Debut novel 'The God of Good Looks' adds to growing canon of Caribbean literature
In 2023, two of the Pen/Faulkner Award finalists for fiction, Dionne Irving's The Islands and Jeffrey Escoffery's If I Survive You, were crafted by authors of Jamaican descent. Another, Fire Rush by Jaqueline Crooks, was a finalist for the UK Women's Prize for fiction.
That's neither a blip nor an accident. A growing number of high-profile novels are coming out of the Caribbean and the Caribbean diaspora. Exceeding expectations and barriers to entry — led by Trinidad, Jamaica and Barbados — this region has long been punching above its weight on the international literary scene with writers like Marlon James and Nicole Dennis-Benn building on the legacy of Caribbean luminaries like Derek Walcott, V.S. Naipaul and Sam Selvon and popular storytellers like Miss Lou (Louise Bennett).
This decade-long, transnational cultural phenomenon is driven by a confluence of factors, orchestrated in part by the region's doggedly determined book lovers (some of whom are industry insiders, some not). Kingston-based publisher Tanya Batson-Savage, founder of Blue Banyan Books, likens the region's literary support system to a three-legged stool with international media and festivals, book prizes in the UK, and the rising influence a "Read Caribbean" program with growing following.
