Moving forward

Now that the deed is done and I’m Guardian-free, I feel a bit odd. This is the first time in over ten years that I’ve been disconnected from the Ansa McAl group and specifically the Guardian. No matter where I was, I always had them in the background, whether I was working on the Style Desk at the Washington Post, or holding a press conference for the Anthony Sabga Caribbean Awards. It was a tether and a shield and now… ? I don’t know how to feel.

What I do know is that The Allen Prize for Young Writers is going to need all my attention. Fund raising, planning, implementing, facilitating… I have a very strong team, thank God, but it’s still daunting to think we have to raise nearly TT $1 million in the next year just to function and do all the things we want to do for young people.

Shout out here to all my potential speakers! Start drinking honey and lime and get your voices in order. We will have plenty talking to do when the seminars start. First one is planned for October, then one a term thereafter… for the rest of my life. Sounds like a lot, innit…

…and I have three books to finish this year. I mustn’t forget myself in all this, right?