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AUTHOR
Tessa McWatt
Tessa McWatt is the author of seven novels, two books for young people,…
DiscoverTessa McWatt at Bocas Lit Fest
For many writers of the Caribbean, home is not a straightforward concept. Not for a region of the world historically populated by enslaved and indentured labour wrenched from other continents, and not for a far-flung multi-ethnic diaspora, in an age when identity is increasingly contested, and populist politicians manipulate the idea of “belonging” to divide and rule. How do we define and understand ourselves, our communities, our solidarities in the collision of nation and imagination? With Canisia Lubrin, author of The Dyzgraphist (winner of the 2021 OCM Bocas Prize and the Griffin Prize for Poetry); and Tessa McWatt, author of Shame on Me: an anatomy of race and belonging (winner of the 2020 OCM Bocas Prize for Non-Fiction).
For more information and to book your ticket, please visit the event website here and here.
Shame On Me
NON-FICTION WINNER OF THE OCM BOCAS PRIZE FOR CARIBBEAN LITERATURE AND A FINALIST FOR THE HILARY WESTON WRITERS’ TRUST PRIZE FOR NON-FICTION
What does it mean to belong?
All her life, Tessa McWatt has been asked, ‘What are you?’ Born in Guyana to a family with Scottish, African, French, Chinese, Indian, Portuguese, and Native American heritage, she grew up in a white suburb, out of place, longing to fit in. As an adult, she moved to the UK, still pursued by questions about her identity.
In this deeply personal reckoning with race and belonging, Tessa interweaves her own experiences as a mixed-race…
Shame On Me
SHORTLISTED FOR THE 2020 OCM BOCAS PRIZE FOR CARIBBEAN LITERATURE
‘What are you?’
Tessa McWatt knows first-hand that the answer to this question, often asked of people of colour by white people, is always more complicated than it seems. Is the answer English, Scottish, British, Caribbean, Portuguese, Indian, Amerindian, French, African, Chinese, Canadian? Like most families, hers is steeped in myth and the anecdotes of grandparents and parents who view their histories through the lens of desire, aspiration, loss, and shame.
In Shame On Me she unspools all the interwoven strands of her inheritance, and…
