We almost named this one "The One About What We've Been Up To For 10 Months". Haha, hey beautiful people! We're back! Businesses Mentioned: Here We Grow and BerrionlBerry Organisations Mentioned: FEMINITT, I'm Glad I'm A Girl Books Mentioned: Fearing the Black Body: The Racial Origins of Fat Phobia by Sabrina Strings (Rebel Women Lit's March & Apri…

We have exciting news: a new podcast! Rebel Women Lit took some time work on our newest podcast, 'Under The Sycamore Tree' - a feminist archival podcast highlighting the amazing work of the Women Voices and Leadership grantee partners, 27 LGBTQIA+ and women led organizations across The Caribbean. Episodes drop in March but in the meantime, you can …

Kristina and Ashley discuss our (messy) February 2022 book club pick: 'The Secret Lives of Baba Segi's Wives' by Lola ShoneyinBy Rebel Women Lit

We'd ask if you missed us but we're pretty sure you did. We missed you too and that's why this new episode is an extra long one. Get comfy and journey with us as we explore Rebel Women Lit's January book pick: The Secret Lives of Church Ladies by Deesha Philyaw. This masterful collection of stories was an immediate favourite of ours with its textur…

How long can you keep down people who were made to fly? Augustown is a poetic novel that is grounded in the (hi)story of a prominent preacher and Pan-African activist Alexander Bedward who was said to have claimed that he could fly. Kei Miller reimagined this story as an allegory of the Black Jamaican struggle to EXIST in a society that invalidates…

A short discussion on Jamaica's reading culture, Read Across Jamaica and how the Jamaican libraries are... kind of a mess. Who's up for a #JamaicaReads campaign? - One of our favourite kinds of literature is poetry. Its ability to hold the weight of histories, the gamut of human emotions and philosophies in a mere few lines is just *chef's kiss*. N…

Journalist, poet, novelist, artist, (and now archivist) Jacqueline Bishop recently released her first collection of interviews which focuses on documenting the craft and lives of 13 Jamaican women writers, in The Gift of Music and Song. The Gift of Music and Song is an intimate account that engages monumental Jamaican Women Writers in the context o…

One thing Ms hooks will do is have you talking at length about her work, usually with striking polarity: one side really loved it and the other just could not get behind her ideas. For this new episode of Like A Real Book Club, Ashley, Kristina and Jherane take on one of hook’s more famous books and RWL’s March pick, “All About Love: New Versions”.…

Ashley and Kristina walk into a bar... ...And that's exactly how this conversation felt. In this new episode of Like A Real Book Club, Ashley and Kristina dive into the short and sweet novel by Sarah Ladipo Manyika, "Like A Mule Bringing Ice-cream to the Sun", a story that gets to your bones in under 120 pages. We talk about how Sarah geniusly weav…

Interview with Professor Paulette Ramsay about her recently republished novel Aunt Jen, and her latest novel Letters Home. Share using #LikeARealBookClub on social media. Get Aunt Jen, Letters Home and the other Contemporary Caribbean Classics on www.rebelwomenlit.com/classics Our guest Professor Paulette Ramsay, is a Jamaican poet, translator, jou…

Behind the scenes of our inaugural Caribbean Readers' Awards, our inspiration, next year's goals and a bit of tea. Support our podcast and other RWL projects by becoming a sustaining member: www.rebelwomenlit.com/join#sustaining Learn more about the Rebel Women Lit Caribbean Readers' Awards and shop the nominees: rebelwomenlit.com/awards See the Ca…

Karen Lord reads chapter one of Unraveling - Rebel Women Lit's book club January 2021 pick. RSVP for book club and subscribe to receive our monthly picks at rebelwomenlit.comBy Rebel Women Lit

A (very) special episode featuring the artist moon - talking about their forthcoming poetry collection, Breaking The Binary, a response to queer lives in Jamaica. This episode features original work by moon: 3:57 Yemaya (available on most streaming services and https://www.earthandmoon.net/music) 8:00 Broken Lineage 11:45 Undefined 14:03 Broken Sil…

