Bedste Cocoa Convos-podcasts (2024)

1
Episode 38 | To Be A Cheetah - Joanne C. Hillhouse (Antigua) 15:32

1+ y ago15:32

15:32

Bio - Antiguan and Barbudan writer Joanne C. Hillhouse is a self-described #gyalfromOttosAntigua She is the founder and president of Wadadli Pen Inc. a non-profit committed to nurturing and showcasing the literary arts in Antigua and Barbuda. More at wadadlipen.wordpress.com. Joanne has authored several books of fiction including the novel Oh Gad!,…

1
Episode 37 | The Galaxy Game - Karen Lord (Barbados) 16:49

1+ y ago16:49

16:49

On the verge of adulthood, Rafi attends the Lyceum, a school for the psionically gifted. Rafi possesses mental abilities that might benefit people . . . or control them. Some wish to help Rafi wield his powers responsibly; others see him as a threat to be contained. Rafi’s only freedom at the Lyceum is Wallrunning: a game of speed and agility playe…

1
Episode 36 | Nightmare Island - Shakirah Bourne (Barbados) 15:38

1+ y ago15:38

15:38

Nightmare Island Twelve year-old Serenity Noah has never told anyone about her recurring nightmares -- the haunting images of silver butterflies whose flapping wings drive away all sound, leaving only suffocating silence in their wake. Her parents already favor her "perfect" younger brother, Peace, and she doesn't want to be seen as the "problem" c…

1
Always Lit Swap: The God of Good Looks: Readings & Convo between Breanne McIvor & Vanessa Williams 51:12

1+ y ago51:12

51:12

Happy Caribbean-American Heritage Month to our listeners in the United States and Canada. To those in the islands, Happy Read Caribbean Month celebrations! Today’s Cocoa Pod episode is a promo swap with Always Lit, the BCLF interview-based series, that keeps the festival in yuh pocket always! Enjoy today’s conversation between Miami-based Caribbean…

1
Episode 34 | Wild Fires - Sophie Jai (Trinidad & Tobago) 8:01

1+ y ago8:01

8:01

Grief is like an inside joke: you have to have been there to really get it. Everything Cassandra Rampersad knows about her family history has been overheard: whispered behind a closed door or written in a notebook stowed away. Cassandra has always been curious, and when a death in the family means she has to return home to Toronto, it seems like th…

1
Episode 33 | The God of Good Looks - Breanne Mc Ivor (Trinidad & Tobago) 16:10

1+ y ago16:10

16:10

Combining the honesty, warmth, and humour of Queenie and a modern-day Bridget Jones’s Diary, award-winning writer Breanne Mc Ivor’s entertaining, transportive, and luminous debut novel follows a young Trinidadian woman finding her voice and a new kind of happy ending. Bianca Bridge has always dreamt of becoming a writer. But Trinidadian society can…

1
Episode 32 | A Million Aunties - Alecia McKenzie (Jamaica) 10:17

1+ y ago10:17

10:17

After a personal tragedy upends his world, American-born artist Chris travels to his mother's homeland in the Caribbean hoping to find some peace and tranquility. He plans to spend his time painting in solitude and coming to terms with his recent loss and his fractured relationship with his father. Instead, he discovers a new extended and complicat…

1
Episode 31 | The Human Origins of Beatrice Porter - Soraya Palmer 14:22

1+ y ago14:22

14:22

In The Human Origins of Beatrice Porter and Other Essential Ghosts, sisters Zora and Sasha Porter are drifting apart. Bearing witness to their father’s violence and their mother’s worsening illness, an unsettled Zora escapes into her journal, dreaming of being a writer, while Sasha discovers sex and chest binding, spending more time with her new gi…

1
Episode 30 | Paper White - Tricia Chin (Trinidad & Tobago) 14:10

1+ y ago14:10

14:10

Tricia Chin is an attorney-at-law who started writing short stories during the Covid19 pandemic in 2020. Her writing is based on the folklore of Trinidad and Tobago. She places her characters in local settings across Trinidad and during time periods that vary from the 1800s to present day. "For the Dead" is her third collection, released in 2022. S…

1
Episode 29 | The Stranger Who Was Myself - Barbara Jenkins (Trinidad & Tobago) 14:31

1+ y ago14:31

14:31

Barbara Jenkins writes about the experiences of a personal and family-centred life in Trinidad with great psychological acuteness, expanding on the personal with a deep awareness of the economic, social and cultural contexts of that experience. She writes about a childhood and youth located in the colonial era and an adult life that began at the ve…

