I was intrigued by that.

well um i've always felt that i could never write about anything else or any other place than jamaica even though i'm here writing is a way of connecting me back with my upbringing so whenever i'm writing it's not i feel like i'm not really where i am physically Because I have to put myself in this space where nothing else matters.

And it's only when I'm in that space that the writing feels worthwhile.

So in terms of like cadences and rhythms and the use of dialect, all those elements are the connectors to the real experience that I'm trying to recapture.

because um i think it was a couple weeks ago i was watching this thing on youtube this barbadian poet kamal brathwaite uh he was saying that when he was trying to to capture the essence of the caribbean in his poetry, he couldn't do it in iambic pentameter or any of those conventional forms.

It just felt like a waste of time.

So it wasn't until he unlearned all that he had learned that he actually began to tap into his power as a writer So I think that using dialect for me is one way of tapping into the power of my past experiences, right? Just to make it authentic.

Could you talk us through your career and your path to publication?