“Writing Children, Writing Ourselves”: Janet Morrison, Jean Hawthorn-DaCosta & Juleus Ghunta

Janet Morrison is the BBC Award-winning radio playwright of The Fisherman (2012), and the writer, producer, and director of the short feature Silent Hearts (2016), a JAFTA Propella Winner. In 2015 she won the Jean D’Costa Award at the Lignum Vitae Writing Awards with her collection of short stories, A Different Me A Better You. They were subsequently published by Blue Banyan Books and shortlisted at the 2021 Bocas Literary Festival. Morrison hopes that the heroes in the stories, who are children with disabilities, will help to empower any child who feels they are somehow different from others.

Jean Hawthorn-DaCosta was born in Manchester, Jamaica, a country for which she has a strong love and devotion. She is an educator, entrepreneur, author and all-round advocate of developing beautiful relationships between children and reading. She is the author of children’s books such as Jamaica in my Tummy, My Toilet is Bigger Than Yours, and Leroy: Adventures of a Yaad Boy (Banyan Books). She hopes her books will stimulate a love for reading and a deep appreciation for her beautiful Jamaica in children. She is also the host and founder of the Wordykids Book Club. In Leroy, which Hawthorn-DaCosta says was inspired by “watching my son and his friends at play, readers experience a day in the life of the title character. A celebration of fun, friendship, and boyhood, the story highlights Leroy’s cultural identity, defying stereotypes while showcasing those attributes that make him and his friends uniquely Jamaican.

Juleus Ghunta is a Chevening Scholar, poet, and an advocate in the Caribbean’s adverse childhood experiences (ACEs) movement, where his work explores the links between toxic stress and academic underachievement. His poems and essays on ACEs have appeared in more than 30 journals across 15 countries. He also wrote the picture book Tata and the Big Bad Bull and is the co-editor of the issues of Interviewing the Caribbean Journal (The UWI Press) focused on children’s literature and ACEs in the Caribbean. Sinister Shadows haunts Rohan Bullkin, fueling his fear of reading. He hates books so much, he often rips their pages. But when the Shadows become intolerable, Rohan accepts an offer of friendship from a special book. It’s the beginning of a remarkable journey during which he not only learns how to conquer Shadows, but also develops a love of books and life. Rohan Bullkin and the Shadows: A Story about ACEs and Hope (Cas), illustrated by Rachel Moss, aims to help children and adults to explore their ACEs and help others develop a deeper understanding of the symptoms of toxic stress and how they can help those who need support.

Opal Palmer Adisa, Ph.D., is a Jamaica-born writer who has authored poetry, prose, novels, essays, and plays. She has 24 titles to her credit, including The Storyteller’s Return: Story Poems and Portia Dreams, a children’s biography of Portia Simpson Miller, Jamaica’s first female prime minister. She is also the editor of the anthology 100+ Voices for Miss Lou (The UWI Press). A gender specialist and cultural activist, Palmer Adisa has lectured and read/performed her work throughout the United States, South Africa, Ghana, Nigeria, Kenya, Germany, Spain, France, England, Prague, Italy, and Bosnia.