Dorbrene Eversfield O’Marde was born in Antigua/Barbuda, graduated from the Antigua Grammar School then continued his studies at UWI Cave Hill, the University of Toronto and Tulane University where he obtained a Masters of Public Health. He is best known as a playwright, director and producer of theatre and music, newspaper/magazine columnist, public speaker, and calypso writer, judge and analyst. He has created lyrics and melodies for many leading calypsonians in Antigua/Barbuda, judged national and regional calypso competitions, conducted calypso judging workshops and written and spoken extensively on calypso and other aspects of Caribbean culture and creativity.

In his first novel Send Out You Hand (2012) he examines the intersecting lives of men and women pursuing regional goals.  Dorbrene’s second work is a biography entitled King Short Shirt: Nobody Go Run Me (2013) which celebrates the master calypsonian’s seventieth birthday and his fifty years of calypso performance.

In 2010, Dorbrene received the ‘Friends of the Arts’ Sunshine Award and recently he was named Calypso Composer 2013 by the Wadadli Calypso Association.

Dorbrene started his theatre career with the Antigua Students Association in 1965 (You the Jury, Devil’s Advocate, Androcles and the Lion – English classics).  During the period 1968-71, he acted with the Cave Hill Drama Group (UWI, Barbados) when Alwin Bully, Cecil Blazer Williams, Robert Lee, Clement Bouncing Williams, Ingrid Williams, Melvin Edwards were all students.  He was a member of the Theatre Information Exchange (TIE) and the Eastern Caribbean Popular Theatre Organization (ECPTO) and was involved in cultural research with both these organizations.  In 1972, Dorbrene formed the Harambee Open Air Theatre and was director and producer until its dormancy in the late-eighties. The group took productions to Montserrat, St. Kitts, Dominica, Barbados, St. Thomas and Saba.

He has written and produced five full length plays and directed at least a dozen Caribbean, Black American and African plays with the Harambee Open Air Theatre in Antigua and Barbuda.  Some of these plays include the following:

• Square Peg – Errol Hill
• Streak – Alwin Bully
• Trials of Brother Jero – Wole Soyinka
• Ruler in Hiroona – Alwin Bully
• The New Hardware Store – Earl Lovelace (co-direct with Buntin Airall)
• Old Story Time – Trevor Rhone
• Vagina Monologues – Eve Ensler (co-direct with Zahra Airall

The full length plays he has written include the following:

• For Real
• Fly on the Wall
• The Minister’s Daughter (adapted from novel by Obi Egbuna)
• We Nativity (music by Shelly Tobitt)
• Tangled Web
• This World Spin One Way (3 productions – three directors – Jean Small, Director UWI Creative Arts Centre, David Edgecombe, Director Reichhold Centre and Dorbrene O’Marde)

The play This World Spin One Way which will be staged for the 2014 Alliouagana Festival of the Word was written in 1996.  According to the late Tim Hector, this is Dorbrene’s best written play, and probably the best play written by an Antiguan.  The play is said to be a wonderful source of entertainment even while raising important issues from the Caribbean perspective.  It explores the complex relationships between men and women and is said to be a delightful, funny and provocative play.

The 1998 production which was directed by David Edgecombe featured Yvonne Weekes from Montserrat in the role of Pam. Jean Small, former Head of the Phillip Sherlock Centre for the Creative Arts, who directed the production of this play in the USVI said “ The Play is about very intimate human relationships, disappointments, finding oneself.  It is about the choices people make in life… It will make people reflect on their life.”

Ibrahim Ahmad is the senior editor at Akashic Books, where he has worked in various capacities since 2000. He leads frequent workshops with the Algonkian Writers Conferences and the New York Writers Workshop, where he also serves on the board of directors. He is the cofounder, with Akashic publisher Johnny Temple, of Brooklyn Wordsmiths, an editorial and consulting program, and is a regular participant in the Wilkes MFA Low-Residency Creative Writing Program and Literary Publishing MA Program. During the Alliouagana Festival of the Word, Ibrahim will be running a short publishing workshop.

PUBLISHING WORKSHOP Join Ibrahim Ahmad, senior editor at Akashic Books, to learn about the life cycle of a manuscript, beginning the moment it leaves your inbox and ending on bookstore shelves.

