New Caribbean Poetry: An Anthology

There is a greeting used in urban America, ‘What’s good?’, which seems to go beyond a mere ‘How are you?’ or ‘What’s happening?’ to demand an optimistic response. Perhaps, writes the young Jamaican poet Kei Miller in his introduction to New Caribbean Poetry , there is a need for optimism when speaking of poetry and of the Caribbean, two entities that are frequently sidelined in all kinds of ways. This remarkable new anthology seeks to rectify both these oversights by showcasing new and newly established Caribbean poets from Jamaica, the Bahamas, Barbados, St. Lucia, Trinidad and Tobago and elsewhere. So, ‘what’s good’ in Caribbean poetry today? Miller offers eight impressive answers: Christian Campbell, Loretta Collins, Delores Gauntlett, Shara McCallum, Marilene Phipps, Jennifer Rahim, Tanya Shirley and Ian Strachan. Moving beyond the legacies of Scott, Walcott, Goodison and Braithwaite, these writers are forging a new and multifarious ‘identity’ for Caribbean poetry. There is a freshness to their voices which is nonetheless firmly rooted in poetic craft.