Kenneth Ramchand, feature speaker at Heritage Library’s 50 Years of Imaginative Literature in Trinidad and Tobago programme hosted at the National Library“Since political independence in 1962, over two hundred books of fiction (novels and collections of short stories) by writers from Trinidad and Tobago have been published.  These books speak to us in the way only art can speak, about ourselves, our social world, the worlds of other peoples, and the universe, sometimes all at the same time.”

This statement was made by Professor Kenneth Ramchand at the lecture and launch of the exhibition 50 Years of Imaginative Literature in Trinidad and Tobago, hosted in July at the National Library by the Heritage Library Division, Nalis, in commemoration of the fiftieth anniversary of Trinidad and Tobago’s independence.

Professor Kenneth Ramchand, Professor Emeritus of West Indian Literature at UWI and Professor Emeritus of English at Colgate University (New York), with over forty (40) years of academic experience, also added that the books, in chronological order, provide (in a sense) an intimate and deep sense of what independence has meant to us as a people and as individuals, and of what has happened to the euphoria attached to the flag-raising of that day in 1962.

The 50 Years of Imaginative Literature of Trinidad and Tobago exhibition featured the biographies, photographs and books of Trinidad and Tobago award winning and celebrated authors, including: V.S. Naipaul, Earl Lovelace, Andre Alexis, Antoni Roberts, Neil Bissondath, Rosa Guy, Rabindranath Maharaj, Shiva Naipaul, Shani Mootoo, Dr. Elizabeth Nunez, Balkrishna Naipaul, Michael Anthony, Marlene Nourbese Philip, Lawrence Scott, John Stewart, Nalo Hopkinson and Joanne Haynes.
 
The public is encouraged to visit the Heritage Library, second floor, National Library to read the aforementioned books as well as to research information relevant to Trinidad and Tobago’s Independence.