Writing Life - Mervyn Morris

Drawn from the UWI Mona 2006 Academic Conference, Writing Life presents work by an intriguing mix of 19 West Indian writers: Kevin Baldeosingh . Erna Brodber . Staceyann Chin . Kwame Dawes . Honor Ford-Smith . Cecil Gray . Merle Hodge . Paul Keens-Douglas . Brother Resistance . Jean Small . Amina Blackwood Meeks . Alwin Bully . Merle Collins . Jean D'Costa . Rawle Gibbons . Kendel Hippolyte . Joan Andrea Hutchinson . Mark McWatt . Olive Senior The invitation to reflect on West Indian life and their experiences as writers provoked a wide range of insightful responses, involving such concerns as identity, language, memory, place, personal trauma history, community, audience, development and politics. The book endorses the notion that the writer's job, in the words of one contributor, ;is to go beyond individual experiences and to try and frame our questions and our work within a broader perspective'.