1
Episode 28 | Hungry Ghosts - Kevin Jared Hosein (Trinidad & Tobago) 15:16

2y ago15:16

15:16

On a hill overlooking Bell Village sits the Changoor farm, where Dalton and Marlee Changoor live in luxury unrecognisable to those who reside in the farm's shadow. Down below is the barrack, a ramshackle building of wood and tin, divided into rooms occupied by whole families. Among these families are the Saroops - Hans, Shweta, and their son, Krish…

1
Episode 27 | When We Were Birds - Ayanna Lloyd-Banwo(Trinidad & Tobago) 18:50

2y ago18:50

18:50

A mythic love story set in Trinidad, Ayanna Lloyd Banwo's radiant debut is a masterwork of lush imagination and exuberant storytelling—a spellbinding and hopeful novel about inheritance, loss, and love's seismic power to heal. In the old house on a hill, where the city meets the rainforest, Yejide’s mother is dying. She is leaving behind a legacy t…

1
Episode 26 | River Sing Me Home - Eleanor Shearer (St Lucia / Barbados) 17:30

2y ago17:30

17:30

River Sing Me Home is a beautiful, page-turning and redemptive story of a mother’s gripping journey across the Caribbean to find her stolen children in the aftermath of slavery. A GOOD MORNING AMERICA BOOK CLUB PICK, The Observer calls it a “celebration of motherhood and female resilience”. Eleanor Shearer is a mixed-race writer and the granddaught…

1
Episode 25 | Zo and the Forest of Secrets - Alake Pilgrim (Trinidad & Tobago) with Bonus Q&A by Kai Muhammad 17:09

2y ago17:09

17:09

When Zo decides to run away from home, she isn’t scared; she knows the forest like the back of her hand, after all. But, as she journeys through the once-familiar landscape, she encounters terrifying creatures and a warped version of the mythology of the island. With a beast on her heels, and a mysterious abandoned facility at the heart of the fore…

1
Episode 24 | Please Take One by Portia Subran (Trinidad & Tobago) Finalist 2022 BCLF Elizabeth Nunez Caribbean American Writer's Prize 11:56

2y ago11:56

11:56

‘Please Take One’ follows Lloyd, an elderly resident of Chaguanas, as he embarks on a series of desperate attempts to capture the attention of an aloof supermarket clerk. Please Take One by Portia Subran is the finalist for the 2022 BCLF Elizabeth Nunez Award for Writers in the Caribbean. Portia Subran is a writer and an artist from Trinidad & Toba…

1
Episode 23 | El Don by Amaris Castillo (Dominican Republic) Finalist 2022 BCLF Elizabeth Nunez Caribbean-American Writer’s Prize 15:24

2y ago15:24

15:24

'El Don' was a finalist for the 2022 BCLF Elizabeth Nunez Caribbean-American Writer's Prize. The short story follows Don Pedro, an elderly Dominican man and self-proclaimed sinvergüenza who makes objectifying women outside a bodega his job. He belongs to a trio of viejos who talk endlessly about politics, history, and women. On the day before Thank…

1
Episode 22 | The Fix by Alexia Tolas (Bahamas) Winner 2022 BCLF Elizabeth Nunez Award for Writers in the Caribbean 12:08

2y ago12:08

12:08

“The Fix” is a story of love, obsession, and obeah that follows a young woman as she seeks advice from an obeah practitioner. She has fallen in love with her neighbor, but rather than compete with his current lover directly, she looks to magic to steal him for herself. The obeah woman teachesthe young woman how to infuse her food with stronger and …

1
Episode 21 | BCLF Short Fiction Story Contest 2022 (Part1) | Nadege Goes Home - Yveka Pierre (Haiti) 18:48

2y ago18:48

18:48

'Nadege Goes Home' is the 2022 winner of the BCLF Elizabeth Nunez Caribbean-American Writer's Prize. It tells the story of Nadege, a Haitian-American woman on a trip back to the South Florida town where she grew up after a long absence. Over the course of a weekend, Nadege reconnects with her brother, and together they face the question of “how do …

1
Episode 19 | Til The Well Runs Dry - Lauren Francis-Sharma (Trinidad & Tobago) 12:15

2y ago12:15

12:15

Enjoy this excerpt from an outstanding debut novel, rich with the lyrical beauty pf Trinidad and Tobago. In a seaside village in the north of Trinidad, young Marcia Garcia, a gifted and smart-mouthed sixteen-year-old seamstress, lives alone, raising two small boys and guarding a family secret. When she meets Farouk Karam, an ambitious young policem…

1
Episode 18 | The Book of the Little Axe - Lauren Francis-Sharma (Trinidad & Tobago) 12:03

2y ago12:03

12:03

Author Lauren Francis-Sharma reads an extract from her beautiful historically reimagined novel, set in 1796 Trinidad. The story begins with teenage Rosa Rendon quietly but purposefully rebelling against typical female roles and behavior. Bright, competitive, and opinionated, Rosa sees no reason she should learn to cook and keep house - it is obviou…

