We inaugurate this new JWIL blog with Michael R. Soriano reflecting upon the launch of the exciting new digital publishing initiative Machineel + Seagrape, an open-access journal founded by Kelly Baker Josephs and dedicated to the publication of Caribbean plays. As we approach the fortieth anniversary of the JWIL project, which was founded in 1986, we are looking backwards with an impulse to preserve the record of work that has gone before to build the field of Caribbean literary studies, as well as looking forward to the new stages of life and community building for the journal that lie ahead.
We imagine this blog as a space for reflection on past and ongoing innovations in the field of Caribbean letters. The JWIL blog will be published quarterly. We invite proposals and submissions from our literary community for this blog series. As Josephs has noted, “The Caribbean blogosphere [has] recreated . . . a place to gather and discuss current events and longstanding issues of concern to Caribbean peoples and Caribbean literature” (225). We envision this blog operating in this way, offering insights into the behind-the-scenes work that goes into growing the field and as a space where we can highlight figures and texts, both past and present, whose contributions have not received the recognition they deserve.
This period in Caribbean literary culture is especially ripe for reflection as foundational figures join the ancestors and as key anniversaries come around. With JWIL, Peepal Tree Press, and Sister Vision Press all turning forty, and House of Nehesi Press turning forty-five, we are especially attentive to the field of Caribbean publishing and to the vital role that regionally oriented projects have in nurturing and sustaining intellectual community. We turn our attention in this first blog post to Machineel + Seagrape’s work to improve access to Caribbean drama, which has been one of the most accessible and popular forms of Caribbean literature for decades, but has also been among the most ephemeral in terms of preservation and circulation. We welcome you as readers and invite your proposals for future contributions.
Work Cited
Josephs, Kelly Baker. “Digital Yards: Caribbean Writing on Social Media and Other Digital Platforms.” Caribbean Literature in Transition, 1970–2020, edited by Ronald Cummings and Alison Donnell, Cambridge UP, 2021, pp. 219–34.
