Cane Arrow Press

05/03/2024

Saartje’s Song

A poem for Saartje Baartman.

11/01/2024

Faustin Charles's "Stephen's Song is now available from the books page of our website:

Books from Cane Arrow Press

11/01/2024

03/10/2023

https://superculture.org.uk/listings/weston-lit-fest-national-poetry-day-speakeasy-featuring-maggie-harris/

5th October, 7:30pm, Front Room

30/07/2023

Poetry peeps it’s the big 7. O. for me next year! and I’m planning to take myself and the poems (and/or stories/memoir ) on a little trip called ‘I can’t believe I’m 70!’ kicking off at the Tom Thumb in Margate just after my birthday 9 Feb. I’m looking for some places to perform so would welcome suggestions from folk or folk who know folk /event organisers . That would be really helpful. Thank you so much !! And for those who’ve never heard of me this is my website http:/www.maggieharris.co.uk

Guyana Prize for Literature and Commonwealth Prizewinning Author & Poet

24/02/2022

24/02/2022

The incredible John Lyons, poet and painter, winner of many awards including The Peterloo and a Windrush Arts Achiever, brings his love of Wales and his unique Trinidadian artistry to this collection which stems from his 1995 Arts Residency in North Wales. Available to order from Cane Arrow Press.

29/10/2019

A recent review for Maggie Harris's "On Watching a Lemon sail the Sea":

Maggie Harris was a featured guest at our monthly spoken word event in Clonakilty, Co. Cork, a few years ago and her reading was memorable. A great sense of presence that lingers to this day. Warm-spirited and generous, down-to-earth in a comfortable manner (that makes you feel better about being a mere human, engaging in day-to-day activities) but also sophisticated without any pretentiousness. The latter is all the more remarkable as Maggie has won a raft of awards including the Kent University TS Eliot Poetry Prize and the Guyana Prize for Literature.

When I ordered her 2019 collection, On Watching a Lemon Sail the Sea, in April I envisaged consuming it fairly rapidly, on a dank Irish afternoon or two, detached albeit with appreciation, as if flicking through photographs. Yet, it turned into quite a different experience. I read a few poems a day for weeks over breakfast, when time allowed, taking little journeys to the parts of the world that denote the sections that the book is divided into: England, Wales, Ireland, Guyana, and Elsewhere. What added greatly to the pleasure is that idiom, rhythm, and even the lay-out often match the locations and times that Maggie presents to her readers. But these are not just touristic day trips. The author probes emotional depths, redefines semantics, steeps places and times in hues that highlight aspects of history in ways I had not considered before.

Excellent slow food, delectably plated, well worth savouring!

Moze M. Jacobs, writer/co-curator @ Psoken Wrod, Clonakilty, Ireland

29/10/2019

Maggie Harris's latest book is available from https://canearrowpress.com/books.htm

30/11/2015

CONGRATULATIONS to Maggie Harris for winning the Guyana Prize for Literature: Best book of poetry 2014 with her "Sixty Years of Loving". The winners were announced last night and the judges said: "This is Harris’s sixth collection of poetry and it evokes her 60 years of life in Guyana and the UK. These 74 richly textured, mature and celebratory poems sparkle and impress with a language that resonates with original imagery and insight."

29/03/2015

Hope to see you at this Wednesday's South Bank event where John Lyons will read from his brand new book.

22/03/2015

A personal review of Maggie Harris's 60 YEARS: see "recently added" at londongrip.co.uk

21/03/2015

We're coming out of hibernation with an early April reading at the South Bank in London. Hope to see you there!

18/05/2014

2014 Regional Winners | Commonwealth Writers

CONGRATS to Maggie Harris for winning the Regional prize for the Caribbean in the Commonwealth Writers Short Story Competition!

See:

http://www.commonwealthwriters.org/prizes/commonwealth-short-story-prize/commonwealth-short-story-prize-2014-regional-winners/

Regional Winner, Africa Let’s Tell This Story Properly, Jennifer Nansubuga Makumbi (Uganda) Nnameya is the grieving widow when she arrives at Entebb

20/02/2014

Don't forget...Maggie Harris's book is now out. Catch her at Aberystwyth on the 27th February.

