Antilles: the weblog of the CRB

By way of introduction

With the May 2007 issue of The Caribbean Review of Books, we mark our third anniversary--three years since the magazine, once published in Jamaica, was revived in Trinidad with a new editorial team and a fresh sense of purpose.

Over the last three years, we have tried to cover the literary scene in the Anglophone Caribbean as widely and as deeply as our page space allows. The CRB's main aim is to review new books about the Caribbean, and we're lucky that some of the region's best writers and scholars have taken up our invitation to do just that. We've also published new poems, stories, and essays, alongside profiles of writers and the occasional interview. And in recent issues of the magazine we've extended our field of interest to include other areas that aren't adequately addressed in the regional press, especially contemporary art.

Three years into this ongoing experiment--that's how I always think of it--we've decided to expand the CRB into a new medium: the blogosphere. From the beginning, the CRB's website has offered excerpts from the print magazine, and our online archive continues to grow slowly. But this companion weblog, we hope, will give us greater editorial flexibility, and allow us to explore some new areas and perhaps make contact with new readers.

What can you expect from the CRB blog? The truthful answer is, we'll figure that out as we go along. Excerpts from the print issues, yes, plus extras like interviews with some of our writers. News about what's going on in Caribbean literature (and in the growing number of Caribbean literary blogs), in a more timely manner than the print magazine can manage. Original writing--stories, poems, short essays. News about the contemporary art scene in the Caribbean also. Reports from literary events. Photos. Our editorial team thinking aloud. Reading lists, and wish lists. Perhaps even brief reviews of books that don't make it into the magazine--hard as we try, we can't fit everything.

And the name? Over four years ago, I made an attempt at starting a Caribbean literary journal in blog form. Antilles was what I called it. It quickly ran out of steam, with just a few contributions posted (you can still read them below). But I held on to the URL, and when I started to think about a CRB blog, it occurred to me that Antilles would be a good name for that too. It's a word I've always liked, for no reason I can explain; it grounds the blog in this part of the world; it's easy to remember. So Antilles it is.

NL