Zee Edgell’s Festival of San Joaquin back in print
Zee Edgell is one of Belize’s most successful writers, having gained international recognition with her first novel Beka Lamb. And this October, Edgell’s third book, the Festival of San Joaquin will be re-launched. The book was first published eleven years ago and tells the story of a Belizean woman convicted of manslaughter. According to Edgell, the novel went out of print several years ago, but is coming back by popular demand.
Zee Edgell, Author
“It was printed by Heinemann and it has been out of print about two or three years and then Macmillan Caribbean decided to republish it with a new cover—it’s a beautiful cover. You see the courthouse in the back because I never did like that original cover and then you see Luz Marina on the front of the cover. So it’s lovely and they wanted to republish it and so that’s what happened. It’s the same book, it’s just got a new cover and a new publisher.”
Kendra Griffith
“And you are hoping renewed interest?”
Zee Edgell
“I’m hoping renewed interest because people would always ask me for it and I’d say try the net. Then the net dried up, so there was nothing else—people wanted all kinds of money for one copy of Festival, I couldn’t afford to buy my own book. So now it’s going to be in a general release again.”
To celebrate the re-launch, Edgell’s daughter, Holly, and a local teacher, Natalie Williams Sedacy, are coordinating an essay competition for Belizean high school students. Interested persons are asked to write an essay on one of the following topics: Belize’s demographic changes, what men can do to reduce domestic violence, or the role of citizens and government in protecting Belize’s ecological heritage. In addition to a monetary prize and gift certificates, the winners will also get world wide publicity on the web.
Zee Edgell
“This was their own idea, a school competition, they’ve gotten all the judges, there will be wonderful prizes and the winning essay, Macmillan has said that they will publish the winning essay by a Belizean on their website and Macmillan is an international publisher, so that will be wonderful publicity for some young person and we’ll see if we can’t get their picture in there as well.”
Kendra Griffith
“What message would you like to send to young writers out there?”
Zee Edgell
“I think that the thing I could say is that you have to read a lot before you write. But what I would say to them is whoever you like to read most or whatever type of book you like to read, try and get your writing up to the standard of the book you like best. Because once you get to that standard; once you get your own writing up to that standard, you won’t have any problem finding a publisher. But what you have to do because you know yourself when you reach that standard. But once you know that your book is a good as something you read and write, what you have to do is find a market because not every publisher will publish every book. So you have to find a publisher to publish the kind of book that you write.”
Deadline for entry into the competition is September thirtieth. For further details and contest regulations, visit the website, zee edgell dot com or talk to your principal.
