Canadian Novelist is a product of San Ignacio

Belizean Author, Jorge David Awe, now lives in Canada, but he honors his hometown in his book “Essence and Folly”.  It is a collection of short stories that combines humor with a lesson in history and culture. Awe says that while they are fictional, the stories are a reflection of his younger years, growing up in San Ignacio. Essence and Folly was selected to be included in the i-Universe Rising Star Program, which recognizes excellence and potential in new writers. That distinction has contributed to what Awe calls an overall surreal experience in releasing his book. Awe told News Five in a telephone interview today that as a Belizean living abroad, he wanted to make a contribution to the growing collection of local literature while giving non-Belizeans a peak into the country’s culture.

Via Phone: Jorge David Awe, Belizean Author

“Essence and Folly is a collection of twelve Belizean short stories. It’s essentially childhood memoirs. It’s set in San Ignacio during the late seventies to I guess leading right up to independence and what it is, it’s an extension of what I lived—it’s primarily fiction. It’s, as I set, set in that time because those were very formative years for myself. I think if you’re familiar with the history of the late seventies and early eighties you had many Belizeans migrating abroad especially to the US and at the same time the country is pushing towards independence. So hopefully, that comes out in this book. There are two parallel quests taking place; I’m trying to situate myself and figure out who I am and at the same time Belize is trying to figure out what kind of country they’d like to become. That’s what it is in a nutshell.”

Delahnie Bain

“So why “Essence and Folly?”

Via Phone: Jorge David Awe

Jorge David Awe

“Essence and Folly, very good question. Essence and Folly is primarily because I believe life is part essence, part folly and also I believe that you can determine the essence of an individual through the silly little things that they do as much as you can through the significant things that they do.”

Delahnie Bain

“What inspired you to put these stories—to write this book?”

Via Phone: Jorge David Awe

“There are several things. I guess the real physical would be that I had a serious driving accident about seven years ago and that prompted me because I figured there are so many things about my childhood that I haven’t shared with my own kids. So it would be neat to record that, preserve it to them and I guess over the course of that exercise it started to take on a life of its own through sharing it with friends and that sort of stuff and I guess the eventual metamorphosis is that it ended up becoming what it is today.”

The book is available for sale on Amazon.com, but Awe says he is working on getting them into local bookstores. He will also be in Belize in January for the official launch and will have hardcopies for sale.