A man lies in a newspaper-lined room dreaming an other life. Bob Marley's spirit flew into him at the moment of the singer's death. A woman detaches herself from her perfunctory husband and finds the erotic foreplay she longs for in journeying round the island. A man climbs Blue Mountain Peak to fly and hear the voice of God. Sonia paints her new friend Joan and hopes that this will be the beginning of a sexual adventure. Dawes's characters are driven by their need for...
Dawes is very well-known and respected in literary (and academic) circles.Dawes is a mentor of Marlon James's and also works closely on various collaborations with Colin Channer, Chris Abani, etc.Though stylistically different, Bivouac shares themes with Marlon James's Man Booker Prize winning novel, A Brief History of Seven Killings.Dawes's debut novel, She's Gone (Akashic), won a Hurston/Wright Legacy Award for Best First Novel; Dawes has also won numerous poetry prizes and...
"[Dawes] is highly original and intelligent, possessing poetic sensibility that is rooted and sound, unshakeable and unstopped, both in its vibrancy and direction. He writes poetry as it ought to be written."—World Literature Today "Dawes asserts himself as man and artist and finally, with grace achieved and grace said, sits down to begin life's tragic feast . . . a writer of major significance."—Brag Book "The notion of a reggae aesthetic—of the...
The winning manuscript of the fourth annual Hollis Summers Poetry Prize is also the exciting American debut by a poet who has already established himself as an important international poetic voice. Midland , the seventh collection by Kwame Dawes, draws deeply on the poet's travels and experiences in Africa, the Caribbean, England, and the American South. Marked equally by a lushness of imagery, an urgency of tone, and a muscular rhythm, Midland , in the words of the final judge, Eavan...
