LU: How did the concept to translate “Go The F*** to Sleep” into patois come about?
JT: Just like me, the book’s author Adam Mansbach and its illustrator Ricardo Cortés have been hugely impacted in their work by Caribbean culture. Go the Fuck to Sleep has been translated into more than 30 languages around the world, but even before all those deals were made, we always dreamed of doing a “Jamaican translation.” Then, when the book became a mega-bestseller, we realized that we could make this dream a reality. So when Kellie Magnus and Kwame Dawes—both of them prestigious Jamaican writers—expressed interest in doing the translation, we were up and running.
LU: Caribbean storytelling is familiar to American audiences (and in other regions too) thanks to reggae and calypso. But few Caribbean authors are well-known here. What do you think would have to happen change this?
JT: Time will change that. Call me naïve, but I believe our world is getting culturally smarter. As the globe becomes more and more ethnically mixed, more and more people will be drawn to Caribbean culture because it is actually far ahead of the rest of the world in terms of its diversity—not just ethnic, but also cultural, religious, etc.
LU: Who are some young Caribbean authors worth looking out for?
JT: This is just scratching the surface: Marlon James, Tiphanie Yanique, Robert Antoni, Kei Miller, Edwidge Danticat, Kwame Dawes, Colin Channer, Kellie Magnus, Katia D. Ulysse, Christopher John Farley, Elsie Augustave, Montague Kobbé (he is Venezuelan-German, but most of his work is Caribbean), Ifeona Fulani, A-dziko Simba, Courttia Newland, Ziggy Marley, Sharon Leach, Sharon Millar, Diana Macauley, M.J. Fievre. There are many others, but I will stop here.
LU: Which islands would you say have the richest literary scenes right now?
JT: Truthfully, there is a matter of scale here which can’t be ignored. Just as New York City has more great writers than other American city due to its sheer size, so do Jamaica, Trinidad & Tobago, and Cuba have the richest literary scenes in the Caribbean because they are the biggest islands. And in all 3 places there are very important international book festivals that play a key role in creating vibrant literary cultures. In Jamaica, the Calabash International Literary Festival is simply the best book festival in the world, hands down. In Trinidad the relatively new NGC Bocas Lit Fest is doing a fantastic job of nurturing Caribbean literary life. In Cuba there is the annual Havana Book Festival. But it’s also exciting to see more remote places like Anguilla establish themselves on the literary map of the region.