The Jamaica Book Festival is working to build a literary bridge between the Caribbean and Africa.
An exchange between the regions that started this week in Kingston brings together writers, publishers, and other cultural figures for readings and workshops that draw on their shared histories.
“Too often, African and Caribbean literary communities operate in proximity without genuine infrastructure for dialogue — sharing ancestry, colonial histories, and creative preoccupations, but rarely the same stages,” noted Brittle Paper, an online African literary magazine, saying the festival was an important platform to change that.
Attendees include the Kenyan fiction writer and International Booker Prize judge Troy Onyango and the Ghanaian-German literary advocate Alexandra Antwi-Boasiako.