Amazing Interview Stats

I was in touch this week with Irma Arkus, of HiSciFi.com, who interviewed me at VCon 33. In the course of conversation I remarked to her that although there was only one comment left below my interview, I knew of several people who had listened and enjoyed it. This is her reply:


Feedback is the hardest thing in the world. But to make you feel a bit better, the interview itself has been downloaded 168 times, and on Mininova, the show that features the interview has been downloaded 751 times and counting.

 The general interviews receive over 500 downloads off site, and are listened to over 100 times - it just takes a little while. That is only the "tip of the iceberg" so to speak, because most of them on average are downloaded (in a course of a 60 day period) over 3000 times. That is of course, only based on information available from sites I monitor, and these files tend to travel wide and far.

 I've worked at CTV for Vicki Gabereau show, and this nation-wide broadcast program, that was distributed daily, kind of like Oprah, had but a handful of emails and responses. So, trust me, even though it may seem like little, the fact that there are thousands of people who go out of their way to visit the sites and intentionally download the interviews, is quite amazing. This is not a show that is handed to listeners on a silver platter. They don't "incidentally" hear bits and pieces of it, but look for it, intentionally. I always thought that that is amazing.

 Anyways, I just hope that makes you feel a bit better. And do let me know if you write any new material that you would like to promote.

Sincerely,
Irma Arkus

HiSciFi @ VCon: C. June Wolf, author of Finding Creatures & Other Stories

• Great interview!

Black History Month & Haiti Booklist (Plus a Note to Academics Writing About Haiti)

René Depestre

In the midst of More Important Things, and sometimes instead of them (after all--is there EVER an end to the MITs?), I have here and there been entering favourite books into my virtual library on LibraryThing. (An activity people are as likely to respond to with, "Why on earth would you want to do that?" as with "Oh, that sounds wonderful!") (You see now how the world is divided up?)

In the last few days (while I'm supposed to refrain from typing because my arms are hurting) I've entered twenty or so books about, or set, in Haiti. Most are nonfiction, but a few are novels or collections of short stories. A couple are folktales or YA literature. It has been a great pleasure to go over these books again in my mind, to reconnect them with their titles and author names, where I had forgotten them, to assemble them with each other in a dear library of books borrowed, given, or purchased. I look forward to remembering and entering and rediscovering many of the books that I have read and let go. And to discovering more, as my thirst for books on Haiti is reawakened.

Yesterday I began reading The Festival of the Greasy Pole, by René Depestre, a book I have had for awhile and haven't read. It occurred to me later that this, being February, is Black History Month. In honour of this fine book and that celebration, I want to share my humble list as it so far exists, and an invitation to a reading (if you happen to be in Vancouver, BC) given by my friend Addena Sumter-Freitag and two other local authors at Britannia Library on 18 February 2009. (Details below.)

A brief note about the list:

Most of the books on this list I have enjoyed or found useful in one way or another and would recommend. A couple I had trouble with because of unnecessarily academic language--language which made the ideas hard to understand and the writing difficult to plod through.

When you consider that the majority of people in or concerned about Haiti are not English-speaking academics, it seems rudely elitist to me to truss potentially important ideas about that place in jargon that non-academics (like me!) find mind-numbing.

A word to the listening, therefore, from my biased but doubtlessly reasonable point of view:

Yes! Research your thesis. Struggle to write what you have observed and done and concluded and recommend. Publish it. Defend it. Then translate it, at the very least into common English. You don't need to hire anyone for that; you can do it yourself. Best of all, if you are able, translate your book into Haitian Creole.If you aren't fluent in the language yourself, can you find someone to do it for you? If it's a work you think is of value to Haiti, wouldn't it be wonderful if it was available to the people to whom it would mean the most? (I know, I know. If only we had such money...) (And if there is a reader out there eager to translate my short stories into Creole I'd love to talk!)

Rant complete.

Have a look below at the invitation to Addena's reading, at the bottom of which you will find My Haiti Book List. Suggestions of wonderful books to do with Haiti are always welcome (as are donations of such books!).

Other, more thorough lists of books related to Haiti can be found, of course. Primary are the lists to be found on Bob Corbett's site. Start with Haiti: Book Reviews. If you are interested in buying, check out his Books For Sale. Ebony Grigsby of Tampa, Florida, lists Haiti books suitable for K-12 on Amazon. For books in French, as well as aids for learning Creole, try The Haitian Book Centre. For books of interest to those wishing to aid Haiti and other countries, books that will help you know what is needed, see Sharon Gaskell's list (hi, Sharon!) at Starthrower Foundation. Books for Understanding has a list of books on Haitian history.

