Zee Edgell opens literature congress

Belizean novelist Zee Edgell is back home, this time as special guest of the Ninth International Congress of Central American Literature underway at the Princess Hotel. The congress opened last evening and News 5 took time out to speak to Edgell about the event as well as her next novel.

Zee Edgell, Belizean Novelist

“I was thrilled. I think a congress like this is very important. It says something to Belize and it says something about Belize. I think it says to Belize that people now know that we are an independent country in Central America and it also says that because of our university, the University of Belize, that scholars are now beginning to take Belize far more seriously then they did in the past.”

“I’m trying to write it from different points of view, so instead of seeing everything through the eyes of one character, I hope to be able to show it through some of the slaves, some of the free people of colour and also some of the British settlers that were here and different people like that.”

Ann-Marie Williams

“Is this a work of fiction or non-fiction, and when should we expect it more or less?”

Zee Edgell

“Well I call it a work of fiction, but I based it on several historical events that I read about in the histories researched by the Historical Society, by a lot of agencies, and I’ve also done some of my own work at the Belize Archives.”

Ann-Marie Williams

“What type of protagonist are we seeing?”

Zee Edgell

“I’m going to have a female protagonist, but I’m going to have a male co-protagonist who is a slave.”

Edgell, who is an associate professor in English at Kent State University in Ohio, has penned three novels: “Becka Lamb” for which she won the Faucet Book Prize in England, “In Times like These” and “Festival of San Joaquin.”