Like A Real Book Club

Interview with Professor Paulette Ramsay about her recently republished novel Aunt Jen, and her latest novel Letters Home. Purchase Aunt Jen, Letters Home and the other Contemporary Caribbean Classics on rebelwomenlit.com/shop Our guest Professor Paulette Ramsay, is a Jamaican poet, translator, journalist, novelist, and academic whose debut novel Aunt Jen (2002) is being republished by Hodder Education, along with her latest novel Letters Home (2021) both novels explore the effects of the Empire Windrush era on family-life for Jamaicans living at home and abroad through a complex mother-daughter relationship. Watch the full 2-hour interview with Paulette Ramsay on our Sustaining Members' blog: rebelwomenlit.com/join#sustaining Becoming a sustaining member also helps Rebel Women Lit maintain and grow its work in the literary arts, and fostering its lit community. Follow @RebelWomenLit on Twitter and Instagram and subscribe to our newsletter & telegram channel: rebelwomenlit.com/newsletters to stay informed on the latest news on classic and contemporary books and what's happening in our literary community.

Behind the scenes of our inaugural Caribbean Readers' Awards, our inspiration, next year's goals and a bit of tea. Learn more about the Rebel Women Lit Caribbean Readers' Awards and shop the nominees: rebelwomenlit.com/awards See the Caribbean Readers' Awards in O! Magazine: https://www.oprahmag.com/entertainment/books/g35179881/rebel-women-lit-caribbean-readers-awards-winners/

Karen Lord reads chapter one of Unraveling - Rebel Women Lit's book club January 2021 pick. RSVP for book club and subscribe to receive our monthly picks at rebelwomenlit.com

A (very) special episode featuring the artist Moon talking about their forthcoming poetry collection, Breaking The Binary, a response to queer lives in Jamaica. This episode features original work by Moon: 3:57 Yemaya (song available on most streaming platforms) 8:00 Broken Lineage 11:45 Undefined 14:03 Broken Silence 18:05 Unsung You can follow Moon on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/moon.the.artist/ This special episode was sponsored by CATAPULT Arts Grant, American Friends of Jamaica, Kingston Creative, Fresh Milk Barbados and you - our sustaining patron members of RWL. To become a member of Rebel Women Lit join us at rebelwomenlit.com/join Follow @RebelWomenLit on Instagram, Facebook and Twitter if you're interested in joining our (very queer, very Caribbean, always lit) community celebrating diverse & brilliant literature.

In this new episode of Like A Real Book Club, we traverse a very dark and all too common feature of Caribbean girlhood and womanhood by looking at sexual grooming and sexual violence. Looking through the lenses of popular book to TV adaptations, Tiffany Jackson’s Grown, Jamaican history and our own personal experiences, we talk about the insidiousness of glamourized pedophilia, the oversexualization of Black women’s bodies, why we should leave Minister Marion Hall alone and...so much more. Further Reading and References Film Lady Bird (2017 Film) Book-to-TV Adaptations Pretty Little Liars Gossip Girl Books/Essays Grown by Tiffany Jackson rebelwomenlit.com/grown “Property Rights in Pleasure: The Marketing of Enslaved Women’s Sexuality”, by Hilary McD. Beckles - Caribbean Slavery in the Atlantic World “Queering Feminist Approaches to Gender-based Violence in the Anglophone Caribbean” by Tonya Haynes and Halimah A.F DeShong Play/Video Dancehall Queen - https://youtu.be/XAm5n8aQxhI For Harriet, “Why do Black women performers HAVE to sell sex?“ - https://youtu.be/UeWlySR4wBU

You know the end of Ari Lennox' 'Chicago Boy' where she asks everyone who is not her friend needs to leave? That's how this episode feels. Ashley, Jherane and Kristina have an intimate conversation about their experiences with churches, mental health, and of course books. A 20+ min bonus episode on the books we turn to when we're in a bad mental place is available to our patron members, become a member to get access to our private podcast stream: rebelwomenlit.com/join Books Mentioned: The Mothers by Brit Bennett Transcendent Kingdom by Yaa Gyasi Queenie by Candice Carty-Williams PATSY by Nicole Dennis Benn The Last Warner Woman by Kei Miller Augustown by Kei Miller Become a Patreon member of our book club: rebelwomenlit.com/join Shop books and merch: rebelwomenlit.com/store Follow us on Instagram and Twitter

One thing about us, we’re gonna intend to talk about one thing and end up talking about 27. It’s been such a long time since we’ve done an episode that everything came pouring out of us. But that’s the beauty of a book club (and the podcasts that are like them) - you get to gush about your favourite things, the things you hate and everything in between with amazing people. In this episode of the podcast, Ashley, Jherane and Kristina catch each other up on what they’ve been reading; all the reasons Goodreads sucks (and why we’re switching to Storygraph); our vendetta against Alfredo pasta and, perhaps more importantly, why we think Spice and Shenseea would be big fans of Talia Hibbert. -- Support and Join our book club & podcast: rebelwomenlit.com/join Shop for books and merch in our store: rebelwomenlit.com/store Follow us on Twitter & Instagram: @RebelWomenLit

Get a cup of your favourite tea, cock yuh ten and enjoy our interview with the very masterful, Curdella Forbes. Kristina and Jherane sat down with Curdella on her verandah with three cups of tea, beautiful rolling hills before us and some nice, cool breeze washing over us. At least that’s the imagery we had in our heads while we sat in our respective homes chatting with the Curdella Forbes, Jamaican author of A Tall History of Sugar.

