Kei Miller named for excellence award
Published:Friday | January 5, 2018 | 12:00 AM
Port-of-Spain:
Jamaican poet and novelist Kei Miller is among the four laureates announced by the Anthony N. Sabga Caribbean Awards for Excellence for its 2018 Awards.
The Laureates were proposed by country nominating committees and selected by a regional panel of eminent persons.
The other Laureates are:
Entrepreneurship: William Andrew Boyle, Guyana
Public & Civic Contributions: Chevaughn and Noel Joseph, Trinidad & Tobago
Science & Technology: Dr Adesh Ramsubhag, microbiologist, Trinidad & Tobago
Miller has written three novels, a short story collection, four poetry collections, and a book of "essays and prophecies". He is also a blogger and tweeter, maintaining a running commentary on regional and international current affairs.
He won the Forward Prize for Poetry (2014), the premier accolade in the UK and Ireland for established and emerging poets, now in its 23rd year.
He is the first writer from the Caribbean and person of colour to win the prize. His first collection of short fiction, The Fear of Stones, was shortlisted in 2007 for the Commonwealth Writers First Book Prize. His novel, Augustown, won the Bocas Literary prize in 2017 and its French translation won the Prix Carbet de la CaraÔbe et du Tout-Monde.
Miller's work is closely tied to the Caribbean region, and his continued links to institutions like the University of the West Indies and the Bocas Literary Festival support this. He is the editor of Carcanet's New Caribbean Poetry collection (2007). The Cartographer, his most recent collection, features a mapmaker who speaks "the Queen's English" but sucks his teeth like a Jamaican, and a "Rastaman" with a PhD.
The Anthony N. Sabga Caribbean Awards programme in the Caribbean rewards outstanding nominees in arts & letters, public & civic contributions, science & technology and entrepreneurship.
It has been in existence since 2005. The prizes are worth TT $500,000 each, and each laureate receives a medal and citation at the awards ceremony, which will be held on May 5, 2018.