The publishing process can seem obscure, opaque, and frustrating. But there are ways you can help yourself stand out instead of striking out. By understanding the different parts of the publishing ecosystem, writers can gain an edge in how the present their work and themselves.

Ibrahim will also discuss the current state of publishing, the trends and patterns, and the latest developments that can help writers become savvier entrepreneurs and, ultimately, more successful authors.

Jamaican-born Roland Watson-Grant grew up in the early 80s in a swamp at the edge of the capital city, Kingston. A former English Teacher and a Creative Director for over a decade, he used both skills  to bring characters to life, writing campaigns for three of Jamaica’s leading advertising agencies. In 2011, Roland introduced some characters to the world-stage when he was named a Lightship  International Literary Prize Winner in Hull England for his short story Sketcher.

The following year the London publishing house, Alma Books, offered him a book deal to turn his short story into a full-length novel of the same name, the narrator of which is an insightful 9 year old. Set in a south Louisiana swamp with many parallels to the one in which Roland grew up, the novel has been described by the author as “funny, sad, and a meeting of  magic and logic”.

Published in London in 2013 to critical acclaim from the Times London, The Spectator, The SydneyMorning Herald, The Independent and Bookseller Magazine, Sketcher was shortlisted for an Amazon Rising Star Award and a Turkish version, titled Eskizci was released in Istanbul in October of  2013. Other foreign translations are in the works. The June 2014 issue of Ebony Magazine listed Roland as one of “6 Caribbeana uthors to Discover” for the summer. Sketcher was included in GQ Magazine Australia’s Essential Summer Reading List this year. The sequel to Sketcher, entitled: Skid, was published by Alma Books in June this year as part of the Swamp Trilogy, with the third novel in the works.

The themes in Sketcher sets the tone for Roland to talk about the beauty to be found in broken things.  Everything breaks: families, relationships, even our identities as Caribbean people are in pieces, but what a mosaic it makes.

A-dZiko Simba Gegele s a writer, storyteller and spoken word artist whose work covers diverse genres including prose, poetry and scriptwriting for theatre, radio and television. Simba’s work speaks on global themes of societal inequity, oppression and environmental abuse as well as intimate themes originating from personal experience. She uses her creativity to agitate for a saner world, founded on spiritual precepts of truth, righteousness and love. A CD collection of her poetry and word-songs, Crazi Ladi Dayz [Jump and Fly Jamaica] was published in 2004 and her recent debut novel, All Over Again [Blouse and Skirt Books, Jamaica], won the inaugural 2013 Burt Award for Caribbean Literature in April 2014.

Born in London, England to a Nigerian father and Jamaican mother, Simba’s early experiences of racism and disconnection from her ancestral home underpin much of her work, as does her five years subsequently residing in Montserrat. Montserrat, an island located in the Eastern Caribbean, is known in contemporary times for the dramatic awakening of its Soufriere Hills volcano. Living under this active volcano provided Simba an unexpected lesson in the impermanency of life and the futility of attachment to material possessions. Her semi- nomadic existence continues as she lives in Jamaica, her home since 1998, where she travels throughout the island exploring, writing, performing, and experiencing  Jamaica’s rich historical and cultural heritage. These encounters provide a grounding for Simba’s work as she connects with her ancestral roots and acknowledges her role as a conduit for ‘the words of The Ancients’. As she says – ‘The Supreme Creatorand The Ancestors are the source of all of my creativity; I am simply a channel.’

Recognized as a dynamic force on the Jamaican spoken word stage, The New York Times [June 2003] announced, after Simba’s performance at Jamaica’s Calabash Literary Festival, ‘She was a knockout.’ Simba has performed spoken word, ‘choreopoetry’ and drama in theatres throughout the Caribbean, in England, Germany, and New York. Her written work has been featured on Jamaican, Caribbean and BBC television and radio, on Australian radio, appears on the American Academy of Poets website and has been anthologized internationally in such collections as The Harvard Review [2014 Issue 45,] Jubilation [2012 Peepal Tree Press, England], Jamaica Gold Anthology [2013 Pelican Publishers Ltd, Jamaica] Iron Balloons [2006 Akashic Books, USA], So Much Things to Say [2010 Akashic Books, USA] and Poui [Annual anthology of creative writing published by University of the West Indies]. She is a member of The Poetry Society of Jamaica and Jamaica’s Calabash Writers’ Workshop and has been awarded residencies at The Corporation of Yaddo, Saratoga Springs, NY and The Cropper Foundation, Trinidad.

