The Brilliance of Indo-Trinidadian Literary Writers

Indo-Caribbean Divali Publication Ltd. ( IDP) wishes to announce the publication of its latest souvenir magazine - Divali 2012, Trinidad and Tobago. The theme of this edition of its annual magazine is “The Brilliance of Indo-Trinidadian Literary Writers.”

After Carnival, Divali is the second largest open-air national festival in multi-ethnic Trinidad and Tobago. The Hindu Festival of Lights is celebrated by lighting of thousands of deyas [clay lamps] on decorative designs of split bamboo tubes. The lights twinkle in the shadows of free public performances by actors, models, drummers, dancers, musicians and singers. During the days and nights preceding Divali, non-Hindus and non-Indians actively join in the celebration by lighting deyas, wearing Indian clothes, and partaking in eating traditional Indian foods and sweets.

From the 1930s, Seepersad Naipaul and his family began to establish themselves as the first literary dynasty, not only among Indo-Trinidadians, but also among writers throughout the English-speaking Caribbean. Seepersad was followed by his son Vidia (VS), who won the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1992, and has been the only Trinidadian to claim this internationally coveted prize so far. The Naipauls have been followed by writers up to this day such as Neil Bissoondath, Rabindranath Maharaj, Ron Ramdin, Raymond Ramcharitar and Kevin Baldeosingh. Acclaimed women writers include Rajandaye Ramkissoon-Chen, Madeleine Coopsammy, Lakshmi Persaud, Ramabai Espinet, Shani Mootoo and Niala Maharaj. It would surely be akin to blindness not to notice the happy coincidence of the literary success from these women, and the ground-breaking appointment of an Indian woman as Prime Minister of Trinidad and Tobago in the person of Kamla Persad-Bissessar.