

On Tues­day, Mootoo will read po­ems from Oh Wit­ness Dey!, which has been short­list­ed for the 2025 Pat Lowther Memo­r­i­al Award and named a fi­nal­ist for the 2024 Big Oth­er Book Award for Po­et­ry. This verse writ­ing is not on­ly per­son­al; it is deeply root­ed in home, Mootoo af­firmed, say­ing, “The po­et­ry, the ideas, the song of Oh Wit­ness Dey! could on­ly have come out of my en­dur­ing pas­sion for Trinidad and To­ba­go. It is, there­fore, an im­mense priv­i­lege to read from it to its per­fect au­di­ence at The Writ­ers Cen­tre.” 

Mootoo’s read­ing and dis­cus­sion will be mod­er­at­ed by host An­gelique V Nixon, Ba­hami­an writer, schol­ar, and ac­tivist who has lived and worked in Trinidad and To­ba­go for over ten years.

At­ten­dees who are less fa­mil­iar with Mootoo’s po­et­ry will find am­ple ev­i­dence of her sto­ry­telling strengths in Oh Wit­ness Dey!, which ad­dress­es In­do-Trinida­di­an in­den­ture­ship and its lega­cies through mem­o­ry, lyri­cal nar­ra­tive, and folk tra­di­tions. 

Mootoo em­pha­sised the par­tic­u­lar cre­ative pow­ers that po­et­ry con­veys, say­ing, “As a sto­ry­teller, my po­ems, too, tell sto­ries. But some­times, the very de­tails that de­light in the long-form sto­ry can en­cum­ber the sin­gle most im­por­tant note with­in. That note, in a word or a sen­tence, is giv­en to­tal at­ten­tion and al­lowed res­o­nance when it stands alone, as in a po­em, and yet it can speak a nov­el’s worth of mean­ing. The re­mark­able, that is, the worth-re­mark­ing, is of­ten rad­i­cal and is, there­fore, the vi­tal essence of po­et­ry for me.”

Copies of Oh Wit­ness Dey! as well as se­lect oth­er books by Mootoo will be avail­able for pur­chase from Pa­per Based Book­shop on the day of the event. Guests are en­cour­aged to bring their pre-owned copies of Mootoo’s pre­vi­ous­ly pub­lished works to be au­to­graphed. 

The event is free and open to the pub­lic; all are in­vit­ed.

The Writ­ers Cen­tre, 14 Al­cazar Street, St Clair, is the home of the Bo­cas Lit Fest, Pa­per Based Book­shop, and the Sleepy Cat Cafe.


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