Calabash International Literary Festival

The tradition & historical record

The Calabash International Literary Festival, inaugurated in Jamaica in 2001, is a three-day festival that was held annually for its first decade, before being staged on a biennial basis on even years, until 2018. With the 2020 and 2022 festivals having to be cancelled due to the COVID-19 pandemic, 2023 is scheduled to mark the festival's return for its 15th staging. The scope of Calabash encompasses "readings and music with other forms of storytelling folded in the mix". ¹

The co-founders of Calabash in 2001 were novelist Colin Channer, poet Kwame Dawes and producer Justine Henzell, three Jamaicans with the aim of creating a literary festival "with roots in Jamaica and branches reaching out into the wider world". Channer resigned at the end of 2010, saying in his explanation: "The ultimate goal of leadership must never be its own survival, but to become obsolete. I am glad this time has come." After taking place for 10 successive years, between 2001 and 2010, Calabash was then held on a biennial basis on even years. In 2014, there was a larger international content, including leading literary figures and musicians, and the 2016 incarnation of the festival was described as "an affirmation of the steady movement towards an unfolding of a vision of something that began modestly, but full of hope and giddy ambition 15 years ago". Now acknowledged as "a world-class literary festival", Calabash takes place in the village of Treasure Beach on Jamaica's south coast. Among the international authors who have participated are Salman Rushdie, Zadie Smith, Jamaica Kincaid, Colum McCann, Wole Soyinka, Derek Walcott, Junot Díaz, Michael Ondaatje, Elizabeth Alexander, Russell Banks, Edwidge Danticat, Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie, Caryl Phillips, Linton Kwesi Johnson, Chigozie Obioma, Tishani Doshi, Mervyn Morris, Kei Miller, Marlon James, Eleanor Catton, Evan Jones, and many others. An anthology entitled Much Things to Say: 100 Poets from the First Ten Years of the Calabash International Literary Festival was published in 2010. In 2021, the Calabash festival won the Madam C.J. Walker Award from the Hurston/Wright Foundation. Following cancellations due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the festival was scheduled to relaunch in May 2023. ¹

The text above is adapted from the Wikipedia article “Calabash International Literary Festival”, available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 licence. ¹

Calabash International Literary Festival is literary festival in Jamaica, according to the structured record cited below. This entry was generated automatically from that record and has not yet been reviewed by a person familiar with the tradition. ²

The source record links this tradition to 1 external register, which can be verified through the citation. ²