1
Episode 17 | The Dreaming - Andre Bagoo (Trinidad & Tobago) 18:48

2y ago18:48

18:48

Gay characters search for sex, adventure, pleasure, self-realisation, and love in Trinidad. Written with a highly enjoyable sharpness of perception and an engaging personal voice these stories find room for humour, tattoos, barbershops, and terrible poetry, but also acute fear in a society where gay men experience prejudice, discrimination, and hom…

1
Episode 16 | What A Mother's Love Don't Teach You - Sharma Taylor (Jamaica) 25:00

2+ y ago25:00

25:00

2021 BCLF Short Fiction story finalist, Sharma Taylor, is the author of this powerful and evocative debut novel set in Jamaica. At eighteen years old, Dinah gave away her baby son to the rich couple she worked for before they left Jamaica. They never returned. She never forgot him. Eighteen years later, a young man comes from the US to Kingston. Fr…

1
Episode 15 | Pleasantview - Celeste Mohammed (Trinidad & Tobago) 40:37

2+ y ago40:37

40:37

Coconut trees. Carnival. Rum and coke. To many outsiders, these idyllic images represent the supposed easy life in Caribbean nations such as Trinidad and Tobago. However, the reality is far different for those who live there—a society where poverty and patriarchy savagely rule, and where love and revenge often go hand in hand. Celeste Mohammed’s Pl…

1
Episode 14 | Neruda on the Park - Cleyvis Natera (Dominican Republic) 10:22

2+ y ago10:22

10:22

The Guerreros have lived in Nothar Park, a predominantly Dominican part of New York City, for twenty years. When demolition begins on a neighboring tenement, Eusebia, an elder of the community, takes matters into her own hands by devising an increasingly dangerous series of schemes to stop construction of the luxury condos. Meanwhile Eusebia’s daug…

1
Episode 13 | BCLF Short Fiction Story Contest 2019 (Part 3) | Summer's End - Lisa J. La Touche 12:08

2+ y ago12:08

12:08

In my writing I explore realistic themes, grounded in Caribbean life, culture and folklore. I am interested in relationships - familial, romantic or platonic - my stories lean towards relationships among women, mostly. I explore relationships with our people's history and I like giving a voice to our rich landscape, as if nature is a character. Sum…

1
Episode 13 | BCLF Short Fiction Story Contest 2019 (Part 2) | Cashew Heist - Stephanie Ramlogan (Trinidad & Tobago) 10:43

2+ y ago10:43

10:43

‘Cashew Heist’ by Stephanie Ramlogan edged its way to the front of the 2019 shortlist for the BCLF Elizabeth Nunez Caribbean-American Writer's Prize. If there was a story that was flawless, Stephanie’s was as close to ideal as it comes. Witty and rife with the authenticity of a Trinidadian English creole voice, readers of all cultures, ages or back…

1
Episode 13 | BCLF Short Fiction Story Contest 2020 (Part 1) | Vizay - Hadassah K. Williams (Trinidad & Tobago) 9:35

2+ y ago9:35

9:35

Hadassah K. Williams is the recipient of the 1st BCLF Elizabeth Nunez Award for Writers in the Caribbean. Her winning submission ‘Vizay’, tugs at the center of the complex, emotional ordeal that is the US visitor’s visa application process in the Caribbean. Comedic in its delivery, Hadassah fashions for readers a story from a commonplace, highly re…

1
Episode 12 | The Coming of Org - John R. Lee (St. Lucia) 25:13

2+ y ago25:13

25:13

The Coming of Org is a short story by the St. Lucian writer, John R. Lee. It highlights a St Lucian folk story with most of its dialogue in French Creole. In the story, Tison, the main character, is a popular radio DJ in Saint Lucia. He has grown up, like many others in his village, hearing of characters from ancient folklore passed down from gener…

1
Episode 11 | The Bread the Devil Knead - Lisa Allen-Agostini 23:30

2+ y ago23:30

23:30

The Bread the Devil Knead by veteran writer, Lisa Allen-Agostini, is a surprisingly funny, fast-paced and hopeful novel about a woman in an abusive relationship, told in her own Trinidad Creole voice. Its protagonist is Alethea Lopez, who is about to turn 40. Fashionable, feisty and fiercely independent, she manages a boutique in Port of Spain, but…

