Vladimir Lucien (born 16 March 1988), ''ARC Magazine''. is a writer, critic and actor from

St. Lucia Saint Lucia is an island country of the West Indies in the eastern Caribbean. Part of the Windward Islands of the Lesser Antilles, it is located north/northeast of the island of Saint Vincent (Saint Vincent and the Grenadines), Saint Vincent ...

. His first collection of poetry, ''Sounding Ground'' (2014), won the Caribbean region's major literary prize for anglophone literature, the

OCM Bocas Prize for Caribbean Literature OCM Bocas Prize for Caribbean Literature, inaugurated in 2011 by the NGC Bocas Lit Fest, is an annual literary award for books by Caribbean writers published in the previous year.St. Lucia Saint Lucia is an island country of the West Indies in the eastern Caribbean. Part of the Windward Islands of the Lesser Antilles, it is located north/northeast of the island of Saint Vincent (Saint Vincent and the Grenadines), Saint Vincent ...

in the eastern Caribbean, Lucien grew up in the town of

Gros Islet Gros Islet (English: ''Large Island'') is a community near the northern tip of the island country of Saint Lucia, in the Gros Islet Quarter. Originally a quiet fishing village, it has become one of the more popular tourist destinations in the coun ...

on the island's north. He attended St Mary's College in

Castries Castries () is the capital city, capital and largest city of Saint Lucia, an island country in the Caribbean. The urban area has a population of approximately 20,000, while the eponymous Castries Quarter, district has a population of just under ...

(1999–2004), where he began his artistic career as an actor, starring in a number of productions.Shivanee Ramlochan
"The questioner: Vladimir Lucien"
''

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 ...

'', Issue 117 (September/October 2012). While in his third year reading literature and theatre arts 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 ...

(UWI), St Augustine campus, in

Trinidad Trinidad is the larger, more populous island of the Republic of Trinidad and Tobago, the country. The island lies off the northeastern coast of Venezuela and sits on the continental shelf of South America. It is the southernmost island in ...

, he was inspired by the groundbreaking Caribbean writer

Kamau Brathwaite Edward Kamau Brathwaite, CHB (; 11 May 1930 – 4 February 2020), was a Barbadian poet and academic, widely considered one of the major voices in the Caribbean literary canon.Staff (2011)"Kamau Brathwaite." New York University, Department of Co ...

, whom he appreciated as "a culturally engaged poet".Shivanee Ramlochan
"The questioner: Vladimir Lucien"
''

'', Issue 117 (September/October 2012). Lucien has stated: "I started writing poetry seriously when I started UWI in 2008. What I was writing before was coming from a very empty place and it was not much anyway."Leanne Haynes, , ''ARC Magazine'', 18 June 2014. Lucien has since had a great deal of success, with his work being published in journals and other publications, including '' Small Axe'', ''

Wasafiri ''Wasafiri'' is a quarterly British literary magazine covering international contemporary writing. Founded in 1984, the magazine derives its name from a Swahili word meaning "travellers" that is etymologically linked with the Arabic word "safari ...

'', ''

BIM Building information modeling (BIM) is an approach involving the generation and management of digital representations of the physical and functional characteristics of buildings or other physical assets and facilities. BIM is supported by vario ...

'' magazine, ''

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 ...

'', ''

Washington Square Review ''Washington Square Review'' (usually shortened to ''ON SQU'') is a nationally distributed literary magazine that publishes stories, poems, essays and reviews, many of which are later reprinted in annual anthologies. It is the graduate equiv ...

'', and the anthology ''Beyond Sangre Grande'', edited by

Cyril Dabydeen Cyril Dabydeen (born 1945) is a Guyana-born Canadian writer of Indian descent. He grew up in Rose Hall sugar plantation with the sense of Indian indenture rooted in his family background (he lived with his mother and with a grandmother in an ext ...

. Some of Lucien's poetry has been translated into other languages, appearing in Dutch in the literary magazine '' Tortuca'', in Italian in the journal ''El Ghibli'', and in Mandarin."Vladimir Lucien Poet. Biography"
Centre for Innovation in Teaching and Literature (CITL), 2018. Awards he has received awards include first prize in the poetry category of the Small Axe Prize 2013, and the overall

OCM Bocas Prize for Caribbean Literature OCM Bocas Prize for Caribbean Literature, inaugurated in 2011 by the NGC Bocas Lit Fest, is an annual literary award for books by Caribbean writers published in the previous year.Guyana Prize for Caribbean Literature Guyanese literature covers works including novels, poetry, plays and others written by people born or strongly-affiliated with Guyana. Formerly British Guiana, British language and style has an enduring impact on the writings from Guyana, which a ...

in 2015. He was the screenwriter of the documentary ''The Merikins'', which had its premiere at the

Trinidad and Tobago Film Festival The Trinidad and Tobago film festival (stylised as 'trinidad+tobago film festival' or 'ttff') is a film festival in the Anglophone Caribbean. It takes place annually in Trinidad and Tobago in the latter half of September, and runs for approximately ...

in 2013. He has participated in various international literary events, including at the Miami Book Fair, the Read My World Festival in

Amsterdam Amsterdam ( , ; ; ) is the capital of the Netherlands, capital and Municipalities of the Netherlands, largest city of the Kingdom of the Netherlands. It has a population of 933,680 in June 2024 within the city proper, 1,457,018 in the City Re ...

