Lisa Allen-Agostini

Last updated

Lisa Allen-Agostini
Born1970s [1]
Trinidad, Trinidad and Tobago
Other namesJust Lisa
EducationLower Morvant Government School; Bishop Anstey High School
Alma mater University of the West Indies, St Augustine
Occupation(s)Journalist, editor, novelist, poet, dramatist, stand-up comedian
Notable workThe Bread the Devil Knead (2021)
Website lisaallen-agostini.com

Lisa Allen-Agostini (born 1970s) is a Trinidadian journalist, editor and writer of fiction, poetry and drama. [2] She is also a stand-up comedian, performing as "Just Lisa". [3]

Contents

Allen-Agostini has been a columnist for the Trinidad and Tobago Guardian , writing both in Trinidadian Creole and in Standard English, [4] and among other publications where her journalism appears are the Trinidad Express , Caribbean Beat , [5] Caribbean Review of Books , [6] and Trinidad and Tobago Newsday . She is the author of novels both for young people and adults, and her fiction and poetry have been published widely, including in Lightspeed , [7] Wasafiri , sx salon , Susumba, Moko, [8] past simple, [9] and About Place Journal. [10] She is a contributor to the anthologies Mothership: Tales of Afrofuturism and Beyond (edited by Bill Campbell and Edward Austin Hall, 2013) and New Daughters of Africa (edited by Margaret Busby, 2019). [10] Allen-Agostini's debut adult novel, The Bread the Devil Knead, was selected in April 2022 for the shortlist of the Women's Prize for Fiction. [11]

Biography

Education and early literary career

Born in Trinidad, Allen-Agostini attended Lower Morvant Government School and Bishop Anstey High School, before going on to earn a first-class honours degree in English at the University of the West Indies, St Augustine, [12] as well as studying stagecraft, having been an actor with the Trinidad Theatre Workshop. [4]

Allen-Agostini's ambition to be a writer began early, and her 1991 win of a national schools poetry competition was the impetus for her to self-publish a book of poems called Something to Say in 1992. [4] She began her career as a journalist by working at the Trinidad Express , as a feature writer and editor of a weekly youth magazine called Vox, [4] from where she moved to the Trinidad Guardian in 1998. [13] In 2001 an Alfred Friendly Press Fellowship enabled her to spend five months at The Washington Post , before returning to work in various capacities at the Trinidad Guardian until 2010. [14] She has also written for the Caribbean Review of Books . [15]

Her Young Adult science-fiction book, The Chalice Project, was published in 2008, and in the same year she co-edited and contributed to the crime anthology Trinidad Noir. [16]

In 2009, she founded The Allen Prize For Young Writers – named in honour of her father – a not-for-profit company dedicated to developing the talent of young writers. [17] [18] She was awarded a scholarship by global advocacy organisation Women Deliver to attend their May 2013 conference in Malaysia. [19] Also in 2013 she was shortlisted for the Hollick Arvon Prize for emerging Caribbean writers [20] and was the 2014 Dame Hilda Bynoe writer-in-residence at St George's University in Grenada. [16] [21] She joined the Trinidad and Tobago Newsday team as a freelance reporter in 2017. [4] [22] That year, her YA novel Home Home won third-prize in the Burt Prize for Caribbean Young Adult Caribbean Literature and was published in 2018 by Papillote Press. [23]

In 2019, she started the Caribbean feminist stand-up comedy partnership FemComTT with Louris Lee-Sing, performing at events as "Just Lisa" and "Lyrix", [24] as well as co-hosting the online chat show The Givin' Trouble Show. [4] [25] [26]

Allen-Agostini contributed "The Cook" to 2019's New Daughters of Africa , edited by Margaret Busby for Myriad Editions, [1] [27] and was a participant in an event showcasing the anthology at the NGC Bocas Lit Fest. [28] [29] [30]

The Bread the Devil Knead (2021)

