On 19th March, the writer and academic Ifeona Fulani held a workshop for the Department’s up and coming creative writers, myself included. It was not to be two hours of simple show and tell however, but a wonderfully illuminating analysis of Caribbean literature, including important writers such as Jean Rhys and Junot Diaz. This was blended with a critical examination of our own work, and topped off and neatly tied up with Ifeona’s fundamental piece of advice, as true for the fifteen keen writers attending, as it was for Jean Rhys and Junot Diaz themselves. Write honestly and tell your story. The most important intent of true creative writing is to capture some essence of the present and lay it bare for everyone to see. Ifeona later gave a reading of her recent short fiction.
Henry Twist, Creative Writing Student
Ifeona Fulani’s Ten Days in Jamaica, will be published in September 2012 by Peepal Tree Press.
