So Many Islands

Nicholas Laughlin is a writer and editor from Trinidad. He is editor of the popular arts and travel magazine Caribbean Beat, and in 2004 he revived the literary journal The Caribbean Review of Books, covering Caribbean writing for a general audience, published in print and online. As programme director of the Bocas Lit Fest, Trinidad and Tobago’s annual literary festival, he works to bring contemporary Caribbean writers to broader audiences, with a special focus on new literary talent. He is also co-director of Alice Yard, a non-profit contemporary art space in Port of Spain. He has two poetry collections, The Strange Years of My Life (2015) and Enemy Luck (2019), both published by Peepal Tree Press. nicholaslaughlin.net

Heather Barker writes fiction from Barbados about girls and women in the Caribbean and the African Diaspora. Her short story, ‘African Burial Ground’, was shortlisted for the 2016 Small Axe Literary Competition while her manuscript, ‘The Plundering’, came top in 2017 in the Frank Collymore Literary Endowment. Heather was also shortlisted for the 2019 Johnson and Amoy Achong Caribbean Writers Prize. Heather’s writing is in publications in the Caribbean, US, and UK including So Many Islands: Stories from the Caribbean, Mediterranean, Indian, and Pacific Oceans (Peekash Press [US], Telegram [UK]).

Angela Barry, from Bermuda, holds a PhD in Creative Writing from Lancaster University. Her writing has been published in journals including The Massachusetts Review and is one of the contributors of So Many Islands: Stories from the Caribbean, Mediterranean, Indian and Pacific Oceans. She is the author of Endangered Species and Other Stories and Gorée: Point of Departure, published by Peepal Tree Press. She resides in Bermuda.

Kendel Hippolyte is a poet, playwright and director and sporadic researcher into areas of Saint Lucian and Caribbean arts and culture. His poetry has been published in journals and anthologies regionally and internationally. He has taught poetry workshops in various countries and performed at literary events within the Caribbean and beyond. His latest collection is Wordplanting, and he is the author of seven previous collections of poetry, including Fault Lines, which won the OCM Bocas Prize for Poetry in 2013.

Dr Karlo Mila (Tongan / Pākehā) MNZM is an award-winning poet, mother, writer, activist and researcher. She is the Programme Director of the Mana Moana Experience at Leadership New Zealand. The kaupapa of this programme is to vitalise and prioritise Pasifika ancestral knowledge in contemporary contexts. Karlo lives in Tāmaki Makaurau with her three sons. Her third poetry book, “Goddess Muscle” will be launched this year by Huia Publishers.