In May 2021, Myriad published her debut adult novel, The Bread the Devil Knead – described as a "rich, raw and urgent domestic noir novel of sex and survival set in Trinidad’s capital". [31] [32] Reviewer Joanne Owen wrote of it: "Every perfectly-placed word, every perfectly-formed sentence rings with truth and strikes deep. ... Raw and achingly beautiful, this really is remarkable." According to Literandra: "It is a book that will have you feeling breathless and angry, disturbed yet understood. It is honest, raw, and is likely to resonate with a lot of women around the world as it mercilessly exposes what it can mean to be a woman in a world run by men, and what it means to live at the intersection of gender, race, and poverty." [33] The review in Scroll.in concluded: "The Bread the Devil Knead is a force and Lisa Allen-Agostini has set the standards very high for not just women’s writing, but global literary fiction. Bravo!" [34]

Among others who praised the novel are Kei Miller ("You dip into the first page and don't come up for breath until the last... Thoroughly enjoyable") and Nalo Hopkinson ("Strips you down to raw nerve to build you back up again. Allen-Agostini has an unswerving eye"). [35]

In March 2022, The Bread the Devil Knead was announced as having been included on the longlist for the Women's Prize for Fiction, [36] [37] [38] going on to make the shortlist of six. [39] [40] [41] [42]

Awards and recognition

Selected bibliography

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Kamila Shamsie</span> Pakistani and British writer and novelist (born 1973)

Kamila Shamsie FRSL is a Pakistani and British writer and novelist who is best known for her award-winning novel Home Fire (2017). Named on Granta magazine's list of 20 best young British writers, Shamsie has been described by The New Indian Express as "a novelist to reckon with and to look forward to." She also writes for publications including The Guardian, New Statesman, Index on Censorship and Prospect, and broadcasts on radio.

Susan Mary Woodford-Hollick, Baroness Hollick OBE is a British businesswoman and consultant with a wide-ranging involvement in broadcasting and the arts. A former investigative journalist, she worked for many years in television, where her roles included producer/director of World in Action for Granada TV and founding commissioning editor of Multicultural Programmes for Channel Four. As a campaigner for human rights, world health, literacy, and the arts, she serves as trustee or patron of a range of charities and foundations. She is founder and co-director of Bringing up Baby Ltd, a childcare company. Other causes and organisations with which she is associated include the African Medical and Research Foundation (AMREF), the Leader's Quest Foundation, Complicité theatre company, Reprieve, the Free Word Centre, the Runnymede Trust and the SI Leeds Literary Prize. Of English and Trinidadian heritage, she is the wife of Clive Hollick, Baron Hollick, with whom she has three daughters.

Earl Wilbert Lovelace is a Trinidadian novelist, journalist, playwright, and short story writer. He is particularly recognized for his descriptive, dramatic fiction on Trinidadian culture: "Using Trinidadian dialect patterns and standard English, he probes the paradoxes often inherent in social change as well as the clash between rural and urban cultures." As Bernardine Evaristo notes, "Lovelace is unusual among celebrated Caribbean writers in that he has always lived in Trinidad. Most writers leave to find support for their literary endeavours elsewhere and this, arguably, shapes the literature, especially after long periods of exile. But Lovelace's fiction is deeply embedded in Trinidadian society and is written from the perspective of one whose ties to his homeland have never been broken."

Lawrence Scott FRSL is a novelist and short-story writer from Trinidad and Tobago, who divides his time between London and Port of Spain. He has also worked as a teacher of English and Drama at schools in London and in Trinidad. Scott's novels have been awarded (1998) and shortlisted for the Commonwealth Writers' Prize and thrice nominated for the International Dublin Literary Award. His stories have been much anthologised and he won the Tom-Gallon Short-Story Award in 1986.

