The Caribbean remains central to Senior’s work and she is the prize-winning author of 17 books of fiction, poetry and non-fiction. Olive Senior’s first collection of fiction, Summer Lightning and Other Stories, received widespread praise, winning the Commonwealth Writers Prize. The high-profile event will be chaired by award-winning Leeds-based author and academic Jason Allen-Paisant, the winner of the OCM Bocas Prize for poetry in 2022. The two acclaimed Poets Laureate will preside over an extraordinary evening of literary excellence and conversation. Out of Many Lit opens on Tuesday with Laureate to Laureate, with Olive Senior, the Poet Laureate of Jamaica, in conversation with the UK’s Laureate Simon Armitage at the city’s Howard Assembly Room. The literature strand is a fitting part of the Out of Many Festival – the Jamaica Society Leeds was moved to buy our own premises after struggling to find suitable venues to host acclaimed Jamaican poet Louise Bennett-Coverley, known to many as Miss Lou, when she visited.įestival Director Susan Pitter said: “It is thrilling to have such high-calibre authors in Leeds as part of Out of Many Lit Jamaican literature should be celebrated and lauded and we are so pleased to have this opportunity to do so.”

Out of Many Lit runs from today until 8th October with a host of events highlighting the cultural history of Jamaican literature and its impact on the UK and the world. Shaped over two years by countless conversations with partners, collaborators and artists across the world, and by listening to the community in Leeds, this celebration of Jamaica’s roots, culture, art and unique vibe recognises a global influence far bigger than that expected of a tiny island nation.įrom music and theatre to literature and art, the ambition and pride driving the Festival belies that expected of the Jamaica Society Leeds, a tiny community charity set up 45 years ago.įor 2022, an incredibly rich and inspiring literature programme forms part of the Out of Many Festival. Sixty years on, it is more relevant than ever for us all to embrace that belief – and it’s this declaration that has inspired the Out of Many Festival. On April 3rd 1962 Jamaica declared: Out of Many, One People as the nation’s motto, just four months before independence from Britain was ushered in on August 6th.

Pao by Kerry Young