tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-41881703223353467802024-02-02T02:41:45.923-04:00Interactive Autobiography™ and Jamaica KincaidCynthia Pittmann's PhD dissertation research blog on everything related to the writer Jamaica Kincaid and autobiography - including internet exchanges, posts, videos and comments about the author and issues related to autobiography.Cynthia Pittmannhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12656761837022197235noreply@blogger.comBlogger170125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4188170322335346780.post-74197778334876384602022-10-03T14:51:00.002-04:002022-10-03T14:51:14.223-04:00Inside the American Snow Dome<p><br /></p><p> </p><p> <br /></p><header class="titles"><h1>Inside the American Snow Dome</h1></header>
<address>By <a href="https://www.theparisreview.org/blog/author/jkincaid/" rel="author" title="Posts by Jamaica Kincaid">Jamaica Kincaid</a></address><p>
<time>November 11, 2020</time></p><p><time> </time></p><p><time>"Everyone loves what Black Americans are and do, they just don’t want to
be them. The American obsession with freedom is simply because we have
lived so intimately with people we made “not free.” We know very well
the situation of the “not free.” The African American is the definition
of the “not free.” America is a peculiar place: it has fifty states,
half of them are named after the Native people who inhabited the land
called America; it goes from Alabama to Wyoming. The American national
motto could easily be “kill the people, keep their names.” The Paris Review </time></p><p><time> <a href="https://www.theparisreview.org/blog/2020/11/11/inside-the-american-snow-dome/" target="_blank">Inside the American Snow Dome </a> <br /></time></p>Cynthia Pittmannhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12656761837022197235noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4188170322335346780.post-45283446247763887662022-10-03T14:45:00.001-04:002022-10-03T14:45:18.626-04:00I See the World <p> </p><p><br /></p><p><br /></p><header class="titles"><h1>I See the World</h1></header>
<address>By <a href="https://www.theparisreview.org/blog/author/jkincaid/" rel="author" title="Posts by Jamaica Kincaid">Jamaica Kincaid</a></address>
<time>April 28, 2020</time><p>""It begins in this way:</p>
It’s as if we are dead and somehow have been given the unheard-of
opportunity to see the life we lived, the way we lived it: there we are
with friends we had just run into by accident and the surprise on our
faces (happy surprise, sour surprise) as we clasp each other (close or
not so much) and say things we might mean totally or say things we only
mean somewhat, but we never say bad things, we only say bad things when
the person we are clasping is completely out of our sight;<a href="https://www.theparisreview.org/blog/2020/04/28/i-see-the-world/"> Paris Review</a> (follow link) <br />Cynthia Pittmannhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12656761837022197235noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4188170322335346780.post-75232841738238604782022-10-03T14:38:00.002-04:002022-10-03T14:40:21.238-04:00Lifetime Achievement Award: Paris Review <p><a href="https://www.theparisreview.org/blog/2021/12/02/jamaica-kincaid-will-receive-our-2022-hadada-award/" target="_blank">HADADA Award </a><br /></p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p><img alt="" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-156282" class="wp-image-156282 size-full" height="240" src="https://www.theparisreview.org/blog/wp-content/uploads/2021/12/jamaica.jpg" width="320" /> </p><p>April 12, 2022, <i>The Paris Review </i>will present the Hadada, an annual lifetime achievement award, to Jamaica Kincaid at Spring Revel.</p><p> </p>Cynthia Pittmannhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12656761837022197235noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4188170322335346780.post-30182641346877282092022-10-03T14:25:00.000-04:002022-10-03T14:25:27.065-04:00Jamaica Kincaid and Euma Okoro on Writing<p><a href=" https://www.ft.com/content/89a1e7fd-b3e7-4d2f-85b0-66ca52d060d1" target="_blank">Jamaica Kincaid and Euma Okoro on Writing</a></p><p> Jamaica Kincaid and Euma Okoro on Writing, Financial Times Interview. Lilah Raptopoulos. October 2, 2022,<br /><br /> <b>Jamaica Kincaid</b>
I didn’t know there were such things as careers. A lot of things you, your progress in the world just sounds so wonderful to me. I was sent away because my parents had too many children that they couldn’t afford. And so being the eldest, I was sent away to help support them. And I was very resentful of it. And after a while, I stopped sending my salary home and would shop at very expensive stores. I was the best-dressed nanny you ever saw. I went to college, dropped out, decided I wanted to be a writer because people who knew me as a child are not surprised that I became a writer because I was always pretending I was writing. Now . .. </p><p> <b>Lilah Raptopoulos</b>
You mean you would say, like “this book is actually by me”?
<b> </b></p><p><b>Jamaica Kincaid
</b>Yes, and I wouldn’t say it, but it was clear that I thought I had written it. And I was interested in your seeing yourself in the world. I never thought of seeing myself as, as I am. For instance, I was punished a lot because I was very disruptive in school and I think I was about 9, 10. I was given a copy of Jane Eyre to read and in a corner. That was my punishment and not recess. And I read it and pretended I was Charlotte Bronte. And it never occurred to me that neither Charlotte Bronte nor Jane Eyre looked like me. I just felt I was them. Racial identity didn’t come into my imagination until I went to America, because where I come from, everyone is black. So if you say, Oh, the black guy, you would say which one? Because . . .