21/01/2014

A favourite from

100 POEMS FROM TRINIDAD AND TOBAGO

Amryl Johnson - Granny in de Market Place

Yuh fish fresh?

Woman, why yuh holdin' meh fish up tuh yuh nose?
De fish fresh. Ah say it fresh. Ah ehn go say it any mo'

Hmmm, well if dis fish fresh den is I who dead an' gone
De ting smell like it take a bath in a lavatory in town
It here so long it happy. Look how de mout' laughin' at we
De eye tum up to heaven like it want tuh know 'e fate
Dey say it does take a good week before dey reach dat state

Yuh mango ripe?

Gran'ma stop feelin' and squeezin' up meh fruit!
Yuh ehn playin' in no ban'. Meh mango eh no concertina

Ah tell yuh dis mango hard just like yuh face
One bite an' ah sure tuh break both ah meh plate
If yuh cahn tell de difference between green an' rosy red
dohn clim' jus' wait until dey fall down from de tree
Yuh go know dey ripe when de lizard an dem start tuh feed
but dohn bring yuh force-ripe fruit tuh try an' sell in here
it ehn burglars is crooks like all yuh poor people have to fear

De yam good?

Old lady, get yuh nails outta meh yam!
Ah mad tuh make yuh buy it now yuh damage it so bad

Dis yam look like de one dat did come off ah de ark
She brother in de Botanical Gardens up dey by Queens Park
Tourists with dey camera comin' from all over de worl'
takin' pictures dey never hear any yam could be dat ole
Ah have a crutch an' a rocking-chair someone give meh fuh free
If ah did know ah would ah bring dem an' leave dem here fuh she

De bush clean?

Well, I never hear more! Old woman, is watch yuh watching meh
young young dasheen leaf wit' de dew still shinin' on dem!

It seem tuh me like dey does like tuh lie out in de sun
jus' tuh make sure dat dey get dey edges nice an' b~own
an' maybe is weight dey liftin' tuh make dem look so tough
Dey wan' build up dey strength fuh when tings start gettin' rough
Is callaloo ah makin' but ah 'fraid tings go get too hot
Yuh bush go want tuh fight an' meh crab go jump outta de pot

How much a poun' yuh fig?

Ah have a big big sign tellin' yuh how much it cos'
Yuh either blin' yuh dotish or yuh jus' cahn read at all

Well, ah wearing meh glasses so ah readin' yuh big big sign
but tuh tell yuh de trut' ah jus' cahn believe meh eye
Ah lookin' ah seein' but no man could be so blasted bol'
Yuh mus' tink dis is Fort Knox yuh sellin' fig as if is gal'
Dey should put all ah all yuh somewhere nice an' safe
If dey ehn close Sing-Sing prison dat go be the bestest place

De orange sweet?

Ma, it eh hah orange in dis market as sweet as ah does sell
It like de sun, it taste like sugar an' it juicy as well

Yuh know, boy, what yuh sayin' have a sorta ring
De las' time ah buy yuh tell meh exactly de same ting
When ah suck ah fin' all ah dem sour as hell
De dentures drop out an' meh two gum start tuh swell
Meh mout' so sore ah cahn even eat ah meal
Yuh sure it ehn lime all yuh wrappin' in orange peel?

De coconut hah water?

02/01/2014

60 YEARS OF LOVING : OUT ON 14TH FEB

Happy New Year! Exciting times for C-A-P with the imminent release of a new collection from MAGGIE HARRIS. Everyone we've sent it to has been bowled over by it. Eileen Sheehan's review and a quote from Catherine Smith appear on the cover; here is Catherine's full review:

In Sixty Years of Loving, Maggie Harris makes full and generous use of her lyrical powers to lead the reader into the geographical and emotional landscapes of her youth and beyond. She celebrates many forms of love - the love found in the deep and sometimes complex pleasures of a long and nurturing marriage, love for daughters and grand-children, for real and imagined lovers, for her different homes. She also gives voice to the silenced, and dares to imagine herself in different skins. Unflinching and never sentimental, her robust, dazzling imagery tingles like fresh pineapple, is as luscious as mango, sharp as grapefruit. This collection made me laugh out loud, weep, and return to particular poems for the sheer pleasure of savouring their brilliance.

