Colin Channer: Jamaica’s Literary Renaissance Man
By – Odette Flemming

Just like the song that inspired the title, when Waiting in Vain burst on the scene in 1998 you knew it would be a hit. That now famous novel introduced Fire and Sylvia’s love affair to a West Indian culture hungry to see it self written back into contemporary literature. It had been four decades since that last Jamaican native had a best seller in the United States, and this novel, which was selected as a Critic’s Choice by The Washington Post, was worthy of the honor.

Colin Channer is a rare find in the world of contemporary literature, or literature in general. He is a highly intelligent, highly driven, extremely charming, and hysterically funny visionary. Born and raised in Jamaica Channer is infused with the influences of his early life. He was steeped in the tenets of Reggae music and grew up in a time of great songwriters like Gregory Isaacs and Dennis Brown. Channer’s lyrical writing style is a testament to his desire to create a catalog of fiction that likens itself to the catalog of Reggae music left behind by one of the genre’s best known storytellers: Bob Marley.

Since 1998 he has continued to build that catalog with his novella I’m Still Waiting (2000), his second novel titled Satisfy My Soul (2002), and, most recently, his first collection of short stories, Passing Through (2004). In Passing Through he takes complete creative license by setting these short stories on a fictional Caribbean island called San Carlos. The stories are all strung together in a sort of meandering journal that is punctuated by a narrator’s letters to the editor. These character’s lives span one hundred years and take you through an exciting mix of politics, religion, race, and power while never straying too far from the eternal search for passion, love, acceptance and understanding. Channer himself claims this as his best work to date and proudly states, “now I have a better sense of who I am as a writer and a human being.”

In a recent reading at Hue-Man Bookstore Channer was asked to compare himself to the field of contemporary Black authors that exist today. He refused to draw himself with so narrow a stroke saying, “You can’t ask a White author to compare himself to every other White author so why ask me? When I write it is simple, I write for the type of people I like to be around; smart people, worldly people. I believe writers should have standards.”

Colin Channer earned the right to be called a literary renaissance man. This man stays busy. He recently began his nationwide book tour for Passing Through on the heels of his Calabash International Literary Festival held annually in Jamaica’s Treasure Beach. This festival is his brainchild and brings into fruition his vision of a venue where the world’s best writers come to relax, teach and learn from one another. Most importantly Calabash is enlivening his dream to support the creative ascent of Jamaica’s youth. Forty scholarships were awarded in 2004 to support Jamaican students while they develop writing skills.

Channer wears his success with humility, poise, candor and grace, and is easily one of the wittiest men around. He is a man of the people who writes the human experience with a lyricist’s ear, a sociologist’s mind, and a rude bwoy’s pen.

For more information on any of his books visit: www.colinchanner.com and for festival information visit: www.calabashfestival.org