<b> </b></p><p><b>Lilah Raptopoulos</b>
(Laughs) Jamaica, what was it like? You know, it was the ’70s, being a woman and a black woman in an organisation that was mostly white, mostly men. What was it like? I mean, you said a lot of people didn’t agree with you or were hostile and then it didn’t bother you? </p><p><b>Jamaica Kincaid</b>
Well, in the early days of being in New York, my friend, a New Yorker writer, took me to meet the editor, William Shawn, and he said, well, she could give it a try. Didn’t look as if I could possibly write for them. And I did write something about the West Indian Day carnival. And I made notes and I gave it to him, thinking he would rewrite, have someone rewrite it. Well, it appeared just the way I had written it. And I looked at it and I said, “Of course that is my voice”. <span style="background-color: #fcff01;">And from there I just started to write. But there were no black people at The New Yorker, and there were, in the world of literary New York then there were no black people. But America, everybody tries to be white. But I’d been brought up in a British colony in which (chuckles) in those days only certain people were white. And so when I came to America and I met all these white people, there were people from Lebanon, Poland, Spain, and they said they were white. And I just thought, no your not and I just ignored them. So I have my distortion of race</span>. I have to thank the English people. (Laughter)</p><p> <br /></p><p> </p><p><br /></p>Cynthia Pittmannhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12656761837022197235noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4188170322335346780.post-37713633717453508762021-09-09T11:25:00.004-04:002021-09-09T11:32:14.089-04:00Jamaica Kincaid EVENTS<div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgVqtiwarZ6ORCj6PN_RSrb9WbR2FX_0C3JQMOMfq0iGqKQv2eWzit0jcrM6CPs8RSjc-efM1SV2_Opg46xAPZ2BrG_Yc2N4im790tBGycPlrF62MEHOeEECHjNr-9oOEUgUnFd9jhJvAEc/s612/Jamaica+Kincaid+Recent.jpg" style="display: block; padding: 1em 0; text-align: center; "><img alt="" border="0" height="320" data-original-height="612" data-original-width="408" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgVqtiwarZ6ORCj6PN_RSrb9WbR2FX_0C3JQMOMfq0iGqKQv2eWzit0jcrM6CPs8RSjc-efM1SV2_Opg46xAPZ2BrG_Yc2N4im790tBGycPlrF62MEHOeEECHjNr-9oOEUgUnFd9jhJvAEc/s320/Jamaica+Kincaid+Recent.jpg"/></a></div>An
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Evening with Jamaica Kincaid</b>
Thursday, July 16, 2020 - 6:00 PM
<blockquote></blockquote>"Jamaica Kincaid is a writer and professor whose works include the novels See Now Then, Annie John, Lucy, The Autobiography of My Mother, and Mr. Potter; a classic history of Antigua, A Small Place; and a memoir, My Brother. The Josephine Olp Weeks Chair and Professor of African and African American Studies in Residence at Harvard University, Kincaid was elected to the American Academy of Arts and Letters in 2004. She lives with her family in Vermont."
<a href="https://www.nysoclib.org/events/evening-jamaica-kincaid">The New York Society Library</a>
<a href="https://youtu.be/Ca5uLZO678g">https://youtu.be/Ca5uLZO678g</a>Cynthia Pittmannhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12656761837022197235noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4188170322335346780.post-41085725061286666052021-09-09T11:05:00.001-04:002021-09-09T11:16:02.820-04:00A Heap of Disturbance <div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhykJ9Gj5ISrighq-vylpzXH-Ts1_XzAkVWw4M_1gYJRXZs0FYBSrxDeFEGQacYW8R1ycP_DOIyhKLf6AqZ2G1yeoNkNHIDkmYB3hO4NnX8pyJKexhcUNV7qQ46Ifwkf6uGP3JWozGvYpup/s612/Jamaica+Kincaid+glasses.jpg" style="display: block; padding: 1em 0; text-align: center; "><img alt="" border="0" height="320" data-original-height="612" data-original-width="407" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhykJ9Gj5ISrighq-vylpzXH-Ts1_XzAkVWw4M_1gYJRXZs0FYBSrxDeFEGQacYW8R1ycP_DOIyhKLf6AqZ2G1yeoNkNHIDkmYB3hO4NnX8pyJKexhcUNV7qQ46Ifwkf6uGP3JWozGvYpup/s320/Jamaica+Kincaid+glasses.jpg"/></a></div>
My obsession with the garden and the events that take place in it began before I was familiar with that entity called consciousness. My mother taught me to read when I was very young, and she did this without telling me that there was something called the alphabet. I became familiar with words as if they were all wholly themselves, each one a world by itself, intact and self-contained, and able to be joined to other words if they wished to or if someone like me wanted them to. The book she taught me to read from was a biography of Louis Pasteur, the person she told me was responsible for her boiling the milk I drank daily, making sure that it would not infect me with something called tuberculosis. I never got tuberculosis, but I did get typhoid fever, whooping cough, measles, and persistent cases of hookworm and long worms. I was a “sickly child.” Much of the love I remember receiving from my mother came during the times I was sick.
