Staff WriterPoets & Passion: Writers on Writing – Geoffrey Philp & Charmaine Hamilton-Valere
Who’s Your Daddy? And Other Stories
Whether set in the Jamaican past or the Miami present, whether dealing wittily with sexual errantry or inventively with manifestations of the uncanny (when Brother Belnavis tangles with a vampire), Geoffrey Philp’s second collection displays again the gold stamp of the born story-teller. But beyond their capacity to engage and entertain the reader, these are the multi-layered stories of a perceptive and humane observer of contemporary life. In particular, an acute empathy with troubled childhoods and adolescence offers adult readers a rewarding reconnection with the turbulence of earlier selves.
Geoffrey Philp
This Jamaica Collage alumnus is the author of a novel, Benjamin, My Son; two collections of short stories, five poetry collections and a children’s book. His work has been anthologized in both the Oxford Book of Caribbean Short Stories and the Oxford Book of Caribbean Verse. He is the recipient of numerous awards, including an Individual Artist Fellowship from the Florida Arts Council, the Sauza Stay Pure Award, James Michener fellowship at the University of Miami, and an artist-in-residence at the Seaside Institute. Philp is the creator of a literary blog that reports on Caribbean and South Florida authors.
Charmaine Hamilton-Valere is the creator and curator of Signifyin’ Guyana, an internet blog that celebrates Caribbean literature. In fact Signifyin’ Guyana, often at the vanguard in championing new work, facilitates discourse on terms, words, and ideas that concern many in the Guyanese (and wider Caribbean) Diaspora, exploring questions of culture, quality and art. Widely quoted across the blogosphere, she modestly states that she relies on her own significant though unpublished, unpolished opinions. Hamilton-Valere is a “Better Hope” gyal, who attended Bishops High School, and now lives with her family in the US.
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