Interview with Geoffrey Philp
Geoffrey Philp was born in Kingston, Jamaica. He is the author of a children’s book, Grandpa Sydney’s Anancy Stories; a novel, Benjamin, My Son; two collections of short stories, Uncle Obadiah and the Alien and Who's Your Daddy?: And Other Stories, and six poetry collections: Exodus and Other Poems, Florida Bound, Hurricane center, Xango music, Twelve Poems and A Story for Christmas, and Dub Wise.His work has been anthologized in Small Axe, Asili, Gulf Stream, Florida in Poetry: A History of the Imagination, Wheel and Come Again: An Anthology of Reggae Poetry, Whispers from the Cotton Tree Root, the Oxford Book of Caribbean Short Stories and the Oxford Book of Caribbean Verse. Philp’s awards include an Individual Artist Fellowship from the Florida Arts Council, an artist-in-residence at the Seaside Institute, Sauza "Stay Pure" Award, Canute Brodhurst Prize, and most recently, the Daily News Prize (2009) from The Caribbean Writer.
He can be contacted through the following media:
Email: geoffreyphilp101@gmail.com
Blog: http://geoffreyphilp.blogspot.com
CLS: Mr. Philp, you have been blogging enthusiastically since 2005. What made you start doing it and how has it rewarded you?Geoffrey Philp: I began blogging at the suggestion of my daughter and the rewards have been tremendous. I am not only doing something that I love, but it has served as a viable platform for advertising my work.
CLS: On your blog, you dedicate a significant number of articles on Caribbean writers. What are your thoughts on the present volume and quality of prose and poetry produced in the Caribbean?
Geoffrey Philp: I am amazed that we have so many active published writers in the Caribbean and its diaspora. The quality of the prose and poetry that has been produced in the past few years has been extraordinary. I’m thinking about, for example, the work of Jennifer Rahim, Frances Coke, Opal Palmer Adisa, Kwame Dawes, and Kei Miller to name a few.
I’m also gratified by the work of critics such as Heather Russell and Donna Aza Weir Soley, whose work has opened up a new critical appreciation of our writers.
CLS: You also teach class. Please tell us a little about that. How long have you been teaching and who are your students? What makes you love your work?
Geoffrey Philp: I have taught introductory creative writing classes to freshmen/sophomores at Miami Dade College and workshops for writers of every age for over twenty years now. Many students come into the class eager to express themselves, and they want to learn how to write short stories and poems. If they are willing, I teach them, for instance, the basics of a scene: narration, dialogue, setting, and point of view. One of the hardest things to do is to balance their exuberance against the cold hard fact of the craft which is writing and rewriting and rewriting…
Yet when they understand a simple concept such as character change through the beginning, middle, and end of the story, it makes everything worthwhile. I still receive books in the mail from students whenever they’ve published their first book or nth short story.Knowing that I have helped someone to follow his/her passion is a wonderful feeling and it's why I teach.
CLS: We have seen various genres from your hand, among others short fiction, children’s books and poetry. Do you have a preference for any of these genres?
Geoffrey Philp: My writing starts with either an idea or a phrase or a character. The type of idea, phrase, or characters determines whether or not I will write a poem, children’s book, or short story. And then sometimes, I am fooled. The poem becomes a short story or the short story becomes a novel.
CLS: How has growing up in Jamaica influenced your writing and outlook on life?
Geoffrey Philp: Growing up in Jamaica, especially being a part of the post-Independence generation, has had a profound effect on my life. I grew up at a time when there was widespread disillusionment with the promises of Independence and at a time of growing social unrest that saw the movement of Rastafari from the ghettos into the middle class. It was also a time of tremendous creative expression. I’ve written about this period in this post: “A Terrible Beauty is Born”: Jamaica in the Seventies.
The concept of InI that is at the heart of Rastafari and reggae has influenced my life and my art in many ways. For example, Rastafari with its Afrocentric worldview made dig deep and to research the religions of West Africa. What I discovered was that the archetypal equivalents in Greek and Roman mythology existed in West African religions. Yet they also came with a difference.Xango may be compared to Mars, but his cultural significance-- how the archetype is unconsciously acted out by Caribbean men--was of great interest to me. And as Nicolette Bethel has said the role of the artist is to manifest “the subconscious elements of collective cultures." And if these elements are ignored, then the culture “has consigned itself to having its culture change on it without realizing, comprehending, or affecting that change."
This is just one of the ways that growing up in Jamaica during that period influenced me and I wouldn’t trade it for anything.
CLS: How did you come to writing anyway?
Geoffrey Philp: I started writing poetry and was encouraged by my literature teacher at Jamaica College, Dennis Scott, to continue. I’ve never stopped.
CLS: What is your writing routine? Do you write in the morning, or perhaps at night, at home, or elsewhere? Any rituals you'd like to share?
Geoffrey Philp: I write at home in the mornings and on the weekends. In some ways rituals are good because they steady the mind, but the only worthwhile ritual that I know is sitting down, booting up the computer and writing.
CLS: What are you working on now?
Geoffrey Philp: I’m working on a children’s book, Anancy’s Christmas Gift.
CLS: Thank you for your time Mr. Philp!
