The Department of Literatures in English will host a launch for two books in the Heineman Caribbean Writers Series on Monday, April 7 at 6:30 p.m. at the Undercroft of the Senate Building.  They are Aunt Jen by Paulette Ramsay, Lecturer in the Department of Language, Linguistics and Philosophy and Songs of Silence by Curdella Forbes, Lecturer in the Department of Literatures in English. 

In ‘Aunt Jen’, Sunshine, a young girl, is desperate to know and understand her identity.  Written as a series of letters to her absent mother, Aunt Jen traces the changing attitudes of a child entering adulthood as she begins to realize and accept the truth behind her mother’s departure.  Songs of Silence is a colourful patchwork of observations of life in 1960s rural Jamaica, as seen through the eyes of a young girl.  Held together by the sure and simple voice of a child, this powerful narrative is interspersed with the whisper of adult reflection, rendering the accounts at once sensuous and disarmingly honest.  The public is invited to the launch.