Published in T<a href="https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2020/09/07/the-disturbances-of-the-garden" target="_blank">he New Yorker September 7, 2020</a>Cynthia Pittmannhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12656761837022197235noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4188170322335346780.post-16681990248592455262018-03-25T13:41:00.001-04:002018-03-25T13:57:06.426-04:00Oasis Writing Link™: Airing Dirty Laundry<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
<a href="http://oasiswritinglink.blogspot.com/2009/02/airing-dirty-laundry.html">Oasis Writing Link™: Airing Dirty Laundry</a>:<br />
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A popular post about those TMI moments that actually are an invitation for human connection. If you consider Jamaica Kincaid's <i>Lucy</i> or even <i>Annie John </i>(and <i>My Brother</i>), you would recognize that she provides so many of these invitations.</div>
Cynthia Pittmannhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12656761837022197235noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4188170322335346780.post-84858813887415293492018-01-18T10:36:00.001-04:002018-03-25T14:05:15.751-04:00Jamaica Kincaid <div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<span style="background-color: white; font-family: "lyon" , "georgia" , serif; font-size: 17px;">“Sometimes extraordinary things happen to people from shitty countries, not just Norway.” Jamaica Kincaid</span></div>
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Jamaica Kincaid answers back to in the most powerful way, "I'm a person from a <a href="http://time.com/5100328/shithole-countries-trump-reactions/" target="_blank">shitty country</a>" in the Florida Key West Conference. (Florida Key News <a href="http://www.flkeysnews.com/news/local/article194722194.html" target="_blank">linked article</a>)</div>
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Cynthia Pittmannhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12656761837022197235noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4188170322335346780.post-55841397183053343702016-02-08T16:36:00.000-04:002016-02-08T16:40:20.728-04:00GIRL BY JAMAICA KINCAID <div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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“Girl” by Jamaica Kincaid
from Charters, Ann, Ed. The Story and its Writer: An Introduction to Short Fiction. 6th Ed. Boston: Bedford/St. Martin’s, 2003.<br />
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New Yorker<a href="http://www.newyorker.com/magazine/1978/06/26/girl" target="_blank"> credit</a><br />
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<span style="background-color: white; font-family: , "times" , "georgia" , serif; font-size: 20px;">Wash the white clothes on Monday and put them on the stone heap; wash the color clothes on Tuesday and put them on the clothesline to dry; don’t walk bare-head in the hot sun; cook pumpkin fritters in very hot sweet oil; soak your little cloths right after you take them off; when buying cotton to make yourself a nice blouse, be sure that it doesn’t have gum in it, because that way it won’t hold up well after a wash; soak salt fish overnight before you cook it; is it true that you sing benna in Sunday school?; always eat your food in such a way that it won’t turn someone else’s stomach; on Sundays try to walk like a lady and not like the slut you are so bent on becoming; don’t sing benna in Sunday school; you mustn’t speak to wharf-rat boys, not even to give directions; don’t eat fruits on the street—flies will follow you;</span><span style="background-color: white; font-family: , "times" , "georgia" , serif; font-size: 20px;"> </span><em style="border: 0px; font-family: adobe-caslon-pro, Times, Georgia, serif; font-size: 20px; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">but I don’t sing benna on Sundays at all and never in Sunday school;</em><span style="background-color: white; font-family: , "times" , "georgia" , serif; font-size: 20px;">this is how to sew on a button; this is how to make a buttonhole for the button you have just sewed on; this is how to hem a dress when you see the hem coming down and so to prevent yourself from looking like the slut I know you are so bent on becoming; this is how you iron your father’s khaki shirt so that it doesn’t have a crease; this is how you iron your father’s khaki pants so that they don’t have a crease; this is how you grow okra—far from the house, because okra tree harbors red ants; when you are growing dasheen, make sure it gets plenty of water or else it makes your throat itch when you are eating it; this is how you sweep a corner; this is how you sweep a whole house; this is how you sweep a yard; this is how you smile to someone you don’t like too much; this is how you smile to someone you don’t like at all; this is how you smile to someone you like completely; this is how you set a table for tea; this is how you set a table for dinner; this is how you set a table for dinner with an important guest; this is how you set a table for lunch; this is how you set a table for breakfast; this is how to behave in the