11/09/2013

Maggie Harris at the Poetry Cafe | Words of Colour Productions

MAGGIE HARRIS reads from her forthcoming book on 27th September at the Poetry Cafe:

http://wordsofcolour.co.uk/maggie-harris-at-the-poetry-cafe/

Award winning Guyanese born poet and writer Maggie Harris will be showcasing her poetry at Fourth Friday at the Poetry Café. The winner of the Guyana Prize for Literature is co-editor of Sixty Poems for Haiti and is the author of Kiskadee Girl, her memoir about growing up in the Caribbean diaspora.…

07/09/2013

MAGGIE HARRIS: Forthcoming book, Sixty Years of Loving, available for pre-order at a discounted price for a limited period.

07/09/2013

NATIONAL POETRY DAY, 3rd October: Maggie Harris reads from her forthcoming book, Sixty Years of Loving. Maggie also gives a workshop on Saturday 5th.

03/07/2013

A collection of intriguing essays from the late great Cy Grant, RAF officer, actor, singer and Lietenant Green in Captain Scarlet...

29/06/2013

Trinidad and Tobago's Newsday : newsday.co.tt :

Is there such a thing as a NATIONAL LITERATURE? Is there a literature of Trinidad and Tobago? A national "voice"?

Ian Dieffenthaller writes in 100POEMS:

"... there is a bed-rock of sorts on which the poetry is built, and that is made from colonialism (from which cane), carnival (from which calypso)... and cricket, though not as much as before..."

Andre Bagoo writing in Newsday in May has his view:

http://www.newsday.co.tt/commentary/0,177548.html

Portal of Trinidad and Tobago with always fresh news on sport, business, culture and entertainment

26/06/2013

Sixty Poems is the brainchild of Elly Niland and Maggie Harris whose idea it was to have a concert to raise funds to help in the reconstruction of Haiti following the earthquake of 12th January 2010. The collection is the ‘book of the concert’ held in June 2010. Many poets, old and young, some famous like Kamau Brathwaite, donated their work free of charge.

25/06/2013

This is the latest collection from Maggie Harris, the popular Guyanese-British poet. Maggie was born in Guyana and has lived in England and Wales since 1971. She is a teacher and a poet and has published five collections of poems. She has also written short stories and a memoir. Two CDs of her work are available.

WHAT THE CRITICS SAY about AFTER A VISIT:

“Maggie’s poems dart like hummingbirds: vivid, precise, lyrical, playful and singing with a chorus of voices. This collection brings colour and life to the greyest winter’s day.”

MAGGIE BUTT

“This a subtly orchestrated collection, telling of journeys and arrivals and dispersals, the epic of Caribbean reality. The poems are at times powerful and moving, at other times witty and tender, and always absorbing. “

ABDULRAZAK GURNAH

25/06/2013

Roydon Salick painstakingly collected these poems in 2012 for Sam Selvon's only collection.

The Trinidad Guardian says: “this attractively presented anthology...adds a new dimension to our understanding and appreciation of one of the region’s best loved pioneers.”

25/06/2013

Cane Arrow launched the paperback of 100 POEMS FROM TRINIDAD & TOBAGO in January 2013.

This is the first all-encompassing anthology of the poetry of Trinidad and Tobago since AM Clarke's "Best Poems" of 1943. It covers a ninety year period dating back to the work of the Beacon Group.

FEATURING: Albert Gomes, CLR James, Neville Giuseppi, Eric Roach, Harold Telemaque, Derek Walcott, Judy Miles, Roger McTair, Anson Gonzalez and Jennifer Rahim.

Ian DIEFFENTHALLER, is an architect, sometime critic and poet and author of Crossed Suns and Snow on Sugarcane (Cambridge Scholars, 2009), a literary history of West Indian British poetry.

Anson GONZALEZ as a teacher, editor and publisher, almost single-handedly kept T&T poetry afloat in the last three decades of the twentieth century, his New Voices literary magazine running from 1973 - 1993. Writing since 1967 he has published fifteen collections and mentored and published many other poets via The New Voices Press.

ISBN 9780956290168 • A5 Paperback • 228pp. Available via Paypal direct from the Publisher and on Amazon.