Nicholas Laughlin (born 6 May 1975)"In brief"
Nicholas Laughlin's website. is a writer and editor from

Trinidad and Tobago Trinidad and Tobago, officially the Republic of Trinidad and Tobago, is the southernmost island country in the Caribbean, comprising the main islands of Trinidad and Tobago, along with several List of islands of Trinidad and Tobago, smaller i ...

. He has been editor of ''

The Caribbean Review of Books ''The Caribbean Review of Books'', or ''CRB'', is a literary magazine based in Port of Spain, Trinidad, reviewing books of Caribbean interest—by Caribbean authors or about the Caribbean—and publishing original fiction, poetry, and other liter ...

'' since 2004, and also edits the arts and travel magazine ''

Caribbean Beat ''Caribbean Beat'', founded in 1992, is a bimonthly magazine, published in Port of Spain, Trinidad, covering the arts, culture and society of the Caribbean, with a focus on the region's English-speaking territories. It is distributed in-flight by ...

''. He is the festival and programme director of the

NGC Bocas Lit Fest The NGC Bocas Lit Fest is the Trinidad and Tobago literary festival that takes place annually during the last weekend of April in Port of Spain. Inaugurated in 2011, it is the first major literary festival in the southern Caribbean and largest lit ...

, having worked alongside founder and managing director

Marina Salandy-Brown Marina Salandy-Brown FRSA, Hon. Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature, FRSL, is a Trinidad & Tobago, Trinidadian journalist, broadcaster and cultural activist. She was formerly an editor and Senior Manager in Radio and News and Current Affair ...

since 2011.

Biography

Nicholas Laughlin was born and brought up in

Port of Spain Port of Spain ( ; Trinidadian and Tobagonian English, Trinidadian English: ''Port ah Spain'' ) is the capital and chief port of Trinidad and Tobago. With a municipal population of 49,867 (2017), an urban population of 81,142 and a transient dail ...

, Trinidad, where he is still based. He studied English at the

University of the West Indies The University of the West Indies (UWI), originally University College of the West Indies, is a public university system established to serve the higher education needs of the residents of 18 English-speaking countries and territories in t ...

St Augustine Augustine of Hippo ( , ; ; 13 November 354 – 28 August 430) was a theologian and philosopher of Berbers, Berber origin and the bishop of Hippo Regius in Numidia (Roman province), Numidia, Roman North Africa. His writings deeply influenced th ...

, and after graduating briefly worked as a sub-editor at the ''

Trinidad Guardian The ''Trinidad and Tobago Guardian'' (together with the ''Sunday Guardian'') is the oldest daily newspaper in Trinidad and Tobago. The paper is considered the newspaper of record for Trinidad and Tobago. The slogan of the paper is ''The Guardia ...

''. He was later employed by ''

'', becoming the magazine's editor in 2003. He also worked on reviving ''

'' (CRB), and the first issue of the reincarnated journal, of which he is editor, was published in May 2004. He also co-edits ''Town'', "a modest literary magazine". He edited a volume of early essays by C. L. R. James entitled ''Letters from London'' (2003, Prospect Press), and in 2009 a revised and expanded edition of V. S. Naipaul's family correspondence, entitled ''Letters between a Father and Son'' (published by Picador). Laughlin served as programme director of Trinidad's annual

since its founding in 2011 by

."Our Team"
NGC Bocas Lit Fest. He is also a co-director, with Sean Leonard and Christopher Cozier, of the non-profit contemporary art space Alice Yard, in Port of Spain. Laughlin has written book reviews, essays, profiles of writers and reportage for a range of outlets, including the ''

'', the ''Trinidad and Tobago Review'', ''Caribbean Beat'', the ''

Stabroek News The ''Stabroek News'' is a privately owned newspaper published in Guyana. It takes its name from ''Stabroek'' , the former name of Georgetown, Guyana. It was first published in November 1986, first as a weekly but it later changed to a daily pri ...

'', and the ''CRB''. Also a poet, he is the author of the collection ''The Strange Years of My Life'' (

Peepal Tree Press Peepal Tree Press is a publisher based in Leeds, England which publishes Caribbean, Black British, and South Asian fiction, non-fiction, poetry, drama and academic books. Poet Kwame Dawes has said: "Peepal Tree Press's position as the leading pu ...

, 2015). He co-edited (with Nailah Folami Imoja) the anthology ''So Many Islands: Stories from the Caribbean, Mediterranean, Indian and Pacific Oceans'' (Peekash Press, 2018). As of January 2022, Laughlin has been the festival and programme director of the NGC Bocas Lit Fest, with founder Salandy-Brown remaining as the festival's president.

Bibliography

* ''The Strange Years of My Life'' (

, 2015), * As editor (with Nailah Folami Imoja), ''So Many Islands: Stories from the Caribbean, Mediterranean, Indian and Pacific Oceans'' (Peekash Press, 2018),

Selected shorter writings

* "Fire next time", ''Trinidad and Tobago Review'', November 2005
"What 'Caribbean' can mean"
Guyana ''Arts Journal'', volume 2, number 2, March 2006. * "Imaginary islands", ''The Caribbean Review of Books'', May 2006.

''The Caribbean Review of Books'', November 2006.
"The distraction of Walcott vs Naipaul"
''

The Guardian ''The Guardian'' is a British daily newspaper. It was founded in Manchester in 1821 as ''The Manchester Guardian'' and changed its name in 1959, followed by a move to London. Along with its sister paper, ''The Guardian Weekly'', ''The Guardi ...

'', 5 June 2008.
"V.S. Naipaul: the writer as 'last free man
in Michael A. Bucknor and

Alison Donnell Alison Donnell is an academic, originally from the United Kingdom. She is currently Professor of Modern Literatures in English and Head of School of Humanities at the University of Bristol. Donnell was previously Professor of Modern Literatures ...

(eds), ''The Routledge Companion to Anglophone Caribbean Literature'', 2011.
"There Are No Islands Without the Sea"
in Tatiana Flores and Michelle A. Stephens (eds), ''Relational Undercurrents: Contemporary Art of the Caribbean Archipelago'', 2017.
"Remembering Derek Walcott (1930–2017) , Icon"
''Caribbean Beat'', Issue 145 (May/June 2017).

References

External links

Nicholas Laughlin's website

reviews, essays, and other writing by Nicholas Laughlin.
Nicholas Laughlin's blog etc.
* Kelly Baker Josephs
"The Democracy of Ideas: A Conversation with Nicholas Laughlin"
'' SX Salon'' 3, February 2011. *

Vahni Capildeo Vahni Anthony Ezekiel Capildeo (born Surya Vahni Priya Capildeo, 1973) is a Trinidad and Tobago-born British writer, and a member of the extended Capildeo family that has produced notable Trinidadian politicians and writers (including V. S. Nai ...

"Day 21 :: Vahni Capildeo on Nicholas Laughlin :: At Full Ariel Tilt"
''The Operating System'', 21 April 2014. * Anu Lakhan
"a strange conversation"
(interview), ''sx salon'' 21, February 2016. * Zakiya McKenzie
"Listen to interview with Nicholas Laughlin, Programme Director of NGC Bocas Lit Fest"
''Caribbean Literary Heritage'', 25 May 2018. {{DEFAULTSORT:Laughlin, Nicholas Living people 1975 births Anthologists Festival directors Literary editors Scholars of Caribbean literature Trinidad and Tobago male non-fiction writers Trinidad and Tobago non-fiction writers Trinidad and Tobago poets University of the West Indies alumni Writers from Port of Spain