1
Episode 10 | I Never Heard Pappy Play the Hawaiian Guitar - Barbara Jenkins (Trinidad & Tobago) 24:15

3y ago24:15

24:15

Barbara Jenkins - I Never Heard Pappy Play the Hawaiian Guitar Barbara Jenkins, who is no stranger to the literary world, is a special example of there being no singular mould from which all writers emerge and that literary DNA flows through us all. After forging a prestigious career as a high school geography teacher, she found her penchant for th…

1
Episode 9 | Cane Warriors - Alex Wheatle (Jamaica) 15:54

3y ago15:54

15:54

Cane Warriors’ by award-winning writer Alex Wheatle is the perfect introduction for young adult literature readers into the lives of our African ancestors. This historical account of Tacky's Rebellion, which took place in Jamaica in 1760, is viewed through the eyes of 14-year-old Moa, the youngest of the cane warriors who was determined to end the …

1
Episode 8 | How The One Armed Sister Sweeps Her Home - Cherie Jones (Barbados) 12:44

3y ago12:44

12:44

A Good Morning America Bookclub pick and translated into several languages, How The One Armed Sister Sweeps Her House by Cherie Jones is a perfectly paced novel well-lit with characterisation and descriptiveness. This moderately-sized novel swells and grows to a point in the final chapters where at times it feels like the words are flying off the p…

1
Episode 7 | What Storm What Thunder - Myriam J. A. Chancy (Haiti) 40:43

3y ago40:43

40:43

Episode 7 | What Storm What Thunder - Myriam J. A. Chancy Guggenheim Fellow and decorated writer, Myriam J. A. Chancy regales us with an excerpt of What Storm, What Thunder (WS, WT). WS, WT is the recipient of an avalanche of praise, and has been described as "stunning" by Margaret Atwood. Publisher, TinHouse Books describes the novel as 'Brilliant…

1
Episode 6 | Olga Dies Dreaming - Xotchil Gonzalez 34:53

3y ago34:53

34:53

A blazing talent debuts with the tale of a status-driven wedding planner grappling with her social ambitions, absent mother, and Puerto Rican roots―all in the wake of Hurricane Maria Set against the backdrop of New York City in the months surrounding the most devastating hurricane in Puerto Rico’s history, Xochitl Gonzalez’s Olga Dies Dreaming is a…

1
Episode 5 | BCLF Short Fiction Story Contest 2021 (Part 5) - Singing With the Orphans - Diana McCaulay (Jamaica) 22:47

3y ago22:47

22:47

‘Singing With The Orphans' addresses longstanding hierarchies of class and race, and their colonial and postcolonial intersections, from inside the world of a Roman Catholic orphanage, run by Sister Abigail, and the home of wealthy white patrons, the Stirlings. Deftly told and expertly crafted, we were impressed by the layers of subtle meaning …

1
Episode 4 | BCLF Short Fiction Story Contest 2021 (Part 4) - Shelf - Brandon McIvor (Trinidad & Tobago) 42:38

3y ago42:38

42:38

RUM SHELF ‘Perhaps Selvonesque in its literary influence, achieving an intimacy through convincing, well-wrought dialogue, Rum Shelf pulls the heartstrings through its own themes of tender brotherhood-in-flux. In five memorable episodes, all taking place at Beharry’s rum shop, the voices of Marlon and Rocco, marking each occasion with a new selecti…

1
Episode 3 | BCLF Short Fiction Story Contest 2021 (Part 3) - Tea - Irvin J. Hunt III (Jamaica) 54:51

3y ago54:51

54:51

‘Proving that less is more, even within the already pared down form of the short story, Bitter Tea first struck us by its sophisticated brevity. Through crackling and compact language, we are introduced to a young man and his mother as they are being driven to the father’s wake by an aunt. Along the way, we encounter compelling flashes of memory, e…

1
Episode 2 | BCLF Short Fiction Story Contest 2021 (Part 2) - Patrice Grell-Yursik (Trinidad & Tobago) 44:39

3y ago44:39

44:39

‘Daughter 4 sets in motion with one phone call an unconventional reunion between TiMarie and her estranged and famous father, Frederick Bailey. What is revealed through the heroine’s ‘bridge of names’—TiMarie/Lynette Bailey/the titular Daughter 4—is a homecoming of sorts, a revisioned sense of family sounded out poignantly in the now legendary and …

1
Episode 1 | BCLF Short Fiction Story Contest 2021 (Part 1) - Wailers - Akhim Alexis (Trinidad & Tobago) 42:03

3y ago42:03

42:03

‘The Wailers introduces us to Yvette, Isabel, and Baby, a vividly rendered sisterhood of professional mourners missing their fourth member, Cherie, who has migrated to America to live with her son. After news of Cherie’s death, they travel from Trinidad to New York for their most important funeral of all, to restore in spirit, through a raucous sen…