The UTT Cam­pus at the South­ern Acad­e­my of the Per­form­ing Arts (Sapa) will be trans­formed in­to a colour­ful fes­ti­val plaza dur­ing a week­end buzzing with read­ers and writ­ers, sto­ry­tellers and per­form­ers, his­to­ri­ans, book­sellers, all par­tic­i­pants in the 2014 NGC Bo­cas Lit Fest South.

The two-day South fes­ti­val opens at 10.30 am on No­vem­ber 8, with a trib­ute to the life and work of San Fer­nan­do son, Samuel Selvon. To mark the 20th an­niver­sary of his death, pop­u­lar ac­tors Er­rol Sita­hal and David Sam­my will drama­tise ex­cerpts from Selvon's nov­els, while Prof Ken­neth Ram­c­hand will re­call his own analy­sis of The Oth­er Selvon.

In a rich pro­gramme that mir­rors the Port-of-Spain NGC Bo­cas Lit Fest, two of the Caribbean's finest writ­ers–Ja­maican po­et Tanya Shirley and Bar­ba­di­an sci-fi writer Karen Lord–will lead spe­cial writ­ing work­shops in their gen­res.

A re­lease from the or­gan­is­ers said lo­cal writ­ers, in­clud­ing Bar­bara Jenk­ins, Eliz­a­beth Wal­cott-Hack­shaw, Sharon Mil­lar, Vashti Bowlah, Michael Co­zi­er, Lisa Allen-Agos­ti­ni, K Jared Ho­sein, Ku­mar Ma­habir and Lisa Allen-Agos­ti­ni, will read from their lat­est work.

Oth­er fes­ti­val par­tic­i­pants will fea­ture in pan­el dis­cus­sions on di­verse sub­jects, such as RSA Gar­cia on the rise of spec­u­la­tive (sci-fi/ fan­ta­sy) fic­tion, now one of the best­selling gen­res of our time, and on the ex­pe­ri­ence of writ­ing and pub­lish­ing from home in the Caribbean.

Life sto­ries and mem­oirs will be part of the mix, with world trav­el­er, Jan West­maas, and the leader of the Sanatan Dhar­ma Ma­ha Sab­ha, Sat Ma­haraj, whose epony­mous bi­og­ra­phy is just off the press. His­tor­i­cal re­searchers An­ge­lo Bisses­sars­ingh, Hazel Man­ning and Er­ic Lewis are al­so fea­tured in read­ings and dis­cus­sions.

The spot­light falls too on new and emerg­ing tal­ent in Who's Next?, fea­tur­ing writ­ers Zahra Gor­don, Ayan­na Lloyd, Ja­nine Hors­ford and Kirk Bud­hooram. And, up­com­ing writ­ers, of prose or po­et­ry, can sign-up at the fes­ti­val to read at the open fo­rum Stand & De­liv­er at 1 pm on No­vem­ber 9.

The Two Cents po­ets - some of the coun­try's best spo­ken word artists - will per­form, and ex­tem­po artist Black Sage will en­ter­tain with his verse, as will singer-song­writer, Pau­liana Pad­more. Chil­dren of all ages can en­joy two full days of free, spe­cial work­shops with Ly­lah Per­sad and the mys­tic sto­ry­teller Aun­tie Thea.

Ac­cord­ing to Fes­ti­val Di­rec­tor, Ma­ri­na Sa­landy-Brown, this is a spe­cial week­end. "We are of­fer­ing a won­der­ful ar­ray of writ­ing and writ­ers who will en­ter­tain as much as they will pro­voke our think­ing. The Lit Fest is in­tend­ed to cre­ate a space for every­one who loves words � writ­ten, spo­ken, per­formed, and who loves that more than the av­er­age Tri­ni?"

IN­FO

All events are free and open to the pub­lic. On­ly writ­ing work­shops cost $60 and re­quire pre-reg­is­tra­tion. To view the full pro­gramme and to reg­is­ter for writ­ing work­shops vis­it www.bo­caslit­fest.com or con­tact the Bo­cas Lit Fest by email: in­fo@bo­caslit­fest.com or tele­phone: 222-7099.

NGC BO­CAS LIT FEST SOUTH PRO­GRAMME?

NEXT SAT­UR­DAY

OPEN­ING

Re­mem­ber­ing Samuel Selvon

Cel­e­brat­ing Selvon's life and work on the 20th an­niver­sary of his death. Fea­ture Re­marks by Ken Ram­c­hand. Drama­ti­sa­tions by Er­rol Sita­hal and David Sam­my.

Time: 10.30 � 11.30 am

LUNCHTIME JAM

Browse the stalls, get books signed, grab some lunch to the ex­tem­po beats of Black Sage and oth­er spe­cial­ly in­vit­ed per­form­ers.

Time: 11.30 am � 12.30 pm

WHO'S NEXT?

New Writ­ers From T&T

Read­ings by 4 promis­ing new writ­ers from T&T: Zahra Gor­don, Ayan­na Lloyd, Jan­nine Hors­ford and Kirk Bud­hooram.

