Caribbean author to discuss debut poetry collection in Fort Greene

Brooklyn BookBeat

September 2, 2015 Brooklyn Daily Eagle

Colin Channer will appear at Greenlight Bookstore in Fort Greene on Sept. 10. Photo courtesy of Akashic Books

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Hailed by Junot Díaz as “one of the Caribbean Diaspora’s finest writers,” Colin Channer is a best-selling novelist, cofounder of the Calabash Literary Festival in Jamaica and a widely published poet. The writer will appear in Fort Greene to discuss his debut poetry collection “Providential” on Sept. 10 at Greenlight Bookstore (7:30 p.m., 686 Fulton St.), in conversation with Paul Holdengraber.

The event is free and beer will be provided by Brooklyn Brewery.

“Providential” presents a portrait of violence, family, love and loss, and a meditation on the figure of the Jamaican policeman.

The collection brings to light Jamaica’s harsh reality of a force ranked as one of the deadliest in the world. These poems reveal the nuances of feeling, soul and lived life that are buried in the sterile facts of history by creating archetypes, creating and rewriting myths and reminding us of the voices and bodies that are at the heart of those stories over time.

“Providential” is as much about America, masculinity, fatherhood and the world’s thirst for violence as it is about Jamaica and its notorious police.

Channer is the recipient of a Musgrave Medal in Literature as well as a fellowship in poetry from the Rhode Island State Council of the Arts. His previous works include the U.S. national best-selling novel “Waiting in Vain” (a Critic’s Choice selection of the Washington Post), the novella “The Girl with the Golden Shoes” (a Washington Post Spring Pick), and the story collection “Passing Through.”