Hobo Jungle Press will launch “Written: Poetry and Prose by Inmates of His Majesty’s Prisons, St. Vincent and the Grenadines” at the University of the West Indies Open Campus on Thursday, February 26th from 4pm to 6 pm.
Deputy Prime Minister, St. Clair Leacock, will be the featured speaker along with Superintendent of Prisons Dwayne Bailey.
“Written” is the culmination of works completed by inmates who participated in a 13-week writing workshop conducted by David “Darkie” Williams at His Majesty’s Prison Kingstown in 2024. The book includes the writing and drawings of 11 individuals; several have since been released. It includes a foreword by Mr. Williams who said that even before the workshop, inmates were writing poetry and prose that they were sharing with one another. “Although there were already pieces that contained conflict,” Williams said, “this training…gave them the ability to produce more knowledge-based and theoretical works.” Mr. Williams will talk about the workshop at the launch.
The pieces that ultimately appeared in the publication were submitted to Hobo Jungle Press by inmate Junior Jarvis and further edited by the publishers. The topics range from love and anger to drama, feelings of abandonment, faith in God and the future, courage, and humour.
The authors (in alphabetical order) are Sheba Charles, Jason Delpesche, Alana Hudson, Junior Jarvis, Taylor Mofford, Lucresha Nanton, Jerome Ollivierre, Twanecia Ollivierre, Reynold Roberts, Caswell Smart, and Karl Telemaque.
Hobo Jungle Press is located on St. Vincent and in the United States and has published more than 50 books by Vincentian authors. They maintain a web site at hobojungle.org where submissions are invited. Marc Erdrich and Ruth Boerger are the publishers.