Jean Rhys Literary Festival - Dominica

 

·         A literary festival is to be held in Dominica dedicated to the life and works of Jean Rhys, Dominica’s foremost author.

 

• To be hosted by The Dominica University Centre, School of Continuing Studies of the University of the West Indies and held at the Fort Young Hotel, Roseau.

 

• Dates: Thursday June 10, 2004 to Sunday June 13, 2004 to commemorate the 25^th anniversary of her death, May 14, 1979.

 

Life synopsis:

 

Rhys, Jean: (1890-1979) The pen name of Dominica’s most famous author who was born in Roseau on 24 August 1890 and was christened Ella Gwendolen Rees Williams. Her father was a Welsh doctor working here and her mother was one of the Lockhart family, longstanding Dominican Creoles, who owned Geneva Estate at Grand Bay. She was educated at the Convent School and left for England when she was sixteen years old. She went into the theatre for a short time but began writing in earnest in 1922, publishing her first book in 1927. By then she had married a Dutch poet, the first of her three husbands, and lived a rootless wandering life in Europe mainly in London, Paris and Vienna. Her early novels and short stories reflect this lifestyle. She only returned to Dominica once, in 1936. Her literary triumph was the novel “Wide Sargasso Sea” published in 1966, which won literary awards, and which, like parts of her other books, drew on her memories of Dominica. She died in Devon, England, on May 14, 1979.

 

Festival format:

 

Two day Literary Conference at Fort Young Hotel conference room during which papers will be presented on aspects of Jean Rhys’ work particularly with reference to Dominica and its influences on her writing, although concentration on this topic is not essential to selection of papers for presentation.

 

Jean Rhys Hike to Amelia and Bona Vista behind Massacre, site of the Rees Williams’ family country house and setting for “the honeymoon house” in Wide Sargasso Sea.

 

Jean Rhys Tour and afternoon Jean Rhys Heritage Festival at Geneva, Grand Bay, organized by cultural groups of Grand Bay and hosted by the Grand Bay Village Council.

 

 

For more information contact lennoxh@cwdom.dm