Jan Carew – Author of Black Midas

Though Jan Carew has been known primarily for his work in the creative arts, he made a dramatic turn into Academia in the late 1960s and into agricultural projects in the 1970s and 1980s.  These may seem quite distinct, one from the other, but Carew’s overriding goals — no matter the specific program or project–…

On the surface, when one looks at Jan Carew’s nomadic life over his 90-plus years, he seems to effortlessly glide in and out of diverse societies as he moves around the globe.  Pushed by a wanderlust that even he cannot fully explain, he is buffeted by endless opportune connections.  At various times, we see him…

In the latter part of the 1950s, his work firmly located in both locale and language, Jan Carew was signaling to the world that he had arrived, and along with him came a remarkable coterie of people and places to whom few had paid attention before.   Over the many years of his writing and broadcasting…

The following presentation was delivered at the 16th annual International Conference on Caribbean Literature in Sint Maarten, November 2016, and a smaller version was delivered at the 50th Anniversary of  Guyana celebrations in New York, NY June 2016 Part One of four parts From his landmark 1958 novel, Black Midas, the story of Porkknockers in the…

On March 17, 2016 we are hosting the second of the double book launches of “Episodes in My Life: the Autobiography of Jan Carew” and the poetry collection “Return to the Streets” in Jan Carew’s home country of Guyana, South America. The festivities at the Moray House in Georgetown (7-9 PM) look to be as…

Dear Jan Carew enthusiasts: The 26th November 2015 double book launch in London (UK) was a wonderful event and great send off for the latest posthumous Jan Carew works: Episodes in My Life: the Autobiography of Jan Carew and  Return to Streets of Eternity. Did you know that there’s a Jan Carew book for every taste? It is never…

As I traversed London metro from the southern outskirts of South Croydon into central London, the clouds hanging low and a damp chill in the air on  26th November, I watched neighborhood after neighborhood of attached housing.  I tried to imagine Jan in those early years.  It would be the 1950s,  long before I met…

“… I must go wandering again/ across green pastures of my mind/ I must hurl words/ across drawbridges…” Jan Carew wrote this in a 2008 poem, “Why Have I Walled in My Poet’s Voice?” At the time, he was 88. He had completed — to his almost final satisfaction — new collection of poetry. But,…

When Jan Carew passed away in early December 2012, it was as if that great wind that buffeted him around the globe, had spent itself.  For 92 years, through his youth, young adulthood, manhood,  and well into his advanced years, this wind (whom he referred to as the Arawak/Taino god ‘Huracan’) was his companion and…