One disappointing note, the French Caribbean Restaurant on Columbia Street in New Westminster has closed its doors permanently.

Have a wonderful Black History Month, everyone.

Love,
CJDub

Celebrate Black History Month!

A program open to all ages

Wednesday February 18 7:00 pm- 8:30 pm Free Join us for our 4th annual celebration featuring music, poetry, film and more. Special guests include Addena Sumter-Freitag. Britannia Branch 1661 Napier Street

Photo by Shelley Whitehead

	Mama Lola: A Vodou Priestess in Brooklyn, Karen McCarthy Brown		2001	anthropology, Haiti, Vodou		Tears through a lot of misconceptions. Gives insight into Haitian culture, the religion of Vodou and its importance in the community, and into an individual of real character.
	Finding Creatures & Other Stories, C. June WOLF		2008			I'm not rating it. I'll let other readers decide!
	The Tainos: Rise and Decline of the People Who Greeted Columbus, Irving Rouse		1993	archaeology, colonialism, Columbus, Haiti, slavery, Taino
	The Kingdom of This World: A Novel, Alejo Carpentier		2006
	Taste of Salt: A Story of Modern Haiti, Frances Temple		1991	Aristide, Haiti, poverty, YA		A reminder of the strength of courage of Haiti.
	Reflections of Loko Miwa, Lilas Desquiron		1998	Haiti, Vodou, women, zombie
	The Sun, the Sea, a Touch of Wind, Rosa Guy		1996	art, Haiti, mental illness, women
	Fever Season, Barbara Hambly		1998	African-American history, fever, Haiti, Louisiana, mullato class, racism
	Sacred Arts of Haitian Vodou, Donald J. Cosentino		1995	art, Haiti, lwa, religion, ritual, spirits, Vodou
	The Beast of the Haitian Hills, Philippe and Pierre Thoby-Marcelin		1964	class conflict, greed, Haiti, lwa, ritual, spirits, Vodou
	Lydia Bailey, Roberts Kenneth		1947	American role in Haitian revolution, Dessalines, fiction, Haiti, Haitian Revolution, Toussaint L'Ouverture
	The Uses of Haiti, Paul Farmer		2003	colonialism, foreign control, France, Haiti, history, poverty, racism, slavery, United States
	Voodoo in Haiti, Alfred Métraux		1959	anthropology, Haiti, religion, Vodou, Voodoo
	The butterfly's way : voices from the Haitian dyaspora in the United States, Edwidge Danticat		2001	creative nonfiction, fiction, Haiti
	Breath, eyes, memory, Edwidge Danticat		1994	fiction, Haiti
	The farming of bones : a novel, Edwidge Danticat		1998	fiction, Haiti
	Divine Horsemen: The Living Gods of Haiti, Maya Deren		1983	anthropology, Haiti, religion, Vodou, Voodoo
	Haiti, History, and the Gods, Colin Dayan		1998	Haiti, religion, Vodou, Voodoo
	Madame Dread: A Tale of Love, Vodou and Civil Strife in Haiti, Kathie Klarreich		2005	Haiti
	Life in a Haitian Valley, Melville Jean, Herskovits		1971	culture, Haiti, history, religion, social structure, Vodou, Voodoo
	All Souls' Rising, Madison Smartt Bell		1995	fiction, Haiti, history, revolution
	The Rainy Season: Haiti Since Duvalier, Amy Wilentz		1989	Aristide, Haiti, history
	Open Gate, Boadiba		2001	bilingual, Creole poetry, Haiti
	When the hands are many : community organization and social change in rural Haiti, Jennie Marcelle Smith		2001	community organization, Haiti
	Christophe, King of Haiti, Hubert Cole		1970	Haiti, Henri Christophr, history, Roi Christophe
	Voodoo: Search for the Spirit, Laennec Hurbon		1995	Haiti, religion, Vodou, Voodoo
	Haitian Vodou Flags, Patrick Arthur Polk		1998	Flags, Haiti, Vodou, Vodou Flags
	Voodoo and the art of Haiti, Sheldon Williams		1969	Art, Haiti, Haitian Art, Vodou, Voodoo
	Walking on Fire: Haitian Women's Stories of Survival and Resistance, Beverly Bell		2001	Haiti, women
	Masters of the Dew, Jacques Roumain		1971	fiction, Haiti
	The Comedians, Graham Greene		1967	dictatorship, fiction, Haiti
	The Festival of the Greasy Pole, René Depestre		1990	dictatorship, Duvalier, fiction, Haiti, Haitian fiction