Ms. Simba Gegele currently lives (mostly), in a fledgling eco-village in the mountains of St. Thomas, Jamaica but can be persuaded to don a backpack and her traveling muse for a worthy cause.

Contact: writegegele@gmail.com

Jason Reynolds is the author of several collections of poetry, including, Self, and the co-authored, My Name is Jason. Mine Too. A graduate of the University of Maryland, Reynolds has traveled the country, sharing stages with legends like Sonia Sanchez, Nikki Giovanni, and the late Amiri Baraka. Recently, Reynolds celebrated the release of his debut novel, When I Was the Greatest (Simon & Schuster), met by rave reviews from Kirkus, Publisher’s Weekly, School Library Journal, Book Page, and Hornbook. His  upcoming novel, The Boy in the Black Suit, will hit stores, January 2015.   He currently lives in Brooklyn, New York.

Nerissa Golden holds B.A. in Communications from the University of Tampa and is an award-winning media strategist, business coach, writer, a dynamic speaker, and visionary.

She was named one of TechLink’s 2013 Caribbean Innovators for her work in technology advocacy, education, public awareness and innovative solution implementation. As the CEO of Goldenmedia, Nerissa develops cutting edge communications strategies for her clients in the  public, private and non-profit sectors.
She is the author of three books for adults: Like. Follow. Lead. Mastering Social Media for Small Business; The Making of a Caribbeanpreneur: Strategies for Overcoming Fear and Building Wealth as well as Truly Caribbean Woman’s Guide to Good Love. Island Days is her first book for younger readers, a colourfully illustrated poetic collection of memories of growing up in the Caribbean.

David Edgecombe developed his passion for theatre and the spoken word growing up on Montserrat where he wrote and directed plays and produced concerts as a schoolboy. He was the founder of Islands the Montserrat Theatre Group, which toured many Caribbean including Antigua, St. Kitts, Barbados, St. Thomas, St. Croix and Cuba. From that beginning, he has become a major force in ensuring that plays are now a prominent part of Caribbean literature. He has written over a dozen plays which have been staged throughout the Caribbean, in Canada, and in Nigeria. His plays, whether humorous or dramatic, take a subtle yet acute look at Caribbean domestic life, politics, and social issues.

While studying in Canada, Edgecombe served as resident playwright/director of the Black Theatre Workshop of Montreal, which gave major productions to four of his plays. He became Canada’s Administrator for the Second World Black and African Festival of Arts and Culture (FESTAC) and was commissioned to write a play based on the works of novelist Austin Clarke. The play Strong Currents became part of Canada’s contribution to that world event.

Edgecombe joined the faculty of the University of the Virgin Islands in 1990 to teach English and was artist-in-residence in 1991 when UVI Little Theater premiered his play Heaven and took it on tour to four other Caribbean islands. He also taught Journalism, Speech Communication and Theater before becoming Director of the Reichhold Center for the Arts for 14 years. As head of the RCA, Edgecombe found many innovative ways of encouraging the creativity of Caribbean youth, starting such noteworthy programs as The Reichhold Caribbean Repertory Company, The Digital Video Institute, The Youth Movie Making Workshop and Starfest. By producing its own  shows, partnering with community groups, providing work opportunities for artists and technicians, expanding into television, the Center has become one of the most significant forces in the promotion of arts and culture in the Virgin Islands.

At the time of this release, David Edgecombe is a full-time professor in the College of Liberal Arts & Social Sciences, University of the Virgin Islands.

Other Plays by David Edgecombe(with date of first production)

For Better For Worse (Montserrat 1973)

Making It – Originally titled Sonovabitch – (Montreal 1975)

Strong Currents (Nigeria 1977)

Coming Home to Roost (Montserrat 1978)

A View From the Bridge (Montserrat 1979)

Kirnon’s Kingdom (Montserrat 1981)

Heaven (St. Thomas 1991)

Marilyn (St. Thomas 1992)

Smile, Natives, Smile (St. Thomas 1999)

Kill The Rabbits (St. Thomas (2012)

Email: edgecombe@icloud.com