I See the World

By Jamaica Kincaid

April 28, 2020

""It begins in this way:

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; Paris Review (follow link)

Lifetime Achievement Award: Paris Review

HADADA Award 

 

April 12, 2022, The Paris Review will present the Hadada, an annual lifetime achievement award, to Jamaica Kincaid at Spring Revel.

 

Jamaica Kincaid and Euma Okoro on Writing

Jamaica Kincaid and Euma Okoro on Writing

 Jamaica Kincaid and Euma Okoro on Writing, Financial Times Interview. Lilah Raptopoulos. October 2, 2022,

Jamaica Kincaid 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 . .. 

 Lilah Raptopoulos You mean you would say, like “this book is actually by me”?  

Jamaica Kincaid 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 . . .   

Lilah Raptopoulos (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? 

Jamaica Kincaid 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”. 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. I have to thank the English people. (Laughter)

 

 

Jamaica Kincaid EVENTS

An Evening with Jamaica Kincaid Thursday, July 16, 2020 - 6:00 PM

"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." The New York Society Library https://youtu.be/Ca5uLZO678g

A Heap of Disturbance

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 The New Yorker September 7, 2020

Oasis Writing Link™: Airing Dirty Laundry

Oasis Writing Link™: Airing Dirty Laundry:



A popular post about those TMI moments that actually are an invitation for human connection. If you consider Jamaica Kincaid's Lucy or even Annie John (and My Brother), you would recognize that she provides so many of these invitations.

Jamaica Kincaid

“Sometimes extraordinary things happen to people from shitty countries, not just Norway.” Jamaica Kincaid

Jamaica Kincaid answers back to in the most powerful way, "I'm a person from a shitty country" in the Florida  Key West Conference. (Florida Key News linked article)

GIRL BY JAMAICA KINCAID

“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.

New Yorker credit

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; but I don’t sing benna on Sundays at all and never in Sunday school;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; but what if the baker won’t let me feel the bread?; 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? 

JAMAICA KINCAID'S JOURNEY

Kincaid at Harvard 2014

"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 Annie John and Lucy. Be sure to check out her latest novel, See Now Then, and maybe have a chat with her during office hours." (Harvard Crimson)

http://www.thecrimson.com/article/2014/11/10/literary-leisure-by-harvard-very-own/

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. 

Interview with Jamaica Kincaid

After the publication of Jamaica Kincaid's See Now Then, questions continued to develop about the autobiographical nature of her fiction writing.

 See the NPR interview here.

Jamaica Kincaid, News, and Autobiographical Connection

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.

Admission is free and open to the public. 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.
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.”

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.

Kincaid is a professor at Harvard University and a long-time visiting writer each July at Skidmore’s New York State Summer Writers Institute.

http://www.skidmorenews.com/?p=6100

Jamaica Kincaid at Skidmore

CREDIT

"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.
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."

News: Harvard LITfest and Jamaica Kincaid

“I have this view of writing as something I’d die for,” Kincaid, an African and African American studies professor in residence, said during a panel Tuesday helping to kick off the three-day Harvard LitFest. “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

Kincaid Connections

"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 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. 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?"

~ Tonya Garcia

 - See more at: http://madamenoire.com/449534/naomi-jackson-tiphanie-yanique-two-contemporary-caribbean-writers-must-know/#sthash.7GQA730I.dpuf

Kincaid Inspires Reflection

How is Jamaica Kincaid relevant? Consider this Comment by By Terrence J. Roberts, Ph.D.

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.”

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.

Link to full article:

http://wavenewspapers.com/opinion/article_c39cb126-dc88-11e3-b59a-001a4bcf6878.html?TNNoMobile

Should a Movie be Made of Kincaid's Novel "Lucy" ?

LUCY GOES TO HOLLYWOOD

Can a novel ever be made into an excellent film?

Most literary works suffer when being represented as screen plays. The characters change, the plot changes and sometimes even the conclusion is different.

Still discovering that Kincaid's novel, Lucy is being made into a film is exciting.

I can hear the au par Lucy speaking from the pages of Kincaid's novel,

 "Let's just say I work here until Hollywood discovers me." It would be great to say -

LUCY YOU'VE BEEN DISCOVERED!

Oasis Writing Link (TM): Color Wheel: Spinning Wheels Must Go Round

Oasis Writing Link (TM): Color Wheel: Spinning Wheels Must Go Round

Good Reads Review

Reviewer Matt Lived in the Shirley Jackson house as found in the Jamaica Kincaid's,  See Now Then

"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.

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.

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."

Interview with Jamaica Kincaid

Does Truth Have a Tone?

Lauren K. Alleyne interviews Jamaica Kincaid
June 17, 2013
"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."

– Lauren K. Alleyne for Guernica

Follow the link to read the interview:

http://www.guernicamag.com/interviews/does-truth-have-a-tone/