, the

Jaipur Literary Festival The Jaipur Literature Festival (JLF), often hailed as the "''greatest literary show on Earth''," is a renowned annual cultural and literary festival held in Jaipur, Rajasthan, India. Established in 2006 by writers Namita Gokhale and William Dal ...

, the

Brooklyn Book Festival The Brooklyn Book Festival is an annual book fair held in the fall in Brooklyn, New York (state), New York. It was begun in 2006 by Brooklyn Borough President Marty Markowitz, co-producers Liz Koch and Carolyn Greer who wanted to showcase the "B ...

, the

Calabash International Literary Festival The Calabash International Literary Festival, inaugurated in Jamaica in 2001, is a three-day festival that was held annually for its first decade, before being staged on a biennial basis on even years, until 2018. With the 2020 and 2022 festivals ...

, and in 2016 was Writer-in-Residence at the

(

Mona, Jamaica Mona is a neighbourhood in southeastern Saint Andrew Parish, Jamaica, Saint Andrew Parish, approximately eight kilometres from Kingston, Jamaica, Kingston, Jamaica. A former sugarcane Sugar plantations in the Caribbean, plantation, it is the sit ...

Reception

Reviewing Lucien's first book, Jamaican Poet Laureate

Mervyn Morris Mervyn Eustace Morris OM (born 21 February 1937) is a poet, writer, editor and professor emeritus at the University of the West Indies, Mona, Jamaica. His poetry is well respected throughout the Caribbean, which has consistently ranked him amon ...

described ''Sounding Ground'' as "an impressive collection", and said: "Building on personal and family experience, Lucien reflects and challenges the socio-cultural situation of St Lucia. The bulk of the book presents memorable individuals, recalled with compassion or in anger: story after story of severely limited horizons, a legacy of slavery and colonialism. ...What Lucien does well, and frequently, is persuade us he has known the experience of a range of St Lucians, now and in history; and that he deeply cares." In the ''Journal of West Indian Literature'', Laurence Breiner wrote: "A distinctive and recognizable voice runs through all of Lucien’s poems, but his tonal variety is both wide and protean. There is a seriousness in his work—even in his wit—which has to do with his respect for the heft of a people’s lived life, and not with any darkness of vision, or moodiness, or angst. His poems have the kind of life-energy to be found in any fresh shovelful of soil. This is poetry of the ground, of the yard and the schoolyard and the provision ground. Lucien digs deep, plants deep, and draws upon depths of resource. In nearly every one of these poems we sense power in reserve, presences that can be felt."

Selected writings

"Two poems"
("Even Here" and "The Nobodies of Never"), ''The Caribbean Review of Books'', No. 22, July 2010. * ''Sounding Ground'',

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 ...

, 2014, "Sounding Ground"
at Amazon. * Co-editor, ''Sent Lisi: Poems and Art of. St. Lucia'' (2014)
"Growing Up Under Walcott"
Peepal Tree Press blog, 20 March 2017.

References

External links

"A Conversation with Vladimir Lucien"
NGC Bocas Lit Fest. Youtube video. * * Nandini Majumdar
"Digging With My Pen: A Conversation With Saint Lucian Poet Vladimir Lucien"
''

The Wire ''The Wire'' is an American Crime fiction, crime Drama (film and television), drama television series created and primarily written by the American author and former police reporter David Simon for the cable network HBO. The series premiered o ...

'' (India), 4 February 2017.
"Sounding Ground"
at Peepal Tree Press. * Aurora Woods
"Sounding Ground" (review)
''Dundee Review of the Arts'' (''DURA''). * Canisia Lubrin
"The Writer in the World: The Mismanagement of Mystery with Vladimir Lucien"
''Open Book'', 18 October 2017. * Stan Bishop
"Vladimir Lucian’s Poetic Masterpiece"
''The Voice'' (St. Lucia), 13 April 2015. {{DEFAULTSORT:Lucien, Vladimir 1988 births 21st-century male writers 21st-century Saint Lucian poets Living people Saint Lucian male poets University of the West Indies alumni

Reception

Selected writings

See also

References

External links