UPDATED: Download the Full 2018 Program
Keynote Speaker
Lewis Gordon teaches in the United States and South Africa, where he is the Nelson Mandela Visiting Professor of Politics and International Studies, and in Toulouse France, where he holds the European Union Visiting Chair in philosophy. He is known not only for his writings on Frantz Fanon, W.E.B DuBois, Frederick Douglass, Anna Julia Cooper, Steve Bantu Biko, and many others, but also his works in philosophy, politics, and varieties of thought in the global south. This year marks the 20th anniversary of the publication of his first book, Bad Faith and Antiblack Racism, and his second, Fanon and the Crisis of European Man.
Presenters
Voted one of the top most powerful people in Canada by Elle Magazine in 2004, award winning writer/director/producer Sharon Lewis has been creating ground-breaking content since her 1994 play Sistahs. Read More
JAMAICA KINCAID is an award-winning Antiguan-American novelist, essayist, gardener, and gardening writer. She resides in Vermont and teaches at Harvard as the “Professor of African and African American studies in Residence.”
TIPHANIE YANIQUE is a Virgin Islands born author who has garnered wide acclaim for her new novel, Land of Love and Drowning. She is the author of the poetry collection, Wife, which won the 2016 Bocas Prize in Caribbean poetry and the United Kingdom’s 2016 Forward/Felix. She is also the author of How to Escape from a Leper Colony. She is the winner of a Pushcart Prize, the Kore Press Fiction Prize, The Academy of American Poets Prize, and a Fulbright Scholarship in writing and the Boston Review Fiction Prize. She is the winner of the 2010 Rona Jaffe Prize in Fiction. Her fiction, poetry or essays can be found in the Best African American Fiction, Transition Magazine, American Short Fiction, The London Magazine, Prism International, Callaloo, and other journals and anthologies. She has had residencies with Bread Loaf, Callaloo, Squaw Valley and the Cropper Foundation for Caribbean Writers. Yanique is a professor of Creative Writing and Caribbean Literature at Drew University.
TOBIAS BUCKELL is a New York Times Bestselling author born in the Caribbean. He grew up in Grenada and spent time in the British and US Virgin Islands, which influences much of his work. His novels and over 50 stories have been translated into 18 different languages. His work has been nominated for awards like the Hugo, Nebula, Prometheus, and the John W. Campbell Award for Best New Science Fiction Author.
Author and publisher Mario Picayo was born in Cuba. As a child he and his family moved to Puerto Rico and later to the United States Virgin Islands. He now resides in New York, but continues his close relationship with the Virgin Islands, spending part of the year on St. Thomas and publishing the work of Virgin Islands writers and illustrators, as well as the work of other Caribbean authors and illustrators. He is the author of A Very Smart Cat; Four Wishes for Robbie; Fun, Fun One Crab on the Run; The Shark and the Parrotfish and Other Caribbean Fables; and one of the Caribbean’s all-time best selling children’s titles, A Caribbean Journey from A to Y (Read and Discover What Happened to the Z). The last two titles were also published by Editorial Gente Nueva (Havana, Cuba) in Spanish language editions. In 2004 the New York State Assembly made public recognition to his artistic and literary career and to his work as defender and promoter of Latino and Caribbean culture.
DR. ELLEN FOSTER is associate professor of English at Clarion University of Pennsylvania; she taught at the University of the Virgin Islands St. Thomas campus in 2014-2015. She teaches first-year writing, business and technical writing, and a range of literature courses. Her year in the Caribbean inspired her deep interest in Caribbean literatures and cultures; she has presented on Tiphanie Yanique’s Land of Love and Drowning at the Caribbean Studies Association national conference and the Eastern Caribbean Cultures annual conference.
The Chicago born native became interested in music at the early age of eight when his mom gave him a guitar for Christmas. At the age of 15 he began studying music and woodwinds under Louis Gray, high school band director (Crane HS). . His first performance was playing at a high school graduation, and he says he was greatly influenced by Grover Washington Jr.,The Crusaders, Earth,Wind & Fire and Stevie Wonder. He moved to the Caribbean, St. Croix U.S. Virgin Islands as a teenager where he continued to pursue his musical career. He studied privately in St. Croix with jazz woodwinds player James (Jimmy) Hamilton, a 27 year veteran of the Duke Ellington Orchestra. Mekiel says, I use to watch Hamilton perform from the back of the club where I worked. Then we became friends and he taught me the Art of Reservation, and how to enhance my playing style. Mekiel explained. He also studied with Benny Jacob El (a graduate of Julliard School of Music) and while living in St. Croix he learned calypso, reggae, Latin and other Caribbean rhythms. After several years of touring and playing with several theatrical/dance companies in the U.S. Virgin Islands, Mekiel returned to the United States and resided in Los Angeles, CA. for 33 years before returning back to St. Croix U.S. Virgin Islands. Read More
Aesha Duval was born and raised on the island of St. Croix., United States Virgin Islands. A former news reporter and spokesperson for the former Member of Congress Donna M. Christensen, Ms. Duval has a strong passion for the Virgin Islands history, law, politics, literacy, community engagement and life-long learning. Ms. Duval is also passionate about serving the community that has so richly contributed to her success. Duval volunteers as a Story Time reader at Undercover Books in Gallows Bay, St. Croix and is a board member for Our Town Frederiksted and CHANT. She has worked as a school librarian at the Ricardo Richards Elementary School and has taught a Public Speaking course at the University of the Virgin Islands. She currently works as a law librarian with the U.S. Court of Appels for the Third Circuit serving the District Court of the Virgin Islands. Ms. Duval holds a bachelor’s degree in Mass Communications/Print Media Journalism from Campbell University and a Master’s degree in Library and Information Science from Drexel University.
USVI Literary Festival and Book Fair 