PREE Writing Studio postponed to 2023
Once again, in the wake of Calabash Literary Festival announcing its postponement to May 2023, and the continuing uncertainty about travel, quarantine and health concerns, we have decided to postpone the inaugural PREE Writing Studio to May 2023, immediately preceding Calabash. Dates and other details will be posted closer to the time. We hope to feature the same line-up of award-winning writers as tutors but will confirm this by January 2023. In the meantime enjoy new issues of PREE at http://preelit.com
At PREE we care about writing so it gives us great pleasure to launch the very first PREE Writing Studio in collaboration with the Department of Literatures in English at the University of the West Indies, Mona and the Prince Claus Fund. We’re assembling some of the most exceptional Caribbean writers for four days in Kingston, Jamaica. If you’re an emerging writer who’s keen to learn from the best we invite you to join us. PREE Writing Studio is for all writers, anywhere, no Caribbean connection required.
When? May 2023
Where? On the beautiful campus of The University of the West Indies, Mona, in Kingston, Jamaica
What? Four days at a residential, boutique studio with our most outstanding writers to get your writing muscles in shape. Each participant will work with one of our writers in their studio for the duration of the four days, getting intimate feedback from a respected author as well as your peers. Groups are designed to be small so that writers can get meaningful attention from tutors.
If you’re an emerging or mid-career writer who wants to learn from some of the smartest, most innovative writers in the world, scroll down to see our exciting line-up.
Marlon James
Marlon James is the author of four novels. He won the 2015 Man Booker Prize for Fiction for A Brief History of Seven Killings, the first Jamaican to do so.
He will lead the Reaction/ Fiction writing studio.
Ishion Hutchinson
Ishion Hutchinson is the author of two poetry collections: Far District and House of Lords and Commons. He is the recipient of a Guggenheim Fellowship, the Joseph Brodsky Rome Prize, and the Windham-Campbell Prize for Poetry among others.
He will lead the I Have Made an Elegy for Myself writing studio.
Nicole
Dennis-Benn
Nicole Dennis-Benn is the author of the acclaimed novel, Patsy, and her debut novel, Here Comes the Sun. She is a Lambda Literary Award Winner.
She will lead the People and Place writing studio.
Ingrid Persaud
Ingrid Persaud’s debut novel Love After Love is being published at the top of Faber’s list in April 2020. In 2018 she was the winner of the BBC National Short Story Award and in 2017 the winner of the Commonwealth Short Story Prize.
She will lead the Finding Your Voice writing studio.
Garnette Cadogan
Garnette Cadogan is an essayist. He is the 2020-2021 Harry W. Porter, Jr. Distinguished Visiting Professor at the School of Architecture at the University of Virginia, where he is also a Fellow at the Institute for Advanced Studies in Culture. He is a Visiting Scholar at the Department of Urban Studies and Planning at MIT and is Senior Critic in the Sculpture Department at Yale School of Art.
His research and writing explores the promise and perils of urban life, the vitality and inequality of cities, and the challenges of pluralism. He is the editor-at-large of Nonstop Metropolis: A New York City Atlas (co-edited by Rebecca Solnit and Joshua Jelly-Schapiro), winner of the 2017 Brendan Gill Prize from the Municipal Art Society of New York, and is at work on a book on walking.
Cadogan will lead the Stories of the Self: The Art of the Personal Essay studio.
Kei Miller
Kei Miller is a poet, novelist, essayist, short story writer and a broadcaster. He is the author of over nine books, and winner of the OCM Bocas Prize for Caribbean Literaure for his novel Augustown.
He will lead the Technique of Place writing studio.
Safiya Sinclair
Safiya Sinclair is the author of the forthcoming memoir How to Say Babylon, and the poetry collection Cannibal, which was longlisted for the PEN Open Book Award and the Dylan Thomas Prize.
She will lead the How to Be Painterly: Conjuring the Poetic Image writing studio.
How to Apply
Details will be provided in January 2022 and published on social media.
On Feb 24, 2021, PREE, the digital magazine of Caribbean writing, celebrated the publication of our first print edition Bookmarked, and inaugurated our print arm, PREE ink, with a webinar in collaboration with the Shuttleworth Foundation and the Prince Claus Fund.
The hour and a half long forum featured a poetry reading by Dingo and lively discussion between Diana McCaulay (Judge, The Commonwealth Short Story Prize); Kwame Dawes (editor-in-chief at Prairie Schooner magazine) Luke Neima (deputy editor of Granta) and Annie Paul (editor-in-chief, PREE) moderated by Isis Semaj-Hall (Associate Editor, PREE). The prompt was the following:
Rejection is a big part of any writer’s life, even those considered successful. Writers must constantly submit to magazines, journals, online platforms and/or prizes during publication’s long lead times and nothing makes a bigger impact to a writer’s future than winning a major prize. Submission, however, often means any story, poem or article is one entry among thousands, whether as part of a call for submissions, the slush pile, or a prize entry. How do you make your story, poem or article stand out from the crowd? What are editors and judges looking for? Are there any common mistakes writers make in sending their work out? How can you maximize being long- or short-listed? What are some strategies for dealing with rejection?
About Us
PREE is an online platform for lively, vital writing from the Caribbean. Our scope is wide, ranging from fiction and poetry to art writing, non-fiction, interviews and experimental short to medium form texts. We are the pre-eminent forum for writing in, from and on the region, a showcase for the exceptional prose and creative expression the Caribbean is fast developing a reputation for.
Calabash Literary Festival will conveniently take place immediately before our Writing Studio.
PREE Writing Studio 
Do we have until midnight tomorrow night for the deadline? I’m an insecure procrastinator with a big dream.
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yes midnight tomorrow is the final bell 🙂
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