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| Lasana Sekou (at microphone) announcing the coveted Casa prize for Fear of a Black Nation – Race, Sex, and Security in Sixties Montreal by David Austin (Jamaica). Photo © Casa de las Americas. |
Great Bay, St. Martin (February 18, 2014)—The winner of the Casa de las Américas Literary Award for Caribbean Literature (2014) is Fear of a Black Nation – Race, Sex, and Security in Sixties Montreal by David Austin from Jamaica.
The winning
book was announced by the St. Martin publisher/author Lasana M. Sekou at the
announcement ceremony for the 55th anniversary of the Casa de
las Américas prize in Havana on January 30. Sekou was
in Cuba as one of 22 jurors, invited by Casa to review and analyze some 380
books submitted by Caribbean and Latin American authors for the Casa prize
competition of 2014.
The jurors
for the “Caribbean Literature in English or Creole” category called Fear
of a Black Nation “an authoritative introductory text that extends
significantly into the 21st century, the complex notions and
indivisible historical realities of ‘nuestro caribe,’ ‘la America nuestra,’ and
the ‘Black Power’ movements to Canada.” The prose
non-fiction book was further described as “original, with extensive, integrative
scholarship, and reader-friendly.” Austin, based in Canada,
is considered to be a preeminent scholar on Black Power and Black
Canadian and Caribbean politics.
After ten
days of deliberation in Cienfuegos and Havana, said Jorge Fornet at the
announcement ceremony, the jury awarded the Casa de las Américas Literary Award
in the categories of short fiction, theater, essay, Brazilian literature,
Caribbean literature in English or Creole, and women’s studies. Fornet is the director
of the Center for Literary Research at Casa de las Américas.
“The
Cuban-based Casa prize is the oldest and most prestigious pan-Caribbean award
for literary excellence and undeniably one of the oldest and most coveted
prizes for Latin American literature,” said Sekou. The
Caribbean Literature prize consists of $3,000 or its equivalent in the
corresponding national currency. In addition, the book receiving the award will
be translated into Spanish and up to 10,000 copies will be published by Casa,
according to the cultural and research institution.
The winning
titles in the six categories for the Casa de las Américas Award 2014 are: short
fiction, Cosas peores by Margarita García Robayo (Colombia);
theater, Blanco con sangre negra by Aejandro Román Bahena
(Mexico); essay (artistic and/or literary theme), José Lezama Lima:
estética e historiografía del arte en su obra crítica by Carlos
Orlando Fino Gómez (Colombia); Brazilian literature, Marighella:
o guerrilheiro que incendiou o mundo by Mário Magalhães; Caribbean
Literature in English or Creole, Fear of a Black Nation – Race, Sex,
and Security in Sixties Montreal by David Austin (Jamaica); and
women’s studies, La loca inconfirmable. Apropiaciones feministas de
Manuela Sáenz (1944-1963) by Mariana Libertad Suárez (Venezuela).
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| Chilean author Alejandra Costamagna announcing the Casa award for Cosas peores by Margarita García Robayo (Colombia). (Photo: Casa de las Americas) |
Judges were
able to grant a “mention” or “honorable mention” to non-awarded books that they
felt should be acknowledged but “mention” books do not receive any reward from Casa
de las Américas. However, the “mention” books were announced along with the
Casa Award titles to the media and the some 200 guests at the announcement
ceremony in the Che Guevara Hall of the iconic Casa building, said Sekou.
In the
Caribbean literature category the honorable mention went to the prose fiction
title The Night of the Rambler by Montague Kobbe (Anguilla).
The Casa 2014 jurors came from Mexico, Panama, Costa Rica, Chile, Argentina,
Brazil, Colombia, Venezuela, St. Martin, Puerto Rico, Dominican Rep., and Cuba.
Previous
winners of the Casa literary prize include Kamau Brathwaite, Eduardo
Hughes Galeano, Marion Bethel, Oonya Kempadoo, Roque Dalton, Jennifer
Rahim, and Nicole Cage. Founded in 1959, “Casa de las Américas
promotes, researches, supports, awards and publishes the work of writers,
sculptures, musicians, and other artists and students of literature and the
arts,” according to Wikipedia.
