Historical Overview
June is recognized as Caribbean Heritage Month to celebrate in the Literary Space I thought it would be great to launch the Read Caribbean initiative. This will be the second year of using June to as the month where we Read Caribbean. The aim of Read Caribbean is to:
- Create awareness about Caribbean Literature
- Create awareness about Caribbean Authors/Authors of Caribbean Heritage
- Showcase the Caribbean voice, while maintaining how unique each island is
How does it work?
For the month of June, we want to encourage persons to Read Caribbean. It can be that you read one or one hundred Caribbean books. We want the focus to be on the Caribbean, we want to encourage persons to:
- Read books by Caribbean Nationals/ persons of Caribbean heritage
- Books about the Caribbean
- Books set in the Caribbean
How can you participate?
If this is something you want to be a part of, here is how you can:
- Start talking/posting about June being Read Caribbean month so persons will know it is coming up.
- If you are posting books that fall under the Read Caribbean category, be sure to use the hashtag #ReadCaribbean on Instagram and Twitter for visibility.
- On Instagram be sure to follow the hashtag ReadCaribbean . Last year when we started using the Read Caribbean hashtag there was less than 500 post, today have over 3,200.
- Start putting together your Read Caribbean pile for June- it would be great if you can read only Caribbean for June but it is not required.
- Have a featured book you want to highlight for the month- it can be a back list, an ARC or a Caribbean book you really love and want to highlight throughout the month.
- If you run a Book Club- can the book be by a Caribbean Author?
- Start talking about and highlighting Caribbean authors.
- Take part in the weekly #ReadCaribbean challenge. Every week we will have a different challenge for you to take part in. See below.
- Be sure to tune into and take part- we have a lot lined up, set your calendar!
How to get started.
You want to start reading Caribbean but you don’t know where to start, here are some resources to get you started:
Start Following Caribbean Bookstagrammers| A great way to get started reading Caribbean is by following Caribbean Bookstagrammers whose content features Caribbean Literature. Here is a list of Caribbean Bookstagrammers you can start following today.
Reading List | On Goodreads there is a Read Caribbean List, you can go through and start adding books from that list.
Caribbean Book Club | Want to join a community of Caribbean Readers? There are a few Book Club led by Caribbean nationals including Bashment Book Club, BookOfCinz Book Club , Pelican Book Club RebelWomenLit and The Verandah Book Club they all have Caribbean Literature and Caribbean Authors featured on their yearly reading list. Go join these book club and stay connected with Caribbean Readers!
At it’s core, this initiative wants to highlight the Caribbean Literary voices and we do hope it is something you would want to join in and help create awareness for.
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