We all know that stories have the power to change us. We've teamed up with BOCAS Lit Fest in Trinidad & Tobago for #ReadCaribbean to select Caribbean books that have had an impact on our lives, and this is the result. No, we didn't do 100 books in this podcast but we chose these page-turners that have helped to shape and influence our thinking. Doing this list we all realised that these were some of the books that made us become love Caribbean books. What book made you become interested (read: obsessed) with Caribbean Literature? _ See BOCAS Lit Fest's 100 Caribbean Books and use #MyCaribbeanLibrary on social media to see the amazing responses from readers all over the world! Become a Patreon member of our book club: rebelwomenlit.com/join Shop books and merch: rebelwomenlit.com/store Follow us on Instagram and Twitter Books Mentioned in This Episode: Krik? Krak! by Edwidge Danticat Annie John by Jamaica Kincaid A Small Place by Jamaica Kincaid (included in our Patreon travel club) Beka Lamb by Zee Edgell Gardening in the Tropics by Olive Senior The Fear of Stones and other Stories by Kei Miller Caribbean Slavery in the Atlantic World by Verene Shepherd How Europe Underdeveloped Africa by Walter Rodney

Like A Real Book Club reviews Jamaican novel A Tall History of Sugar by Curdella Forbes. We talk about the Caribbean's legacy of sugar in the form of our education and careers, economic and political life, and even our diets... and of course the book.

Is it ok to “feel a way” when a Caribbean author doesn’t use our language and our culture in their work? We love reading novels and poetry from the Caribbean, especially ones written by Jamaican authors, but are we demanding in our expectations? Also, wtf is magical realism? Become a Patreon member of our book club: patreon.com/rebelwomenlit  Sign up for our bi-weekly newsletter: tinyletter.com/rebelwomenlit Follow us on IG & Twitter: @RebelWomenLit  Books Mentioned in This Episode: Augustown by Kei Miller The Cartographer Tries To Map a Way to Zion by Kei Miller The Book of Night Women by Marlon James  John Crow's Devil by Marlon James A Tall History of Sugar by Curdella Forbes The Sun is Also A Star by Nicola Yoon  PATSY by Nicole Dennis Benn  Here Comes The Sun by Nicole Dennis Benn

We chat with Sara Collins, winner of the Costa Book Awards 2019, about her debut novel The Confessions of Frannie Langton! We talk about the inspirations for the book, writing complex enslaved characters, a bit about white feminism, and her experience recording her own audiobook.  Bonus: She talks about her upcoming sophomore novel.  You can buy The Confessions of Frannie Langton from our bookstore: rebelwomenlit.com/store And donate to Rebel Women Lit: rebelwomenlit.com/donate Sara mentioned Thomas Thistlewood’s Journals’ In Miserable Slavery: https://amzn.to/3ec2aId for her research on racist experiments done in the Caribbean. We figured you may be interested in checking it out, it’s very insightful but also very (very) graphic. Follow Rebel Women Lit on Instagram and Twitter for book club updates and join us for our upcoming book club meetups and our online queer Caribbean literary events.  See You At Book Club!

Lots of spoilers for The Confessions of Frannie Langton ahead!  Trigger Warning: This podcast includes discussion of scientific racism, sexual assault, murder, and white peopleing. In February, Rebel Women Lit read The Confessions of Frannie Langton by Sara Collins. It’s been described, as a gothic, romance, and mystery novel, but we just think it’s a brilliant historical fiction that should replace every Jane Austen book on the CXC syllabus because more Caribbean people need to read it.   You can purchase The Confessions of Frannie Langton and other books on our website rebelwomenlit.com/store and donate to our podcast production (and book club) at rebelwomenlit.com/donate Join us next month for our book club meetup on Crossfire by Staceyann Chin. Sign up for our newsletter and follow Rebel Women Lit on Twitter, Instagram.

We talk about books that should hit the screens, but not before we struggle to define "gothic novels" as a genre, talk about fast-fashion, and do a small rant about Bookstagram. 

Lots of spoilers for Girl, Woman, Other ahead!  Trigger Warning: Discussions around gang rape and sexual assault in the book.  In January, Rebel Women Lit read Bernardine Evaristo's Girl, Woman, Other which is the only 2019 Booker winner we'll recognize. Like A Real Book Club meets to chat about the not-a-short-story collection of stories by 12 black british people -mostly women- and their interwoven lives.  Join us next month as we discuss The Confessions of Frannie Langton by Sara Collins. Sign up for our newsletter and follow Rebel Women Lit on Twitter, Instagram.

Fangirling over writers, Jherane talks about crying over books, Kristina gets a bit brainy talking about classic vs romantic poetry and Ashley talks about her hobby with street signs.