Kathryn Heyman is an Australian writer of novels and plays. She is the director of the Australian Writers Mentoring Program and Fiction Program Director of Faber Writing Academy.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Kei Miller</span> Jamaican poet and fiction writer

Kei Miller is a Jamaican poet, fiction writer, essayist and blogger. He is also a professor of creative writing.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Ira Mathur</span> Trinidadian and Tobago journalist and novelist

Ira Mathur is an Indian-born Trinidad and Tobago multimedia freelance journalist, Sunday Guardian columnist and writer. The longest-running columnist for the Sunday Guardian, she has been writing an op-ed for the paper since 1995, except for a hiatus from 2003 to 2004 when she wrote for the Daily Express. She has written more than eight hundred columns on politics, economics, social, health and developmental issues, locally, regionally and internationally.

Oneworld Publications is a British independent publishing firm founded in 1986 by Novin Doostdar and Juliet Mabey originally to publish accessible non-fiction by experts and academics for the general market. Based in London, it later added a literary fiction list and both a children's list and an upmarket crime list, and now publishes across a wide range of subjects, including history, politics, current affairs, popular science, religion, philosophy, and psychology, as well as literary fiction, crime fiction and suspense, and children's titles.

OCM Bocas Prize for Caribbean Literature, inaugurated in 2011 by the NGC Bocas Lit Fest, is an annual literary award for books by Caribbean writers published in the previous year. It is the only prize in the region that is open to works of different literary genres by writers of Caribbean birth or citizenship.

Monique Pauline Roffey is a Trinidadian-born British writer and memoirist. Her novels have been much acclaimed, winning awards including the 2013 OCM Bocas Prize for Caribbean Literature, for Archipelago, and the Costa Book of the Year award, for The Mermaid of Black Conch in 2021.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Marina Salandy-Brown</span> Trinidad and Tobago journalist, broadcaster and cultural activist

Marina Salandy-Brown FRSA, Hon. FRSL, is a Trinidadian journalist, broadcaster and cultural activist. She was formerly an editor and Senior Manager in Radio and News and Current Affairs programmes with the British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) in London, one of the BBC's few top executives from an ethnic minority background. She is the founder and inaugural director of the NGC Bocas Lit Fest, held annually in Trinidad and Tobago since 2011, "the biggest literary festival in the Anglophone Caribbean", and of the OCM Bocas Prize for Caribbean Literature. She was also co-founder of the Hollick Arvon Caribbean Writers Prize.

The NGC Bocas Lit Fest is the Trinidad and Tobago literary festival that takes place annually during the last weekend of April in Port of Spain. Inaugurated in 2011, it is the first major literary festival in the southern Caribbean and largest literary festival in the Anglophone Caribbean. A registered non-profit company, the festival has as its title sponsor the National Gas Company of Trinidad and Tobago (NGC). Other sponsors and partners include First Citizens Bank, One Caribbean Media (OCM), who sponsor the associated OCM Bocas Prize for Caribbean Literature, CODE, and the Commonwealth Foundation.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Patrice Lawrence</span> British writer and journalist (born 1960s)

Patrice Lawrence MBE, FRSL is a British writer and journalist, who has published fiction both for adults and children. Her writing has won awards including the Waterstones Children's Book Prize for Older Children and The Bookseller YA Book Prize. In 2021, she won the Jhalak Prize's inaugural children's and young adult category for her book Eight Pieces of Silva (2020).

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Barbara Jenkins</span> Trinidadian writer

Barbara Jenkins is a Trinidadian writer, whose work since 2010 has won several international prizes, including the Commonwealth Short Story Prize and the Wasafiri New Writing Prize.

Joanne C. Hillhouse is a creative writer, journalist, producer and educator from Antigua and Barbuda. Her writing encompasses novels, short stories, poetry and children's books, and she has contributed to many publications in the Caribbean region as well as internationally, among them the anthologies Pepperpot (2014) and New Daughters of Africa (2019). Hillhouse's books include the poetry collection On Becoming (2003), the novellas The Boy from Willow Bend (2003) and Dancing Nude in the Moonlight (2004), the children's books Fish Outta Water and With Grace, the novel Oh Gad! (2012), and the young adult novel Musical Youth (2014), which was runner-up for the Burt Award for Caribbean Literature. She was named by Literary Hub as one of "10 Female Caribbean Authors You Should Know". An advocate for the development of the arts in Antigua and Barbuda, she founded the Wadadli Youth Pen Prize in 2004.

