‘Hollow Calabash’ tops Barbados literary awards
By George Alleyne
Sharma Taylor last weekend
bucked what was beginning to
resemble a trend of there not
being a first prize winner of
Barbados’ premiere writing arts
award, Frank Collymore Literary
Endowment (FCLE).
The hallmarks of her collection
of short stories titled ‘Hollow
Calabash’ were credited with
attributes such as ‘compelling
and vivid characters’ ‘novel story
telling angles’ and ‘easy to
read’.
For 22 years, including last
weekend, the FCLE has been
annually awarding writers for
excellence in works of drama,
fiction, nonfiction, poetry, prose.
In the last two years, however,
judges had determined that the
quality of writing submitted was
below standard and not worthy
of the number one Endowment
top prize, and that position was
left open.
But this year the committee
of judges said that beyond
a shadow of a doubt they were
impressed and one judge found
Taylor’s work ‘unputdownable’.
While Taylor picked up the
$5,000 top prize, Claudia Clarke
earned $3,000 and second place
for her prose fiction titled, ‘CircleSquare’;
Caribbean L 38 ife, January 24-30, 2020
and Anderson Lowe’s
‘Inside the Blackbelly Sheep’ got
him the $2,000 that comes with
third place.
Two honourable mentions
went to Ingrid Persaud for her
collection of short stories under
the label ‘So it Go’, and Sarah
Venable for her poems, ‘Tropic of
Sweet and Sour’.
“This year we’ve been particularly
impressed not just with
the three winners, first, second
and third places, remarked the
MC and committee member, Dr
Yvonne Weekes. “Remember
there’ve been a couple of years
when we didn’t have a first prize
winner.
“We are so excited that we
have three winners this year as
well as two honourable mentions.”
Taylor, a Jamaican resident in
Barbados, wrote her ‘Hollow Calabash’
in a predominantly Jamaican
dialect, and according to the
citation it “offers novel story-telling
angles, is easy to read”.
Her short stories are said to
be, “driven by compelling and
vivid characters, who are trying
to reclaim things that have lost,
or to fill the emptiness inside”.
Peculiarities in Claudia
Clarke’ character portrayal was
From left Anderson Lowe; Governor of the Central Bank, sponsor of the awards, Cleviston
Haynes; Sharma Taylor; Claudia Clarke; and Sarah Venable. Photo by George Alleyne
also hailed.
“The characters are highly
relatable, the Coo Coo well
stirred, the steamed flying fish
buckled back as folks contrive
to make the most of life in this
contrary geometric construct
known as CircleSquare.”
Anderson Lowe’s 11 short
pieces for ‘Inside the Blackbelly
Sheep’ “reflect a close understanding
of Barbadian life and
mores. ... The collection does not
shy away from examining delusion,
back-biting and hypocrisy.
A major strength of the collection
is its satirical clear-eyed and
unromantic tone”.
Chairperson of the FCLE
committee, Barbados poet laureate
Esther Phillips, said “several
scripts were eliminated early
in the competition because the
work submitted was not substantial
enough for us to make a
reasonable assessment”.
Consistent with the top
three winners and one honourable
mention being prose fiction
entries, she added, “the short fiction
entries showed a reasonably
good understanding of character;
plot and dialogue”.
In spite of many of the poetry
entries revealing ‘genuine emotion’,
she reported that however,
“for the most part the poetry submitted
read too much like prose
simply separated into lines”.
Go to www.CaribbeanLifeNews.com
for the latest in Caribbean news,
entertainment, sports,
business, viewpoints, and more.
North America’s Largest Caribbean Newspaper
/www.CaribbeanLifeNews.com
/www.CaribbeanLifeNews.com
