A?call?is being made by Goddard Enterprises, sponsors of the National Independence Festival of Creative Arts (NIFCA) Literary Arts programme since 1998, for the establishing of a publishing house to propel the works of Barbadian artists worldwide.
Sue Lynch, group human resources manager, was speaking at the NIFCA Literary Arts Gala at the Frank Collymore Hall recently.
“We are . . . proud of this particular sponsorship, as we have been able to see tangible results in the offerings of our literary artists, and we have also seen an increase in events in this genre that are privately run; and we would like to believe that this is as a result of the support that we have given to the National Cultural Foundation (NCF) in promoting the literary arts generally over the years.”
Lynch, however, is calling for an analysis of the reason behind “a slight decrease in the number of entries” this year.
“With an increase in spoken word events where our literary artists are whipping up the courage to present their works, we should not be getting a decrease in entries to our national competition,” she said.
“We continue to praise the NCF for achievements made through its publishing arm Foundation Publishing.
This allows for the publication annually of the winners’ works and can be a launch pad for their entry to other competitions – both regionally and internationally. “And yet we can’t ignore the muted cries of talented and persevering literary artists . . . . Others have suffered rejection at the hands of international publishers and literary agents because Foundation Publishing is not a full-time, full-service house and there is no funding readily available to make it so.
“Goddards calls, therefore, for the private sector, perhaps in concert with the NCF, to make the funds available to develop a publishing house whose mandate would be to propel the work of Barbadian and other Caribbean writers and poets to the world,” said Lynch.
She also said: “Contemporary Caribbean authors, such as Edwidge Danticat of Haiti, Junot Diaz of the Dominican Republic, and Caryl Phillips, born in St Kitts and Nevis, continue to produce critically acclaimed works that reflect the complexities of Caribbean civilization. We believe that Barbados possesses the potential to create similar works.” (JS)
