10 am – 11:30 am

Akashic Books presents …

Cristina Garcia (USA/Cuba)

Feryal Ali Gauhar (Pakistan)

Bernice McFadden (USA)

Brand new fiction and poetry from a forward-leaping independent press. Akashic publishes elegant books (French flaps, deckle edge). Its vision is global. But it’s attitude comes straight outta Brooklyn.

Noon – 1:00 pm

The Chatterbox presents ...

Wole Soyinka
(Nigeria)

Nobel Laureate Wole Soyinka is more than a playwright or poet. He’s what you call a presence: a public intellectual, a wise elder who retains the grace and vigor of a prince.

1:30 pm – 3:00 pm

Break / Open Mike

Anyone reading whatever for two minutes.

Jamaican Idyll.

3:00 pm – 4:30 pm

Men at Work

Ishion Hutchinson (Jamaica)

Matthew Shenoda (USA/Egypt)

Christian Campbell (Trinidad/The Bahamas)

These three craftsmen belong to the guild of world poetry. Their apprenticeships were long and now they’re striving to be masters, word by word, line by line, each verse an object of art.

5:00 pm – 6:30 pm

Memory & Imagination

Marjorie Agosin
(Chile)

Kaylie Jones
(USA)

Chris Salewicz
(UK)

If Memory and Imagination raced around the world, who would win? Like the Flash and Superman, would they hit the tape in a blur?

6:30 pm – 8:00 pm

Break / Open Mike

Anyone reading whatever for two minutes.

Jamaican Idyll.

8:00 pm – 9:30 pm

Aspects of the Novel

Nami Mun
(South Korea)

Helen Oyeyemi (Nigeria)

Colson Whitehead
(USA)

What is a novel? E.M Forster laid it out for us in 1927—“a fictitious prose work over 50,000 words.” An equivalent description of sex would be considered functional but inadequate. As these writers prove, size isn’t everything. A good novel is full of feeling. It connects itself deeply, engages the body and the mind.

10:00 pm – 2 am

CalaClash II: Muta’s Revenge

Colin Channer (Jamaica)

Mutabaruka (Jamaica)

Selectors Mutabaruka and Colin Channer have their devoted fans, but everybody loves rocking to vintage music under the stars. The friendly competition heats up nicely. Ocean breezes give the place a cooling down.