Peepal Tree Salon @ Waterstones Piccadilly
Yvonne Weekes (reading from Volcano), Desiree Reynolds (reading from Seduce), Maya Chowdhry (reading from Fossil)
Yvonne Weekes believes that if you touch one soul, you change the world. If this is true, her impact has already been as forceful as the volcano she fled. As writer, actor, director, producer, performance poet, teacher facilitator, caring friend and mother, she has touched the souls of many and changed the lives of quite a few. Volcano is Yvonne Weekes’ memoir of eight years dominated by the awakening, eruption and still grumbling aftermath of Montserrat’s Soufriere. A remarkable document at many levels, it is an acutely written account of the impact of the eruption on the life and viability of this small Caribbean island, with a quizzical eye for the undertones of the experience, as well as for the more public manifestations of the way her people responded to the disaster.
Desiree Reynolds was brought up in Clapham, London and started her writing career as a freelance journalist for the Jamaica Gleaner and the Village Voice. She has gone on to write film scripts, poetry and short stories. She continues to work as a journalist, writing book and film reviews. She is a broadcaster, creative writing workshop facilitator, DJ and mentor. Seduce is her first novel. In this remarkable debut novel, told in a compelling literary patois that is poetic, delicate, vulgar and slyly funny, Desiree Reynolds has powerful things to say about race, class and the struggle between men and women. She is currently working on a collection of short stories.
A poet, transmedia writer and activist, Maya Chowdhry’s previous poetry collection is The Seamstress and the Global Garment. She’s also published in many anthologies, including Out of Bounds (Bloodaxe) and magazines such as Ambit. She’s won many accolades for her work, including the Cardiff International Poetry Competition.Tales from the Towpath, commissioned by Manchester Literature Festival, was shortlisted for the 2014 New Media Writing Prize. Her forthcoming chapbook Fossil explores the impact of human activity on climate change though a post-colonial lens and from the perspective of all life on earth including plants, creatures, elements and inanimate objects.
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