Earl Lovelace – författare

With Black Plays, Yvonne Brewster clearly demonstrated the need for a regular anthology to record the vitality of Black playwriting. For her second volume she has selected The Dragon Can't Dance, adapted from a novel by Earl Lovelace in which the inhabitants of Port of Spain, Trinidad, prepare to live out their dreams on Carnival Night; Winsome Pinnock's A Rock in Water, an energetic chronicle play about activist Claudia Jones, one of the founders of the Notting Hill Carnival; Blood, Sweat and Fears by Maria Oshodi which focuses on the problems of the ten per cent of Britain's black population who suffer from sickle cell anaemia and Job Rocking by Rastafarian poet Benjamin Zephaniah, a 'dub' opera set in and around a new style job club designed to sell the idea of work to the unemployed.

Winner of the Commonwealth Writers Prize'An amazingly vivid and joyful novel.' The Times'Vital, life-enhancing.' Time OutAlford, the youngest son of a poor farm worker, has risen above his class to become a schoolteacher. He, like many young people in Trinidad, dreams of heading to England for a better life. Idealistic and determined, Alford travels to the capital to campaign for his community and, suddenly a local hero, it seems anything is possible. Or is it? Salt tells the story of a country through an unforgettable cast of characters, striving with wit and passion to make sense of life in an evolving homeland.

'A landmark, not in the West Indian, but in the contemporary novel.' C. L. R. James'First-class talent.' The VoiceTrinidad, 1970s. Calvary Hill - poverty stricken and rubbish-strewn ­­- is home to a community of people who come together during the joyful yearly town Carnival, becoming larger-than-life versions of themselves. But when it ends, and the strains of day-to-day life grow large, what happens to the peoples' hopes, and the feeling that 'all o' we is one'?With an unforgettable cast of characters, The Dragon Can't Dance is a stunning, classic novel of the desire for identity and belonging, alongside the legacies of a colonial past.

In the town of Cascadu, Trinidad, the 1970 Black Power rebellion has failed. Sonnyboy, hapless and luckless, is desperate to be recognised as part of the rebellion and forces the uninterested police to arrest him. KingKala, a singer, returns from detention and is sidelined in the calypso tent, his music dated and unfashionable. They now hope to make their name in the movie that is being shot on the island - but that too does not end as expected.And so we follow the townsfolk through their experiments in music, politics, religion and love; as, in their day-to-day adventures - be it a game of cricket, the short life of a corner shop or a miracle at a funeral - they begin to see more clearly what their community has to offer for its liberation. Sad and uplifting, humorous but never mocking, Is Just a Movie is a warm, gentle novel about small moments of magic in ordinary life.

In the town of Cascadu, Trinidad, the 1970 Black Power rebellion has failed. Sonnyboy, hapless and luckless, is desperate to be recognised as part of the rebellion and forces the uninterested police to arrest him. KingKala, a singer, returns from detention and is sidelined in the calypso tent, his music dated and unfashionable. They now hope to make their name in the movie that is being shot on the island - but that too does not end as expected.And so we follow the townsfolk through their experiments in music, politics, religion and love; as, in their day-to-day adventures - be it a game of cricket, the short life of a corner shop or a miracle at a funeral - they begin to see more clearly what their community has to offer for its liberation. Sad and uplifting, humorous but never mocking, Is Just a Movie is a warm, gentle novel about small moments of magic in ordinary life.

'Each word is a revelation.' The Times'Earl Lovelace is the real stuff, a proper writer.' James KelmanIn the sleepy village of Kumuca, Trinidad, change happens slowly. Yet to move with the times and expand the horizons of the villagers, the elders elect to build a school and bring in a schoolmaster with great celebration. The warnings of a local priest - that the quest for education will bring more to the village than they expect - are ignored. But the villagers will learn, all too cruelly, that progress can mean the destruction of what they know and love.

