Trinidadian fiction-writer and essayist Sir Vidiadhar Surajprasad (V.S.) Naipaul died on August 11, 2018, in London, at 85 years of age. Naipaul was born in Chaguanas, Trinidad, in 1932; he attended Queen’s College in Trinidad and went to Oxford University in 1950, settling in England from that point onwards. His extensive literary production attracted many accolades – including the Nobel Prize in 2001 – and much critique.

Some of the many obituaries and retrospectives on Naipaul’s career appear here:

Kenneth Ramchand in the Guardian (U.K.)

Kei Miller in the Jamaica Gleaner

Joel Julian in the Trinidad Guardian

The Irish Times

Meena Kandasamy in Time magazine (U.S.)

BBC news (U.K.)

The New York Times

from the editors of Raritan:

The Editors of Raritan in collaboration with Rutgers University Press invite submissions for the first annual Raritan Book Prize.

Introduction: In the current frenzied media climate, there’s greater need than ever for thoughtful, independent writing that takes the time to cultivate care and grace. Raritan has provided a forum for that kind of writing for thirty-seven years. A wide-ranging journal of literary and cultural criticism, Raritan offers writers and readers the opportunity for sustained reflection and aesthetic pleasure, uncluttered by academic jargon. Submissions to the Raritan Book Prize competition should reflect Raritan’s commitment to enlarging the life of the mind through reasoned argument and interpretation, and to reaching a well-read but nonspecialist audience.

Subject: Any nonfiction subject in the realms of history, politics, literature, or the arts.

Prize: A $1,000 advance and publication by Rutgers University Press under the Raritan imprint.
(All those who submit a manuscript will receive a complimentary one-year subscription to Raritan.)

Submission fee: $25

Submission period: 1 September 2018 through 1 November 2018.

Click here for more details.