MARIGOT:--- Max Rippon, the Marie-Galante novelist and poet was in St. Martin on what turned out to be a mini-working visit over the Easter weekend, said Shujah Reiph, St. Martin Book Fair coordinator.
“The growing number of young and famous Guadeloupean writers coming to the St. Martin Book Fair is directly related to the promotion on radio and in literary meetings in Guadeloupe that Max has been doing over the years about our book fair,” said Reiph.
On Sunday, Rippon took time out of his short family vacation to meet with Reiph and Lasana M. Sekou from the House of Nehesi Publishers (HNP).
“We discussed a major Guadeloupean writer that Max is helping to secure for the book fair in June; and he proposed his own workshop presentation,” said Reiph.
“Max is also very interested in publishing his new book in St. Martin with House of Nehesi Publishers, and he discussed that with Lasana,” said Reiph.
“I want to give something to St. Martin,” said Rippon about the new book. The author said that the manuscript will be completed over the next month. He said that the book will include stories about St. Martiners that he met in Pointe-à-Pitre, Guadeloupe, some 60 years ago – when he too was a very young student in a strange new world of school and away from his island’s traditional village.
Max Rippon is scheduled to be a guest writer of the 14th annual St. Martin Book Fair, June 2 – 4, 2016. “Max is always popularly received by the Book Fair Committee, the organizers, by the school children, and by the guests that turn out for the international literary readings on the Friday evening. Max is like a godfather for our book fair,” said Reiph.
Rippon’s childhood novel Le Dernier Matin and his other books are taught in schools in Guadeloupe, St. Martin, Martinique, and Cayenne.
The St. Martin Book Fair 2016 is organized by Conscious Lyrics Foundation and HNP, in collaboration and with
St. Maarten Tourist Bureau, the University of St. Martin, and LCF Foundation. Each year the opening of the literary festival alternates between both capitals of St. Martin; and this year the opening ceremony will be in the South, said Reiph.
Max Rippon promotes St. Martin Book Fair in Guadeloupe.
