Forum for Caribbean Writers and Readers - An Evening with Merle Collins

The Centre for Caribbean Studies hosts an evening with Grenadian author, Merle Collins, reading from her latest novel, Ocean Stirrings.

All are welcome.

The mother of the African American revolutionary, Malcolm X, was a Grenadian woman born at the turn of the 20th century in a rural community in a colonial society where access to education had only just begun for the children of working people and the power of white plantation owners still had few limits. She emigrated to Canada and then the USA, where she became active in the movement for Black rights led by Marcus Garvey, and where she raised and taught her eight children until collapse from mental and physical exhaustion saw her incarcerated in a psychiatric hospital, until her family fought for her release.

Within the sparse facts of Louise Langdon Norton Little’s life, Merle Collins has written a work of fictive tribute. In a stunning mix of narrative, letters, and poetry, she creates a life in all its breathing texture of voice, with episodes of great warmth, exuberant humour and drama, as well as sadness and heartbreak.

In Ocean Stirrings, Collins has created a moving and deeply feminist novel that not only creates a memorable individual life but also has much to say about the passage from colonialism towards independence.