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Caribbean Literature Reading

A starter shelf and reading queue, writers from every corner of the region, poetry and plays read aloud, book clubs, prize seasons and literary festivals, and Caribbean books shared with children, teenagers and family across the water.

Free · Mac (Apple silicon) and Windows · v1.0.0 · Other platforms

Then open the Marketplace in the app, search for Caribbean Literature Reading, and click Install. It goes into your own files, and works offline from then on.

What it installs.

1

Pillar

1

Area

50

Projects

202

Starter tasks

🌴 Caribbean Life & Diaspora

Caribbean Literature Reading

Reading Caribbean literature: novelists, poets and playwrights from across the region, a reading list, book clubs and literary festivals.

  1. Ten-book Caribbean starter shelf
  2. Island-by-island reading map
  3. Caribbean reading queue
  4. Library card and Caribbean catalogue search
  5. Bookshops and Caribbean publishers shortlist
  6. Reading notebook for Caribbean books
  7. Tracking down out-of-print Caribbean books
  8. Protected weekly reading time
  9. Monthly next-book pick from the queue
  10. Poem a week from Caribbean poets
  11. New releases and prize lists watch
  12. Caribbean literary magazines and journals
  13. Long-distance buddy read with family
  14. Joining or starting a Caribbean book club
  15. Running monthly book club meetings
  16. OCM Bocas Prize shortlist reading season
  17. A book from every country in twelve months
  18. Annual Caribbean reading review
  19. Windrush generation novelists in London
  20. Reading nation language and creole on the page
  21. Reading Caribbean poetry aloud
  22. Slow read of Derek Walcott's Omeros
  23. Wide Sargasso Sea beside Jane Eyre
  24. Reading Caribbean plays from the page
  25. Dub poetry on the page and on record
  26. French Caribbean writing in translation
  27. Spanish-speaking Caribbean reading list
  28. Dutch Caribbean and Surinamese writing
  29. Indo-Caribbean writing and indentureship stories
  30. Guyana and Belize mainland Caribbean writing
  31. Choosing between translations of one book
  32. Balance audit of your Caribbean reading
  33. Short story route out of a reading slump
  34. Nonfiction to read beside the novels
  35. Bocas Lit Fest trip to Port of Spain
  36. Calabash festival weekend in Treasure Beach
  37. Author readings and launches in your city
  38. Hosting a Caribbean poetry evening
  39. Literary visit on your next trip home
  40. Caribbean picture books and folk tales for young children
  41. Caribbean books for a teenage reader
  42. Rereading the books from school back home
  43. Migration novels for a newcomer abroad
  44. Reading in later life with audiobooks and large print
  45. Following new Caribbean poets and prizewinners
  46. Caribbean speculative fiction and fantasy
  47. Caribbean literary criticism and theory
  48. Writing reviews of Caribbean books
  49. Cataloguing a personal Caribbean library
  50. Leading a library reading group on Caribbean writing

Where it starts.

Each project arrives with its purpose, milestones and first tasks written out. Here is how the first three read.

Ten-book Caribbean starter shelf

Caribbean literature spans English, French, Spanish, Dutch and a dozen creoles, which makes it hard to know where to begin. A first shelf of ten books, mixing a few classics such as Sam Selvon's The Lonely Londoners and Jean Rhys's Wide Sargasso Sea with living writers and at least one poetry collection, gives you a footing in the region within a few months and shows which strands you want to follow next.

First tasks

  • Write down three Caribbean books you have heard of but never read
  • Ask two relatives or friends which Caribbean book they would hand a first-time reader
  • Pick ten titles covering at least five countries
  • Find each title at the library, a bookshop or second hand

Island-by-island reading map

Most readers know a handful of names from Trinidad, Jamaica and Barbados and nothing at all from Belize, Suriname, Curaçao or the smaller islands. A simple map of the region, one row per country with the writers you know and a gap where you know none, turns a vague sense of Caribbean literature into a picture you can fill in on purpose.

First tasks

  • List the countries of the region in a simple table, one row each
  • Add every Caribbean writer you have already read to their country's row
  • Look up one writer for each empty row in the English-speaking Caribbean
  • Choose three empty rows to fill first

Caribbean reading queue

Book recommendations arrive from everywhere: a cousin on WhatsApp, a festival programme, a prize shortlist, a line in another novel. Keeping one queue, with where each suggestion came from and why it caught your eye, stops good books being lost and makes choosing the next one a two-minute job.

First tasks

  • Create a reading queue from the reading queue template
  • Copy every book suggestion from your phone notes and messages into it
  • Add columns for country, source and format
  • Mark five books as next up
  • Prune titles you no longer want to read @recurring(quarterly)

Make it yours.

Install Caribbean Literature Reading, then tell Aurum the date you're aiming for. It checks whether the plan fits the weeks you actually have.

Free · Mac (Apple silicon) and Windows · v1.0.0 · Other platforms

Blueprints are general information to help you organise your own work. They are not medical, financial, legal or other professional advice. See the Terms.