In this new episode of Like A Real Book Club, we traverse a very dark and all too common feature of Caribbean girlhood and womanhood by looking at sexual grooming and sexual violence. Looking through the lenses of popular book to TV adaptations, Tiffany Jackson’s Grown, Jamaican history and our own personal experiences, we talk about the insidiousn…

You know the end of Ari Lennox' 'Chicago Boy' where she asks everyone who is not her friend to leave? That's how this episode feels. Ashley, Jherane and Kristina have an intimate conversation about their experiences with churches, mental health, and of course books. A 20+ min bonus episode on the books we turn to when we're in a bad mental place is…

One thing about us, we’re gonna intend to talk about one thing and end up talking about 27. It’s been such a long time since we’ve done an episode that everything came pouring out of us. But that’s the beauty of a book club (and the podcasts that are like them) - you get to gush about your favourite things, the things you hate and everything in bet…

We’re deep into 2020 now, and both the days and the years to come, look darker than they have in a very long time. No, we’re not just talking about COVID-19. So why not curl up with an appropriate book? Join our verandah chat with Diana McCaulay, author of Daylight Come, a tense futuristic sci-fi story about climate change in the Caribbean. What ma…

Have you ever met an author that was truly and genuinely as smart and brilliant as their work? Fortunately for us (because our book choices are goddess-tier), the writers that we’ve gotten to know since the start of 2020 have inspired us and left us gagging at how intimately their intellectual pursuits and their creative work connect. Our April boo…

We all know that stories have the power to change us. We've teamed up with BOCAS Lit Fest in Trinidad & Tobago for #ReadCaribbean to select Caribbean books that have had an impact on our lives, and this is the result. No, we didn't do 100 books in this podcast but we chose these page-turners that have helped to shape and influence our thinking. Doi…

A spoiler-free review of A Tall History of Sugar by Jamaican novelist Curdella Forbes. In this episode, we talk about the Caribbean's legacy of sugar in the form of our education and careers, economic and political life, and even our diets... and of course the book. Special shout out to Professor Verene Shepherd and Professor Hilary Beckles. Suppor…

In this episode, we meditate on the complexities of Caribbean motherhood - ladened with a history of patriarchal violence that has architected the tenuous, terrible and beautiful bonds we form with the matriarchs in our lives (and, of course, how these relationships are depicted in Caribbean literature). Support and Join our book club & podcast: re…

Is it ok to “feel a way” when a Caribbean author doesn’t use our language and our culture in their work? We love reading novels and poetry from the Caribbean, especially ones written by Jamaican authors, but are we demanding in our expectations? Also, wtf is magical realism? Become a Patreon member of our book club: patreon.com/rebelwomenlit Shop b…

We chat with Sara Collins, winner of the Costa Book Awards 2019, about her debut novel The Confessions of Frannie Langton! We talk about the inspirations for the book, writing complex enslaved characters, a bit about white feminism, and her experience recording her own audiobook. Bonus: She talks about her upcoming sophomore novel. You can buy The …

Lots of spoilers for The Confessions of Frannie Langton ahead! In February, Rebel Women Lit read The Confessions of Frannie Langton by Sara Collins. It’s been described, as a gothic, romance, and mystery novel, but we just think it’s a brilliant historical fiction that should replace every Jane Austen book on the CXC syllabus because more Caribbean…

We talk about books that should hit the screens, but not before we struggle to define "gothic novels" as a genre, talk about fast-fashion, and do a small rant about Bookstagram. Follow @RebelWomenLit on Twitter and Instagram Support our book club and podcast by becoming a patreon member: patreon.com/rebelwomenlit or shopping for books and merch on …

Lots of spoilers for Girl, Woman, Other ahead! In January, Rebel Women Lit read Bernardine Evaristo's Girl, Woman, Other which is the only 2019 Booker winner we'll recognize. Like A Real Book Club meets to chat about the not-a-short-story collection of stories by 12 black British people -mostly women- and their interwoven lives. Trigger Warning: Di…

Like a real book club, Jherane, Kristina, and Ashley talk about books that defined the 2010-2019s and just about everything else. It starts off a bit formal, we talk about the history of RebelWomenLit and our reading histories. Then we really get into it: Fangirling over writers, Jherane talks about crying over books, Kristina gets a bit brainy tal…