presence of men who don’t know you very well, and this way they won’t recognize immediately the slut I have warned you against becoming; be sure to wash every day, even if it is with your own spit; don’t squat down to play marbles—you are not a boy, you know; don’t pick people’s flowers—you might catch something; don’t throw stones at blackbirds, because it might not be a blackbird at all; this is how to make a bread pudding; this is how to make doukona; this is how to make pepper pot; this is how to make a good medicine for a cold; this is how to make a good medicine to throw away a child before it even becomes a child; this is how to catch a fish; this is how to throw back a fish you don’t like, and that way something bad won’t fall on you; this is how to bully a man; this is how a man bullies you; this is how to love a man, and if this doesn’t work there are other ways, and if they don’t work don’t feel too bad about giving up; this is how to spit up in the air if you feel like it, and this is how to move quick so that it doesn’t fall on you; this is how to make ends meet; always squeeze bread to make sure it’s fresh; </span><em style="border: 0px; font-family: adobe-caslon-pro, Times, Georgia, serif; font-size: 20px; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">but what if the baker won’t let me feel the bread</em><span style="background-color: white; font-family: , "times" , "georgia" , serif; font-size: 20px;">?; you mean to say that after all you are really going to be the kind of woman who the baker won’t let near the bread? </span></div>
Cynthia Pittmannhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12656761837022197235noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4188170322335346780.post-54410133468007343142016-02-08T16:16:00.002-04:002016-02-08T16:18:10.391-04:00JAMAICA KINCAID'S JOURNEY <div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<iframe width="560" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/oPgjWIYKm5w" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe>Cynthia Pittmannhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12656761837022197235noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4188170322335346780.post-9136112383551050262014-11-11T23:09:00.001-04:002014-11-13T14:27:51.008-04:00Kincaid at Harvard 2014<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">"Many of you might be shocked to hear that the celebrated novelist Jamaica Kincaid is teaching a class here this year, African American Literature from the Beginnings to the Harlem Renaissance. You might be familiar with her more famous works, namely <i>Annie John</i> and <i>Lucy</i>. Be sure to check out her latest novel, <i>See Now Then</i>, and maybe have a chat with her during office hours." (<a href="http://www.thecrimson.com/article/2014/11/10/literary-leisure-by-harvard-very-own/" target="_blank">Harvard Crimson</a>)</span><br />
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<span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">http://www.thecrimson.com/article/2014/11/10/literary-leisure-by-harvard-very-own/</span></div>
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<span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">I'd love to have the opportunity to chat with Jamaica Kincaid during her office hours. I have so many inappropriate questions. I guess I would need to prepare so I would not offend. </span></div>
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Cynthia Pittmannhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12656761837022197235noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4188170322335346780.post-54793208375476740632014-10-08T11:23:00.003-04:002014-10-08T11:24:20.752-04:00Interview with Jamaica Kincaid<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<span style="font-size: large;">After the publication of Jamaica Kincaid's <i>See Now Then</i>, questions continued to develop about the autobiographical nature of her fiction writing.</span><br />
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<span style="font-size: large;"> <a href="http://www.npr.org/2013/03/03/173086194/time-rules-in-jamaica-kincaids-new-novel-see-now-then" target="_blank">See the NPR interview here.</a></span></div>
Cynthia Pittmannhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12656761837022197235noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4188170322335346780.post-48543207378617359252014-09-24T11:14:00.001-04:002014-09-24T11:14:37.326-04:00Jamaica Kincaid, News, and Autobiographical Connection<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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SARATOGA SPRINGS >> Jamaica Kincaid will present “The Writer in
Her World,” the annual Frances Steloff Lecture/Reading at Skidmore
College, at 8 p.m. Thursday, Oct. 2, in Gannett Auditorium, Palamountain
Hall. <br />
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<b>Admission is free and open to the public.</b> She will receive an
honorary doctorate of letters from Skidmore President Phillip Glotzbach.
Following her presentation she will respond to audience questions and
participate in a book signing.<br />
