BAIE-MAHAULT, Guadeloupe:--- The third International Congress of Caribbean Writers will take place at the Langley Resort Fort Royal in Deshaies, Guadeloupe, French West Indies, from April 10 to 13, 2013.
Held under the theme "Our Fight for Freedom, A Collective Epic", the prestigious event takes places every two years under the auspices of the Regional Council of Guadeloupe and the Association of Caribbean Writers.
The meeting attracts numerous renowned writers from the French, English, Dutch and Spanish speaking Caribbean. Antigua and Barbuda, The Bahamas, Barbados, Belize, Colombia, Cuba, Dominican Republic, French Guyana, Grenada, Guadeloupe, Haiti, Jamaica, Panama, Puerto Rico, St. Lucia, Suriname, Trinidad and Tobago and Venezuela will have representatives.
With participants drawn from so many countries in the Caribbean and Latin America organizers welcome an extraordinary diversity of cultural heritage on display, comprising the backbone of the common Caribbean existence.
Following appearances by St. Lucia's Nobel Laureate Derek Walcott for the first edition, and noted writer Marcio Veloz Maggliolo of the Dominican Republic for the second, American novelist, short story writer and poet, Russell Banks will be the guest of honour at the third meeting this month. A committed man of letters, Banks is a prolific, award-winning writer of fiction and lectures in contemporary literature at Princeton University in New Jersey.
Banks will also lead the opening session on Thursday, April 11, with a debate about 'The historic truth or romantic fiction of Caribbean literature'.
Over the four days of the writers congress, in addition to the intensive writing workshops, author meeting exchanges with the public, including school children, will take place.
The main objectives of the event include increasing the awareness and adding channels for the distribution of Caribbean literature across language barriers, within and beyond the region.
"The spirit of the Congress of Caribbean Writers is that the greater sharing of our experiences and our cultural heritage remains the best way of communicating with the world. We also believe that the presentations of literary work and strengthening of the Caribbean writers network will contribute to economic development within the region and the cultural sector in particular," the organizers report.
