First Spanish-language book to receive Honorable Mention prize from Caribbean Studies Association
GREAT BAY — St. Martin — The book Una suave, tierna línea de montañas azules: Nicolás Guillén y Haití, by Emilio Jorge Rodríguez, received the Honorable Mention prize from the Caribbean Studies Association (CSA) on June 8, according to the Gordon K. and Sybil Farrell Lewis Book Prize committee for 2018.
The book, which explores “the communicating ties between Haitians and Cubans,” according to journalist Marilyn Bobes, is already a winner of the prestigious Casa de las Americas literary prize (2017).
Una suave, tierna línea de montañas azules (A Gentle, Tender Line of Blue Mountains), is now the first Spanish-language book to receive the CSA academic award.
Rodríguez is one of the very few Caribbean comparative literature experts that span the region’s various language zones. The Cuban author is also “one of four published experts on the developing literature of St. Martin,” said linguist Dr. Rhoda Arrindell.
Previous CSA Honorary Mention awardees are Maureen Warner-Lewis, Richard Price, Peter A. Roberts, Olive Senior, Neil Roberts, Ada Ferrer, Hilary Mc D. Beckles, and Raphael Dalleo.
The CSA criteria used by the judges for the Book Prize were, “The theoretical contribution to our understanding of historical and/or contemporary issues within a discipline of the broader field of Caribbean Studies,” and, “The methodological rigor of the work, e.g. the use of primary source or archival/historical data, methodological innovations, and suggestions for new avenues of research and thinking about the Caribbean.”
CSA held its 48th annual meeting in the Cuban capital of Havana this year from June 4 – 8, under the theme of “Education, Culture and Emancipatory thought in the Caribbean.”
According to CSA, its membership includes “more than 200 universities and 60 countries, with an outstanding presence of the Anglophone Caribbean and the United States.”