Author of a wide range of books, including novels, memoirs and
polemical works, Kincaid is perhaps best known for “Annie John,” “Lucy,”
“At The Bottom of the River,” “Autobiography of My Mother,” “Mr.
Potter” and “A Small Place.” <br />
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<b>Her most recent book, “See Now Then,” has stirred considerable
controversy, turning as it does on a disastrous marital break-up, which
is said to resemble very closely the demise of Kincaid’s own long-time
marriage to the son of New Yorker editor William Shawn.</b><br />
<br />
Kincaid is a professor at Harvard University and a long-time
visiting writer each July at Skidmore’s New York State Summer Writers
Institute.<br />
<br />
<a href="http://www.skidmorenews.com/?p=6100">http://www.skidmorenews.com/?p=6100</a></div>
Cynthia Pittmannhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12656761837022197235noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4188170322335346780.post-14280028290141088892014-09-24T10:59:00.001-04:002014-09-24T11:04:07.560-04:00Jamaica Kincaid at Skidmore<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhkZdP3tSsWAfqnnuX-t50Z5HhaR-akDRmG8gAE10p4h4nQ_rF00qvtFoStiTMiHNTZEUaSnjY8wtdpEx8cNNjjLDBINurbsFZ9FsCh7bKkx_BlNMzd9nvQkggECbEoEYQwEA3-IbdA4gkh/s1600/EventImageJamaicaKincaid.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhkZdP3tSsWAfqnnuX-t50Z5HhaR-akDRmG8gAE10p4h4nQ_rF00qvtFoStiTMiHNTZEUaSnjY8wtdpEx8cNNjjLDBINurbsFZ9FsCh7bKkx_BlNMzd9nvQkggECbEoEYQwEA3-IbdA4gkh/s1600/EventImageJamaicaKincaid.jpg" height="320" width="212" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://www.skidmorenews.com/?p=6100" target="_blank">CREDIT</a></td></tr>
</tbody></table>
"Jamaica Kincaid will present “The Writer in Her World,” the annual
Frances Steloff Lecture/Reading at Skidmore College Thursday, Oct. 2,
at 8 p.m. in Gannett Auditorium, Palamountain Hall. Admission is free
and open to the public.<br />
She will receive an honorary doctorate of letters from Skidmore
President Phillip Glotzbach. Following her presentation she will respond
to audience questions and participate in a book signing." <br />
<br /></div>
Cynthia Pittmannhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12656761837022197235noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4188170322335346780.post-71110870394878447792014-09-24T10:54:00.001-04:002014-09-24T11:00:11.189-04:00News: Harvard LITfest and Jamaica Kincaid<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiNpxyAMcOhA3PfUdG1tez9f5sW1zQl2CQpOA6ZXQ4ns1Z8Zuuq-yRMH0jBD-3DvL12prSTVe9dUj2H9zC3vY4atiaj4FKzDLQOZIjuWyWkPu6WZWEAxbGoMX7V_rKpo2hZyds7DBMQN9QM/s1600/Lit_Fest_Jamaica+Kincaid.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiNpxyAMcOhA3PfUdG1tez9f5sW1zQl2CQpOA6ZXQ4ns1Z8Zuuq-yRMH0jBD-3DvL12prSTVe9dUj2H9zC3vY4atiaj4FKzDLQOZIjuWyWkPu6WZWEAxbGoMX7V_rKpo2hZyds7DBMQN9QM/s1600/Lit_Fest_Jamaica+Kincaid.jpg" height="213" width="320" /></a></div>
<br />
“<a href="http://news.harvard.edu/gazette/story/2014/04/given-to-composition/" target="_blank">I have this view of writing as something I’d die for</a>,” Kincaid, an
African and African American studies professor in residence, said during
a panel Tuesday helping to kick off the three-day <a href="http://litfest.fas.harvard.edu/">Harvard LitFest</a>.
“I want to write in the way prophets want to do something. I never knew
people could become rich writing, but I wanted to write and I just did
it." ~Jamaica Kincaid<br />
<br />
<br />
<br /></div>
Cynthia Pittmannhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12656761837022197235noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4188170322335346780.post-41214361355838552492014-09-19T16:39:00.000-04:002014-09-19T16:39:11.870-04:00Kincaid Connections<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhp2MvSw0zcfjm-SbqpmWfJvfazRJKS-X-j0Wa7qSnM1H0LwzVMmEt4KVo62dkmfRFYjCd9YKiDbISjNpFRqpxeui4HqSoIqTrJFhyYf99rxsqUGD5Rsip9Ez5KfihlLa0Rvs3knIMdK1ei/s1600/39237.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhp2MvSw0zcfjm-SbqpmWfJvfazRJKS-X-j0Wa7qSnM1H0LwzVMmEt4KVo62dkmfRFYjCd9YKiDbISjNpFRqpxeui4HqSoIqTrJFhyYf99rxsqUGD5Rsip9Ez5KfihlLa0Rvs3knIMdK1ei/s320/39237.jpg" height="200" width="151" /></a>"Earlier this year, I finally met Jamaica Kincaid, my all-time favorite writer from Antigua, when New York Arts’ hosted “The Year of James Baldwin” a 15-month celebration of the author’s essays, plays, and activism.
After her panel discussion, I ran up to Ms. Kincaid, hugged her and asked her why she never responded to an email that I<span style="font-size: large;"> sent her years ago detailing the similarities of her life to my mother’s and my strong ambivalence of being at once Antiguan and American, and quite frankly, not feeling like either most of the time</span>.
One of the fast friends that I made at the event snapped a pic of Ms. Kincaid and me and emailed it to me. It would be a few days before I opened it up and become deeply saddened by Ms. Kincaid ‘s resemblance to my aunt, who, like my mom, had done her time in America as a nurse and had returned to Antigua to go “rest sheself.” Mama Kincaid’s beautiful brown skin had no cracks, but did exhibit visible folds and creases.
I worried.