Chaired by Shiv­a­nee Ram­lochan.

Time: 12.30 pm � 1.30 pm

FIC­TION: BRING­ING THE PAST TO LIFE

Writ­ers Michael Co­zi­er, Vashti Bowlah and Lisa Allen-Agos­ti­ni put their own spin on sto­ries from Trinidad's past.

Chaired by Nicholas Laugh­lin.

Time: 1.45 pm � 2.45 pm

LIFE STO­RIES

Trav­eller, Jan West­maas, and The Sanatan Dhar­ma Ma­ha Sab­ha Sec­re­tary Gen­er­al, Sat Ma­haraj, to­geth­er with his bi­og­ra­ph­er Dr Ku­mar Ma­habir, dis­cuss their lives and in­spi­ra­tions with Ma­ri­na Sa­landy-Brown.

Time: 3pm � 4 pm

WORK­SHOP

An in­tro­duc­tion to spec­u­la­tive fic­tion, with Karen Lord

Award-win­ning au­thor Karen Lord in­tro­duces a most pop­u­lar con­tem­po­rary genre. A work­shop for all prose writ­ers keen to ex­per­i­ment with and mas­ter the spe­cif­ic chal­lenges of writ­ing al­ter­nate his­to­ries and worlds, sci-fi, fan­ta­sy, dystopia and post-apoc­a­lyp­tic nar­ra­tives. Pre-reg­is­tra­tion re­quired.

PO­ET­RY

Tanya Shirley of Ja­maica talks to Nicholas Laugh­lin about her new­ly re­leased col­lec­tion, The Mer­chant of Feath­ers.

Time: 4.15 pm� 5 pm

2 CENTS PRESENTS

Per­for­mances by the best young spo­ken word and mu­si­cal tal­ents.

Time: 5 pm� 6 pm

NEXT SUN­DAY

WORD PLAY

From let­ters, to words, to sto­ries, don't get left be­hind by the Pier­rot Grenade's word play.

Time: 10.30 am � 11 am

HIS­TO­RY UN­EARTHED

Re­searchers Hazel Man­ning and Er­ic Lewis, ex­plore their on-go­ing work in pre­serv­ing the his­to­ry of the South with his­to­ri­an An­ge­lo Bisses­sars­ingh.

Time: 11 am � 11.45 am

CRIME AS FIC­TION: WORSE THAN RE­AL­I­TY?

Fic­tion writ­ers, Bar­bara Jenk­ins, Cyn­thia Birch and El­isha Bar­tels read from short sto­ries about crime in T&T; and Caron As­gar­ali shares her true-life ac­count of be­ing at­tacked at gun­point in La Ro­maine. Crime re­porter Gyasi Gon­za­les asks the ques­tion, how does fic­tion com­pare to the every­day re­al­i­ty of crime?

Time: 12 pm � 12.45 pm

STAND & DE­LIV­ER

Call­ing word­smiths of all kinds, new and ex­pe­ri­enced, po­et and nov­el­ist, to present their work at the NGC Bo­cas Lit Fest South! Reg­is­ter for your spot on the day.

Time: 12.45 pm � 2 pm

WORK­SHOP

Po­et­ry in Progress, with Tanya Shirley

An in­tro­duc­to­ry work­shop to help po­ets un­lock their imag­i­na­tions and take their work to the next lev­el.

Pre-reg­is­tra­tion re­quired.

Time: 2 pm � 5 pm

SPEC­U­LA­TIVE FIC­TION

RSA Gar­cia (Lex Tal­io­n­is) and Karen Lord (The Best of All Pos­si­ble Worlds) read from new nov­els, and dis­cuss the rise of spec­u­la­tive fic­tion and the ex­pe­ri­ence of writ­ing and pub­lish­ing from at home in the Caribbean.

Chaired by Shiv­a­nee Ram­lochan.

Time: 2 pm � 2.45 pm

ONE-ON-ONE

Eliz­a­beth Wal­cott-Hack­shaw reads from her lat­est nov­el, Mrs B, loose­ly in­spired by Flaubert's Madame Bo­vary, about the life of an up­per mid­dle-class fam­i­ly in con­tem­po­rary Trinidad.

Chaired by Nicholas Laugh­lin.

Time: 3 pm � 3.45pm

PEP­PER­POT: BEST NEW STO­RIES FROM THE CARIBBEAN

Pub­lished by Peekash

A pan-Caribbean an­thol­o­gy of the very best Com­mon­wealth Short Sto­ry Prize en­tries. Fol­low­ing its launch at the NGC Bo­cas Lit Fest in April, Pep­per­pot comes to San Fer­nan­do with read­ings by K. Jared Ho­sein, Kevin Baldeosingh and Sharon Mil­lar.

Pre­sent­ed by An­na Lu­cie-Smith, with mu­sic by Pau­liana Pad­more.

Time: 4 pm � 5 pm.?