Polly Pattullo Hon. FRSL is a British author, journalist, editor and publisher, who co-founded in 1998 the independent publishing company Papillote Press, based in Dominica, and London, England. Her writing has appeared in such publications as The Guardian, The Observer, Caribbean Insight, and Caribbean Beat, and she is the author or editor of several books, among them Last Resorts: the Cost of Tourism in the Caribbean (1996) and Your Time is Done Now: Slavery, Resistance and Defeat: the Maroon Trials of Dominica 1813–14 (2015).

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Kevin Jared Hosein</span> Novelist from Trinidad and Tobago (born 1986)

Kevin Jared Hosein is a Caribbean novelist and short-story writer from Trinidad and Tobago. He is known for winning the 2018 Commonwealth Short Story Prize with his story "Passage". He also won the regional (Caribbean) section of the prize in 2015, with "The King of Settlement 4".

Sharon Millar is a Trinidadian writer. She was awarded the Commonwealth Short Story Prize in 2013 for "The Whale House".

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Shivanee Ramlochan</span> Trinidadian writer (born 1986)

Shivanee Ramlochan is a Trinidadian poet, arts reporter and blogger. Her first collection of poems Everyone Knows I Am a Haunting was shortlisted for the 2018 Felix Dennis Prize for best first collection.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Ayanna Lloyd Banwo</span> Trinidadian writer

Ayanna Lloyd Banwo is a Trinidadian writer. She was awarded the second prize for "Public Notice" in the 2016 Small Axe Literary Competition. Her debut novel When We Were Birds was released in 2022 and won the 2023 OCM Bocas Prize for Caribbean Literature.