I worried about what would become of Caribbean literature when Kincaid put her pen down for good. I mean, who would write about hating their mothers, colonization, white supremacy, isolation, the wretched effects of unattended loneliness, and human suffering in such a hypnotic and uncomfortable way that overwhelms, comforts, and transforms?"<br />
<br />
<h4 style="text-align: left;">
~ Tonya Garcia</h4>
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<br />
<br />
- See more at: http://madamenoire.com/449534/naomi-jackson-tiphanie-yanique-two-contemporary-caribbean-writers-must-know/#sthash.7GQA730I.dpuf
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Cynthia Pittmannhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12656761837022197235noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4188170322335346780.post-34212758441251902722014-05-17T01:35:00.001-04:002014-09-19T16:40:41.533-04:00Kincaid Inspires Reflection<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
<div>
How is Jamaica Kincaid relevant? Consider this <span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0); font-family: 'Helvetica Neue Light', HelveticaNeue-Light, helvetica, arial, sans-serif; font-weight: 700; text-align: right;">Comment by By Terrence J. Roberts, Ph.D.</span></div>
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<span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);"><span class="paragraph-0" style="margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px;">I attended a lecture last year by noted author Jamaica Kincaid. During the question-and-answer period following the lecture, a young white male raised his hand. “What can I do to help?” Ms. Kincaid looked at him, not without compassion, and was silent for many seconds. “Young man, there is nothing you can do to help.”</span></span></div>
<span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);"><span class="paragraph-1" style="margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px;"><div style="margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px 0px 18px 5px;">
There was a collective, almost imperceptible, holding of breath as we audience members braced ourselves for what might follow. “Because,” she said, “what I want is for none of this ever to have happened.” We breathed again, not so much in relief but in resigned acceptance of a shared reality that seemed totally immune to any of our attempts to change it.</div>
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Link to full article:</div>
</span></span></div>
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</div>
</div>
http://wavenewspapers.com/opinion/article_c39cb126-dc88-11e3-b59a-001a4bcf6878.html?TNNoMobile</div>
Cynthia Pittmannhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12656761837022197235noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4188170322335346780.post-78174839400679067372014-03-20T12:21:00.000-04:002014-03-20T17:47:10.822-04:00Should a Movie be Made of Kincaid's Novel "Lucy" ?<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiDRwgqoydkvCojC2sdaiy6E89cx_BY7PAOEcxEIuB46qx605LY3SeLeTy9NLnxIWcm5cOaJi3VS0lMEZDz3vbbmN4QDVaxgE42yoNlIBdWFubw9vju-nRzqd7kE-gki91R7m9zXQjzMLyd/s1600/LUCY+COVER.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiDRwgqoydkvCojC2sdaiy6E89cx_BY7PAOEcxEIuB46qx605LY3SeLeTy9NLnxIWcm5cOaJi3VS0lMEZDz3vbbmN4QDVaxgE42yoNlIBdWFubw9vju-nRzqd7kE-gki91R7m9zXQjzMLyd/s1600/LUCY+COVER.jpg" height="320" width="209" /></a></div>
<br />
<br />
LUCY GOES TO HOLLYWOOD<br />
<br />
Can a novel ever be made into an excellent film?<br />
<br />
Most literary works suffer when being represented as screen plays. The characters change, the plot changes and sometimes even the conclusion is different.<br />
<br />
Still discovering that Kincaid's novel, Lucy is being made into a <a href="http://www.theyorker.co.uk/arts/film/features-/14756-dream-team-lucy" target="_blank">film</a> is exciting.<br />
<br />
I can hear the au par Lucy speaking from the pages of Kincaid's novel,<br />
<br />
"Let's just say I work here until Hollywood discovers me." It would be great to say -<br />
<br />
LUCY YOU'VE BEEN DISCOVERED! <br />
<br />
<br /></div>
Cynthia Pittmannhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12656761837022197235noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4188170322335346780.post-55246995307905041362013-09-03T13:34:00.000-04:002013-09-03T13:34:54.292-04:00Oasis Writing Link (TM): Color Wheel: Spinning Wheels Must Go Round<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
<a href="http://oasiswritinglink.blogspot.com/2013/08/color-wheel-spinning-wheels-must-go.html#links">Oasis Writing Link (TM): Color Wheel: Spinning Wheels Must Go Round</a></div>
Cynthia Pittmannhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12656761837022197235noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4188170322335346780.post-59987325461219789382013-08-29T17:46:00.000-04:002013-08-30T15:45:57.411-04:00Good Reads Review <div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEge6M_f_Vaq_dpLKOTW2IKcSY7bqdjRBovhGsX8JdMQrziEgbiUAuOXycgiD05aTDiwrhiA-dSGloYWy7qSLzhXTe7KUALxdOpPgD17dw-4v_QUOABvI8spRyPdSe3oKg03HcVToy_qxfYN/s1600/Shirley+Jackson+house.jpeg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEge6M_f_Vaq_dpLKOTW2IKcSY7bqdjRBovhGsX8JdMQrziEgbiUAuOXycgiD05aTDiwrhiA-dSGloYWy7qSLzhXTe7KUALxdOpPgD17dw-4v_QUOABvI8spRyPdSe3oKg03HcVToy_qxfYN/s320/Shirley+Jackson+house.jpeg" width="199" /></a></div>
<a href="http://www.goodreads.com/review/show/631828920" target="_blank">Reviewer Matt</a> Lived in the Shirley Jackson house as found in the Jamaica Kincaid's, <i>See Now Then</i><br />
<br />
"So I read "See Then Now" yesterday afternoon. I read it because I enjoy
Jamaica's voice. I also read it because it the vast majority of the book
takes place in the house I grew up in, the Shirley Jackson house.
Jamaica's house was across the street.<br />
<br />
I can see how the
appearance of folks from the neighborhood might cause some anxiety to
those referenced, but there was nothing that struck me as particularly
fanciful. Jamaica is a self-centered person and always has been. I think
she's aware of this fact and I've always thought this facet of her
personality made her more interesting. Jamaica is a storyteller and I
appreciate storytellers far more than reporters. This book is obviously
her take on things rather than an attempt to depict things as they
actually are/were, but I can see things as they were through her eyes.
We all see the past modified by time. Recent studies have shown that
each time we remember a past event we are in fact remembering the last
remembrance of that event rather than the event itself. Our self image
as a product of our memory is nothing more than an ongoing game of
telephone we play with ourselves. This is the reason that the courts no
longer give weight to eye-witness accounts during criminal proceedings.
