Fri | Nov 21, 2025

Treasure Beach beckons for Calabash 2025

Literary festival returns with star power and soul

Published:Friday | May 23, 2025 | 12:06 AMPaul H. Williams/Gleaner Writer
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Host and author Padma Lakshmi (left), with fellow author Kwame Dawes, co-founder of the Calabash International Literary Festival at Calabash 2023.
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Host and author Padma Lakshmi (left), with fellow author Kwame Dawes, co-founder of the Calabash International Literary Festival at Calabash 2023.
Sally Henzell (right), artist and founder of Jakes Hotel, and her son Jason, chairman, Jakes Hotel, and his sister Justine (centre), co-founder and producer of the Calabash International Literary Festival, with her children (from left) Dylan and Drew Brenn
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Sally Henzell (right), artist and founder of Jakes Hotel, and her son Jason, chairman, Jakes Hotel, and his sister Justine (centre), co-founder and producer of the Calabash International Literary Festival, with her children (from left) Dylan and Drew Brennan in this 2023 file photograph.
Writer, poet and storyteller Amina Blackwood Meeks emanated pure joy at the last staging of the biennial festival.
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Writer, poet and storyteller Amina Blackwood Meeks emanated pure joy at the last staging of the biennial festival.
Yashika Graham, poet and Kool announcer, could not miss the chance to snap a picture on these iconic Calabash book spine steps in 2023.
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Yashika Graham, poet and Kool announcer, could not miss the chance to snap a picture on these iconic Calabash book spine steps in 2023.
Award-winning Jamaican author Safiya Sinclair reading from her ‘Cannibal’ book of poetry at Calabash 2018.
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Award-winning Jamaican author Safiya Sinclair reading from her ‘Cannibal’ book of poetry at Calabash 2018.
Angelina Jolie listens attentively at the 2023 Calabash International Literary Festival in Treasure Beach.
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Angelina Jolie listens attentively at the 2023 Calabash International Literary Festival in Treasure Beach.
Fifteen-month-old Sage stirred quite an interest while browsing through a book when she and her parents attended Calabash 2016 in Treasure Beach.
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Fifteen-month-old Sage stirred quite an interest while browsing through a book when she and her parents attended Calabash 2016 in Treasure Beach.
Dr Laurajan Obermuller (left), anthropologist, The University of the West Indies, Mona campus, and gal pal Zaneta Scott, environmental planner, Housing Agency of Jamaica, take shelter from the sun in large wide-brimmed floppy hats during the 2023 staging o
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Dr Laurajan Obermuller (left), anthropologist, The University of the West Indies, Mona campus, and gal pal Zaneta Scott, environmental planner, Housing Agency of Jamaica, take shelter from the sun in large wide-brimmed floppy hats during the 2023 staging of Calabash.
The affable Professor Carolyn Cooper again had the Calabash crowd captive with her ability to manage their time in the open mic segment during the 2018 staging of Calabash.
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The affable Professor Carolyn Cooper again had the Calabash crowd captive with her ability to manage their time in the open mic segment during the 2018 staging of Calabash.
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From Friday, May 23 to Sunday, May 25, the idyllic community of Treasure Beach in St Elizabeth will be teeming with patrons, producers and participants as the 2025 iteration of the Calabash Literary Festival unfolds at Calabash Bay, under the theme, ‘Bless Up’. There is no entry fee for Calabash – a confluence of words and music since its 2001 inception.

Among the throng will be Award-winning poet, novelist, essayist, short story writer and broadcaster Kei Miller; Emmy, Critic’s Choice, Independent Spirit Award-winner, ‘Hollywood Walk of Famer’, actress and singer, Sheryl Lee Ralph; and Safiya Sinclair, the international bestselling author of the memoir How to Say Babylon, winner of the National Book Critics Circle Award and the OCM Bocas Prize for Caribbean Literature.

Alexia Arthurs, Mateo Askaripour, Candice Carty-Williams, Mary-Alice Daniel, Hernan Diaz, Christopher John Farley, Caleb Femi, Alexandra Fuller, Tao Leigh Goffe, Kimiko Hahn, Paul Holdengräber, Shehan Karunatilaka, Thabile Makue, Ian McEwan, Michael Ondaatje, George Pelecanos, Harold Schechter, Mahtem Shiferraw, Danez Smith, and Maxine Walters, too, are expected to bring value to the popular event, the biggest literary festival in the English-speaking Caribbean.

Add to that list, too, some of Jamaica’s best-known literati, including multi-award-winning author and poet Jason Allen-Paisant; Dr Carolyn Cooper, The University of the West Indies, Mona campus, professor emerita of literary and cultural studies; multi-award-winning author and poet Kwame Dawes, co-founder of the festival; three-time bestselling author Beverley East; 2015 Booker Prize-winner Marlon James; and two-time (Caribbean) regional winner of the Commonwealth Short Story prize, novelist Diana McCaulay.

The word feast serves off on Friday at 7 p.m. in a segment dubbed ‘Truth and Dare’, in which Alexandra Fuller and Safiya Sinclair speak on ‘Memoir – (re)claim Your Story’. They will be followed by Mary-Alice Daniel, Thabile Makue and Mahtem Shiferraw in ‘Writing A Continent’, poetry from the African Poetry Book Fund.

Before the bewitching midnight hour, it shall be ‘Two The Hard Way’ when George Pelecanos and Harold Schechter talk about ‘Noir Fiction: The Secrets that lie in the heart’. And, when midnight rolls around, ‘Midnight Ravers’ becomes alive featuring Zac Jones, Jaz Elise, Mortimer and special guest artistes.

At 2 a.m. on Saturday, the noise will go to sleep, until 10 a.m. when ‘Lovers Rock’ tells ‘Short stories long on love’ through the voices of Alexia Arthurs, Mateo Askaripour and Diana McCaulay. Then, what will Michael Ondaatje and Paul Holdengraber talk about in ‘Reasoning at 11:30? And, how will Professor Carolyn Cooper deal with the ‘open mic’, which she will control at 1:15?

Jason Allen-Paisant, Candice Carty-Williams and Tao Leigh Goffe will tell the gathering what they mean when they say ‘All Memory is Fiction – The past is present’, starting at 2:30 p.m.. More ‘Reasoning’, between Marlon James and Ian McEwan, takes over the stage before Professor Cooper returns with her open mic. The venue will be on ‘Lyrical Fyah’ at 8 p.m. as Caleb Femi, Kimiko Hahn and Danez Smith will be ‘poetry blazing and simmering’.

Hernan Diaz, Christopher John Farley and Shehan Karunatilaka will have ‘So much things to say’ about fiction, fantasy and fact until 11:30. After the 30-minute break, from midnight until 2 a.m., Bad Gyal Marie and ZJ Liquid will spin ‘under the stars by the sea’ as they clash in ‘Cala-Clash’.

A literary breakfast will be at 10 on Sunday, and it comes in the form of a ‘Tribute reading of Annie John by Jamaica Kincaid’ by Beverley East, Kei Miller and Maxine Walters. For the lunch hour, Sheryl Lee Ralph will be having ‘A Conversation’ with Poet Laureate of Jamaica Kwame Dawes.

After that ‘Reasoning’, the mic will be opened again, this time for two hours. Then, Johnny Temple will host ‘Stories shared’ in the ‘Calabash Café Series’. The day, the weekend, the event climaxes from 3:30 p.m. to 5 p.m. with a musical tribute from the Calabash Acoustic Ensemble in observance of the 50th anniversary of Burning Spear’s album, Marcus Garvey.

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