Publishing Guru Malaika 
Adero to make Special 
Appearance at VI Lit Fest! 
Posted on22 Days Ago by @stxreporter 
 
Malaika Adero is an independent publishing consultant, editor and writer who has had 
a decades long career in book publishing and is author of Up South: Stories, Studies 
and Letters of This Century’s African American Migrations (The New Press 1993) 
and co author of Speak, So You Can Speak Again: The Life of Zora Neale Hurston 
with Dr. Lucy Hurtson. She was a Vice President/Senior Editor at Atria Books, 
a division of Simon & Schuster (S&S). Award-winning and bestselling authors are 
among the scores with whom she’s worked in the more than 18 years she was with 
S&S and other publishing houses, including Amistad Press, where she was the 
founding executive editor. She’s worked with Reyna Grande, Pearl Cleage, George 
Clinton and Ben Greenman, Common, Richard Williams, T.D. Jakes, Maryse Conde, 
Rashad Harrison, Lorene Cary, Sheila Weller and many more. 
A lifelong advocate for the arts and culture, she serves on the board of Poets & 
Writers, the SonEdna Foundation and on the Advisory Board of the Zora Neale 
Hurston/Richard Wright Foundation. She has consulted and worked with institutions 
on cultural programming, including The Kennedy Center (Washington D.C.), The 
National Black Arts Festival (Atlanta, GA), The Metropolitan Museum, Harlem 
Stage, The Schomburg Center and more in New York City. 
She is the publisher of Home Slice Magazine, 
or http://www.homeslicemag.com, an online lifestyle platform, promoting culture and 
personal growth. 
 
Antiguan-born Novelist 
Jamaica Kincaid Coming 
to #vilitfest 
Posted on30 Days Ago by @stxreporter 
 
Famed Antiguan-born novelist Jamaica Kincaid will make a featured presentation 
during the VI Lit Fest. Kincaid has been described as “the most important West Indian 
woman writing today,” according to Frank Birbalisingh. Her mostly autobiographical 
work highlights the pressures of poverty, post colonialism, and modern race and 
gender issues. 
“I look forward to ………the sea, the sky, the food, the people (in reverse order) to 
being my true, true self, especially since I have no real idea what that would be or 
should be. There is always some new wonder to behold and then after a while, I 
realize it is the old wonder, and I become afraid that I will be it’s captive, forever and 
ever. Oh Literature, Oh islands in the Caribbean Sea, I am yours.” – Jamaica Kincaid. 
 
St. Thomas Author Tiphanie 
Yanique at #vilitfest 
Posted on30 Days Ago by @stxreporter 
 
 
One of the local authors featured at the VI Lit Fest will be Tiphanie Yanique, St. 
Thomas-born fiction writer and winner of the 2014 Flaherty-Duncan First Novel Prize 
for her novel “Land of Love and Drowning.” Her award-winning book chronicles the 
saga of a St. Thomas family through three generations from 1916 to 1970, and has 
been described as “a love letter to the Virgin Islands, both the land and spirit of the 
place,” in the Los Angeles Review of Books. 
“The Virgin Islands is a place of intense natural beauty. It is also a place of intense 
creativity. A book fair is an ideal way for Virgin Islanders and visitors to see, not only 
the natural beauty, but also to see what the Virgin Islanders ourselves are creating.” – 
Tiphanie Yanique 
Read more about Tiphanie Yanique 
 
PERFORMANCE OF DAVID EDGECOMBE’S        
PLAY “HUBERT HARRISON” 
The Virgin Islands Literary Festival and Book Fair will feature several events highligh
ting the historic Crucian writer and activist Hubert Harrison. Saturday evening there  
will be a performance of David Edgecombe’s play “Hubert Harrison.” 
 
Harrison’s biographer Jeffery Perry will deliver a keynote address and conduct a prese
ntation discussing his work uncovering Harrison’s writings and documenting his story 
and work in Perry’s book “Hubert Harrison: The Voice of Harlem Radicalism, 1883-1
918” (Columbia University Press). Perry also is editor of “A Hubert Harrison Reader” 
(Wesleyan University Press). 
“After working over thirty years on the biography and personal papers of the extraordi
nary, St. Croix-born, intellectual/activist Hubert Harrison, I am eagerly looking forwar
d to the Virgin Islands Literary Festival and Book Fair. Harrison was a brilliant orator, 
writer, book reviewer, literary critic, editor, bibliophile, and library popularizer signifi
cantly influenced by his Crucian roots. The Festival and Book Fair events should cont
ribute greatly to the growing interest in his life and work,” Perry said. 
Read more about Jeffrey Perry 
LITERARY ISLAND TOUR 
VI Lit Fest participants will be treated to a literary island tour on Sunday, March 29, l
ed by National Park Superintendent Joel Tutein. The tour begins in Christiansted Hist
oric District and ends at the Frederiksted Fort. Be prepared to write along the way! 
 
 
Entertainment, Film Debut of 
‘The Skin’ 
Posted on January 22 by @stxreporter  
The opening reception of the Virgin Islands Literary Festival and Book Fair on Thurs
day, March 26 will provide an opportunity to mingle with featured authors, sponsors, 
organizers and scholars. There will be a dance interpretation of Marvin Williams’ “He
irs” by Caribbean Dance Company, music by the UVI Steel Band Ensemble, and a fil
m debut of “The Skin,” written and produced by Howard Allen. 
Posted on March 3 
Book Launchings at VI Lit 
Fest: 
 
 
 
 Award winning Caribbean author Joanne Hilhouse, winner of the  2014 Burt 
Award for Caribbean Literarture   
 
 
 
 Award winning Trinidadian author,  Sharon Millar, winner of the 2013 
Common Wealth Prize for Short fiction