This is why it's irrelevant whether or not this book is a novel or a
memoir.<br />
<br />
The book was probably not fair to her ex-husband (and
children). I guess I think that's okay. We should all probably be nicer
to others, particularly our own families. In my future memoir of my
hometown I'll probably be kinder to everyone. If Jamaica had done so it
would seem false, particularly given the temporal proximity to her
divorce and the abandonment/maturing by her babies. I do think it was
fair to the village, a place where the volunteer fire department does
spend more time washing their trucks than fighting fires and people are
occasionally buried in their hunting clothes. Not that that's all there
is to the place, but it is part of it."</div>
Cynthia Pittmannhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12656761837022197235noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4188170322335346780.post-2323949893499222492013-06-18T16:43:00.000-04:002013-06-18T16:45:31.037-04:00Interview with Jamaica Kincaid<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjAqCsyMzd6jp-eHLnahPYKFa32vqg5UTaFEl6YeUbO-9hbR7WJwOomjEGLNErC7lcKGsVLRsm5llQdIjEhoowtc5XUq4dutTyy7LLCSgiWgKwqGjuK7uD12U1Ckylm_jZ_T221jyI3gUFU/s1600/jamaica_kincaid_serious+arms+akimbo.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="214" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjAqCsyMzd6jp-eHLnahPYKFa32vqg5UTaFEl6YeUbO-9hbR7WJwOomjEGLNErC7lcKGsVLRsm5llQdIjEhoowtc5XUq4dutTyy7LLCSgiWgKwqGjuK7uD12U1Ckylm_jZ_T221jyI3gUFU/s320/jamaica_kincaid_serious+arms+akimbo.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
<br />
<h1>
Does Truth Have a Tone?</h1>
<span style="padding-bottom: 20px;"><center>
<i>Lauren K. Alleyne interviews Jamaica Kincaid<br /><span style="color: #949494;">June 17, 2013</span></i></center>
</span><br />
"For this interview, Kincaid spoke with me early one morning via Skype
(once she’d awakened her son to help her figure out “how it worked”). We
only used the audio feature, as she assured me I was missing nothing
but the rumpled sight of her drinking coffee in bed. When she learned I
was from Trinidad, she confessed to having made up, as a child, a cousin
from Trinidad named Jillian—a way to keep up with her friends, who all
seemed to have tons of relatives. I offered her use of my cousin of the
same name, and so we began our conversation about fiction, non-fiction,
history, and what it means to tell the truth."
<br />
<br />
<a href="http://www.guernicamag.com/interviews/does-truth-have-a-tone/">
</a>
<i>– Lauren K. Alleyne for</i> Guernica<br />
<br />
Follow the link to read the interview: <br />
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</div>
<br />
<a href="http://www.guernicamag.com/interviews/does-truth-have-a-tone/">http://www.guernicamag.com/interviews/does-truth-have-a-tone/</a></div>
Cynthia Pittmannhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12656761837022197235noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4188170322335346780.post-31434002027418854812013-05-17T12:34:00.000-04:002013-05-17T12:34:49.159-04:00Jamaica Kincaid in Paris - Video<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
<object height="315" width="420"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/rT1ogDe-9qs?version=3&hl=en_US"></param>
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Cynthia Pittmannhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12656761837022197235noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4188170322335346780.post-21096917672315177182013-05-14T11:08:00.002-04:002014-09-19T16:42:48.402-04:00KINCAID IS OFFENDED<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgkCcwsffEiCvGx1rbdlmxqi9ll2uLx65QXW58W_E1bZcgBn65gk8v4RK-vFOoUcPSTrCy7EvjjjqOwbAyzQ1ZDRGwCwYLitx3P3PpXuvddUO5ty7noByA8RoTj05ABV1dzXT1QsI2tToh4/s1600/jamaica_kincaid_serious+arms+akimbo.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgkCcwsffEiCvGx1rbdlmxqi9ll2uLx65QXW58W_E1bZcgBn65gk8v4RK-vFOoUcPSTrCy7EvjjjqOwbAyzQ1ZDRGwCwYLitx3P3PpXuvddUO5ty7noByA8RoTj05ABV1dzXT1QsI2tToh4/s320/jamaica_kincaid_serious+arms+akimbo.jpg" height="214" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Jamaica Kincaid, 2010.