Winner of the Commonwealth Writers Prize'An amazingly vivid and joyful novel.' The Times'Vital, life-enhancing.' Time OutAlford, the youngest son of a poor farm worker, has risen above his class to become a schoolteacher. He, like many young people in Trinidad, dreams of heading to England for a better life. Idealistic and determined, Alford travels to the capital to campaign for his community and, suddenly a local hero, it seems anything is possible. Or is it? Salt tells the story of a country through an unforgettable cast of characters, striving with wit and passion to make sense of life in an evolving homeland.

'A landmark, not in the West Indian, but in the contemporary novel.' C. L. R. James'First-class talent.' The VoiceTrinidad, 1970s. Calvary Hill - poverty stricken and rubbish-strewn ­­- is home to a community of people who come together during the joyful yearly town Carnival, becoming larger-than-life versions of themselves. But when it ends, and the strains of day-to-day life grow large, what happens to the peoples' hopes, and the feeling that 'all o' we is one'?With an unforgettable cast of characters, The Dragon Can't Dance is a stunning, classic novel of the desire for identity and belonging, alongside the legacies of a colonial past.

In Trinidad, in the wake of 1970's Black Power rebellion, we follow Sonnyboy, Singer King Kala, and their town's folk through experiments in music, politics, religion, and love and in their day-to-day adventures. Humorous and serious, sad and uplifting, Is Just a Movie, is a radiant novel about small moments of magic in ordinary life.Earl Lovelace's books include While Gods Are Falling, winner of the BP Independence Award; the Caribbean classic The Dragon Can't Dance; and Salt, which won the 1997 Commonwealth Writers Prize. For Is Just a Movie, he has won the Grand Prize for Caribbean Literature by the Regional Council of Guadeloupe and the 2012 OCMBocas Prize for Caribbean Literature.

"To travel through the 19 works of poetry and prose in this remarkable anthology is to experience Trinidad and Tobago through a kaleidoscopic lens." —Publishers Weekly, starred review Two of Trinidad''s top writers masterfully curate this literary retrospective of the nation''s best writing over the past century from authors who were largely part of the literary wave that swept in with Trinidadian Independence in 1962. Though Trinidad Noir: The Classics encompasses a variety of moods and themes, it winds up capturing the uniquely Trinidadian character. Influenced by the waning days of the colonial world—an era rife with crime, violence, enslavement, and indentureship—the selections highlight the often heroic individuals of the underclass. In this anthology, you''ll find reprints of classic stories and poems by C.L.R. James, Derek Walcott, Samuel Selvon, Eric Roach, V.S. Naipaul, Harold Sonny Ladoo, Michael Anthony, Willi Chen, Earl Lovelace, Robert Antoni, Elizabeth Nunez, Ismith Khan, Lawrence Scott, Wayne Brown, Jennifer Rahim, Elizabeth Walcott-Hackshaw, Sharon Millar, Barbara Jenkins, and Shani Mootoo. "Lovelace and Antoni offer a ''subversive'' take on island culture . . . Whether history repeats itself or progress is stalled by people''s infinite capacity to get in their own ways, these 19 reprinted tales offer a bittersweet perspective on the cussedness of human nature." —Kirkus Reviews "Holds strong appeal for fans of noir and literary writing." —Library Journal

Exposing the political and cultural failure to address the challenges of postcolonial Trinidad, this insightful novel portrays a world where the working man must face the crime and violence that is destroying the social body. Walter Castle is dissatisfied with his regular job in the Laventille slum in Port of Spain. As the prospect of promotion is bleak and crime and lawless youth become insupportable, he dreams of going back to the village community he grew up in. Unfortunately, the force of nostalgia is not supported by actual memories and as Walter abandons his dreams he is forced to choose between turning into a drone who passes through life without leaving a mark, or standing up for himself. Originally published in 1965, this story remains surprisingly contemporary with its astringent critique of the top-down authoritarianism of nationalist politics.