World Literature: Jamaica Kincaid’s “Putting Myself Together” (Antigua) with Anderson Tepper

Photo Credit: Bob Anderson. Photo Courtesy: Macmillan. My ignorance was on my side. I wasn’t afraid. I didn’t know what to be afraid of. I did one thing, I did another. I did what I now call crashing about. One day I started to write. This November, City of Asylum welcomes prolific author and essayist Jamaica Kincaid to share her PEN/Diamonstein-Spielvogel Award for the Art of the Essay–winning collection, Putting Myself Together. The collection features nearly 50 years of Jamaica Kincaid’s writing about gardening, friendship, and racism. Putting Myself Together includes some of Jamaica’s earliest pieces from publications such as The New Yorker, The Village Voice, and Ms., proving what her admirers have always known: from the start, she has been a consummate stylist, and she has always been herself. From “Jamaica Kincaid’s New York,” which narrates her move to the city from Antigua at the age of 16, to the classic “Biography of a Dress,” her cultural criticism, and her original thinking about the meaning of the garden, Kincaid writes about the world as she finds it, imparting her own quizzical, rapier-sharp response to whatever crosses her path. The resulting collection is a brilliant, trenchant, hilarious self-portrait of the artist and a testament to how this inimitable, self-created mind and spirit, endowed with wit, humor, and fearlessness, has become one of our greatest, most original writers. You can purchase a copy of Jamaica’s book, Putting Myself Together, at City of Asylum Bookstore. This program will be followed by a public reception with complimentary hors d’oeuvres and drinks for all artists and attendees. About the Author: Jamaica Kincaid was born in St. John’s, Antigua. Her books include At the Bottom of the River, Annie John, Lucy, The Autobiography of My Mother, My Brother, Mr. Potter, See Now Then, and, with Kara Walker, An Encyclopedia of Gardening for Colored Children. She lives in Vermont. About the Moderator: Anderson Tepper is a guest curator of PEN America’s World Voices Festival and a longstanding member of the Brooklyn Book Festival’s Literary Council and international committee. Formerly of Vanity Fair, his writing on books and authors has appeared in The New York Times, The Los Angeles Times, The Atlantic, and World Literature Today, among other publications. Anderson also serves on City of Asylum’s Advisory Board. About Your Visit: The in-house restaurant, Cucina Alfabeto, is closed on Mondays and Tuesdays.