References

  1. 1 2 Busby, Margaret (ed.). "Lisa Allen-Agostini". New Daughters Of Africa. Myriad Editions.
  2. ↑ "Lisa Allen-Agostini". Papillote Press. 18 February 2021.
  3. ↑ "Comedy friends in Christmas show". The World News. 21 November 2019.
  4. 1 2 3 4 5 6 Allen-Agostini, Lisa. "About". Writer, Editor, Stand-Up Comedian. Retrieved 14 January 2021.
  5. ↑ "Lisa Allen-Agostini". Caribbean Beat. Retrieved 14 January 2021.
  6. ↑ Allen-Agostini, Lisa. "Move on up". The Caribbean Review of Books.
  7. ↑ "Destroy". Lightspeed. June 2016.
  8. ↑ "Playing Dragon". Moko.
  9. ↑ "Lisa Allen-Agostini". Past Simple. Retrieved 14 January 2021.
  10. 1 2 Allen-Agostini, Lisa. "Cam and the Maskless". About Place Journal. VI (II, 2020 Pandemic Blues). Retrieved 16 January 2021.
  11. ↑ Waite-Taylor, Eva (27 April 2022). "Women's Prize for Fiction 2022 shortlist is here – and it's a diverse range of stories". The Independent .
  12. ↑ Allen-Agostini, Lisa (12 May 2018). "A Black, Female Writer's Story". Repeating Islands. Retrieved 14 January 2021.
  13. ↑ Allen-Agostini, Lisa (1 July 2010). "Las lap".
  14. ↑ Allen-Agostini, Lisa (1 July 2010). "Bye-bye for now". Trinidad & Tobago Guardian.
  15. ↑ Allen-Agostini, Lisa (May 2020). "Greener pastures". Caribbean Review of Books (21).
  16. 1 2 "Inaugural St. George's University writer-in-residence announced". CaribLit. 20 December 2013. Retrieved 14 January 2021.
  17. ↑ "In My Own Words: Lisa Allen-Agostini". Geoffrey Philp. 13 September 2010. Retrieved 27 January 2021.
  18. ↑ Allen-Agostini, Lisa (15 May 2011). "Celebrating My Father". Writer, Editor, Stand-Up Comedian. Retrieved 14 January 2021.
  19. ↑ Allen-Agostini, Lisa (15 April 2013). "Delivering women from inequality". Trinidad & Tobago Guardian.
  20. ↑ "7 T&T writers shortlisted for Hollick Arvon Prize". Trinidad & Tobago Guardian. 9 March 2013.
  21. ↑ "Writing Workshop Opportunities with SGU's Writer in Residence". Groundation Grenada. 2 March 2014.
  22. ↑ "Lisa's Articles". Trinidad and Tobago Newsday.
  23. ↑ "Home Home". Papillote Press. 18 February 2021.
  24. ↑ "The Little Carib and FemCom partner on International Women's Day show". Trinidad Express. 7 March 2020.
  25. ↑ Lee Sing, Louris (16 June 2020). "The Givin' Trouble Show with FemComTT".
  26. ↑ "More than a book festival: comedy, extempo and more!". Bocas Lit Fest. 16 September 2020.
  27. ↑ "Reading Room and Gallery 34". Wadadli Pen. 21 April 2019.
  28. ↑ Greaves, Debra (12 April 2019). "Bocas festival celebrates new writing". Trinidad and Tobago Newsday.
  29. ↑ "New Daughters of Africa". NGC Bocas Lit Fest. 2 May 2019 – via YouTube.
  30. ↑ Haseley, Marshelle (23 February 2021). "Lisa Allen-Agostini explores culture, womanhood in new novel". Trinidad and Tobago Newsday. Retrieved 24 May 2021.
  31. ↑ Hackett, Tamsin (20 November 2020). "Myriad to publish Trinidad-set novel from Allen-Agostini". The Bookseller .
  32. ↑ The Bread the Devil Knead. UK: Myriad Editions. 20 May 2021. ISBN   978-1-912408-99-3.
  33. ↑ Cavallari, Oiza (5 May 2021). "'The Bread the Devil Knead' by Lisa Allen-Agostini". Literandra. Retrieved 24 May 2021.
  34. ↑ Debnath, Sayari (8 July 2022). "In 'The Bread the Devil Knead', uninhibited language brings to life the horrors of domestic abuse". Scroll.in. Retrieved 11 July 2022.
  35. ↑ "The Bread the Devil Knead". Mr B's. Retrieved 24 May 2021.
  36. ↑ Waite-Taylor, Eva (8 March 2022). "The Women's Prize for Fiction 2022 longlist is here – and features five debut authors". The Independent .
  37. ↑ Comerford, Ruth (8 March 2022). "Ozeki, Shipstead and Mason longlisted for Women's Prize for Fiction". The Bookseller . Retrieved 8 March 2022.
  38. ↑ Knight, Lucy (8 March 2022). "Five debut novels make Women's prize for fiction longlist". The Guardian.
  39. ↑ "Announcing the 2022 Women's Prize shortlist!date=27 April 2022". Women's Prize for Fiction. 27 April 2022.
  40. ↑ Knight, Lucy (27 April 2022). "Six 'wonderfully diverse' novels make the Women's prize shortlist". The Guardian .
  41. ↑ Editorial (1 May 2022). "The Guardian view on Trinidad writers: women take the lead". The Guardian.
  42. ↑ Roffey, Monique (3 May 2022). "'The pendulum has swung': Why we female Trinidadian writers are having our moment". The Guardian.
  43. ↑ Bayley, Sian (27 April 2022). "Mason, Shipstead and Ozeki shortlisted for 2022 Women's Prize". The Bookseller. Retrieved 27 April 2022.
This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.