LargeUp Interview: Akashic Books’ Johnny Temple on Bringing Caribbean Stories To The World

June 4, 2014


Drifting

LU: Tell us about any upcoming Caribbean-themed books Akashic will be publishing.

JT:  I Love You Too is Ziggy Marley’s first children’s book, which we have just published to a very appreciative worldwide audience.  Not for Everyday Use is the first memoir from award-winning Trinidadian-born novelist Elizabeth Nunez. It’s much about her parents as it is about Elizabeth, and it deflates any preconceived notions about what it means to grow up in the Caribbean. Mr. Loverman by Bernardine Evaristo is a hilarious and beautifully written story of two elderly gay West Indian men trying to find a way to come out of the closet in their London-based West Indian community. Game World, published two months ago, is the first middle-grade novel by Jamaican-born writer Christopher John Farley. It is a fantasy-adventure story as readable as any of the Harry Potter books—I’m not exaggerating—and it is all based around Jamaican mythology. And yet, a kid needs no preexisting appreciation of that mythology to love the book.

Pepperpot, an anthology of Caribbean writers, is the debut title on the Peekash imprint. It features stories that were finalists for the renowned Commonwealth Writers Prize, and is supported by CaribLit, an exciting, smart, and ambitious new organization. The Half That’s Never Been Told: The Real-Life Reggae Adventures of Doctor Dread is a forthcoming memoir from Doctor Dread, an American deejay who became one of the leading reggae producers of the past 25 years. Drifting by Haitian-born writer Katia D. Ulysse is a debut coming out in July that explores the lives of everyday people trapped in Haiti’s political and environmental turmoil.

LU: Shaggy is narrating the “Go De Rass to Sleep” audio book. Are you planning any further link-ups with the Caribbean music world?

JT: But of course! One of many examples: Bunny Wailer is writing the introduction to the Doctor Dread book I mentioned above. Anyone who knows Bunny’s relationship to the history of reggae and world music can understand what an honor this is. And that book is filled with many behind-the-scenes stories about famous reggae artists. The opening chapter about Gregory Isaacs is somehow both shocking and heart-warming.