<i>(Elisabetta A. Villa/Getty Images)</i></td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<span class="newWindow"><i>KINCAID IS OFFENDED BY THOSE WHO READ HER NEW NOVEL AS AUTOBIOGRAPHY! </i></span><br />
<br />
<span class="newWindow"><i><a href="http://www.tabletmag.com/jewish-arts-and-culture/books/123309/jamaica-kincaid-is-still-jewish" target="_blank">Book Review </a></i></span><br />
<span class="newWindow"><i> </i></span><br />
<span class="newWindow"><i><br /></i></span>
<span class="newWindow"><i><br /></i></span>
<span class="newWindow"><i>I'M IMAGINING THE DAISY FLOWER: SHE LOVES ME? SHE LOVES ME NOT?</i></span><br />
<br />
<span class="newWindow"><i>AUTOBIOGRAPHICAL: </i></span><br />
<br />
<span class="newWindow"><i>"See Now Then</i> is about the failing
marriage between a writer and a composer living in a small New England
village. The writer, Mrs. Sweet, is black and from the Caribbean, and
her husband, Mr. Sweet, is white and comes from a princely faction of
New York “entitled to doormen, no matter what.” The book’s premise
appears to be borrowed from Kincaid’s own life: In 2002, her 20-year
marriage to the composer Allen Shawn ended in divorce. Kincaid continues
to live in the Bennington home they shared."</span><br />
<br />
<span class="newWindow">NOT AUTOBIOGRAPHICAL: </span><br />
<br />
<span class="newWindow"><span class="newWindow">"Kincaid, however, is offended by the notion that
her fiction is autobiographical. “It’s belittling to think that what
I’ve done hinges so much on my own life. It’s as if the reality of what
I’ve written is hard to take in so that people must ask about my life
rather than what I’ve written,” Kincaid said. “The purpose of the novel
wasn’t to talk about the intimate details of my life. The biggest
character in the book is the thing we call time: What connects you to
tomorrow."</span> </span></div>
Cynthia Pittmannhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12656761837022197235noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4188170322335346780.post-49806406756987225072013-03-19T14:39:00.000-04:002013-03-19T16:06:32.552-04:00Don't Read (only) as Autobiography: A Cautionary Review<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiK4b1a9eitl22Kc-LZLMbYQnPkcidde9Of8AnPjB-cc7rOvt_ixL3Fp-3gK_vVyT3_1rIM4PPq4wUy1aVdm5JpudV56nZzZd-ODdDVvizZTYiy5JbQHYqMtAgJIbL-9hLeNn6nb3hOaH3A/s1600/SeeNowThen+bookjacket.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiK4b1a9eitl22Kc-LZLMbYQnPkcidde9Of8AnPjB-cc7rOvt_ixL3Fp-3gK_vVyT3_1rIM4PPq4wUy1aVdm5JpudV56nZzZd-ODdDVvizZTYiy5JbQHYqMtAgJIbL-9hLeNn6nb3hOaH3A/s320/SeeNowThen+bookjacket.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
<h2 style="text-align: left;">
Review gives Kincaid's book a B-</h2>
<h2 style="text-align: left;">
" shouldn’t be read as purely autobiographical"</h2>
<h2 style="text-align: left;">
by <a class="author" href="http://www.avclub.com/users/kevinmcfarland,73853/">Kevin McFarland</a>
March 18, 2013 </h2>
<h2 style="text-align: left;">
<a href="http://www.avclub.com/articles/jamaica-kincaid-see-now-then,93790/" target="_blank">A.V. CLUB </a></h2>
<i>"See Now Then</i>, Jamaica Kincaid’s first novel since 2002’s <i>Mr. Potter</i>,
shouldn’t be read as purely autobiographical. The facts do line up
well: Kincaid’s former husband, Allen Shawn (Wallace Shawn’s brother) is
a composer; they had two children together, a boy and a girl; they
lived in Bennington, Vermont. The novel depicts a crumbling marriage
between Mr. and Mrs. Sweet, a composer and a writer, respectively, who
live with their son and a daughter in a small New England town. But it
isn’t a book about another American divorce. <i>See Now Then</i>
elevates marriage difficulty to the level of myth and archetype, to
represent a fundamental part of the American story. Unfortunately,
Kincaid focuses so much on the style of the lyric novel that it hinders
the potential emotional impact."<br />
<h3 style="text-align: left;">
</h3>
<h3 style="text-align: left;">
Here we are allowed to read it autobiographically but not as "pure" autobiography! </h3>
</div>
Cynthia Pittmannhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12656761837022197235noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4188170322335346780.post-19837170217371731252013-03-08T16:22:00.002-04:002013-03-08T16:31:08.436-04:00Jamaica Kincaid Answers 10 Questions on YouTube<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjQpJUhmEdmRcDsaGitNt5EZgmES53_IKkUZ5tFWEEydyucl8gqJly8nnWNuX0_AqVDSNbxhTmLYAzpzqqD0y_tPRBUTTWcZpmv3SIhYfvkK77GBtEHGNPsi5VZSaeB4EzerHtuvKRNd19C/s1600/Jamaica+Kincaid+smile.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjQpJUhmEdmRcDsaGitNt5EZgmES53_IKkUZ5tFWEEydyucl8gqJly8nnWNuX0_AqVDSNbxhTmLYAzpzqqD0y_tPRBUTTWcZpmv3SIhYfvkK77GBtEHGNPsi5VZSaeB4EzerHtuvKRNd19C/s1600/Jamaica+Kincaid+smile.jpg" /></a></div>
<h2 style="text-align: left;">
Jamaica Kincaid: 'I hope the reader won't look for clues to my life in the book...it's about something deeper.'</h2>
<h3 style="text-align: left;">
<i>Time Interview (Time Video)</i></h3>
<div style="text-align: left;">
January 28, 2013. </div>
<div style="text-align: left;">
Belinda Luscombe</div>
<br />
<br />
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Cynthia Pittmannhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12656761837022197235noreply@blogger.com0