The Department of Literatures in English, University of the West Indies, Mona will host the launch of Velma Pollard’s latest collection of poetry, And Caret Bay Again: New and Selected Poems on Sunday, March 17 at 11:00 a.m. at the Neville Hall Lecture Theatre (N1).The collection has been described as shaped by Pollard’s sense of her Jamaican homeland’s difficult history and unparalleled natural beauty. Critics have said that the poems reach the heart of Caribbean tragedy, both political and personal, without sentimentality, stridency, or loss of hope, celebrating what is enduring through a conversational and thought-provoking female voice. Recording the experience of travel and the moments at rest when there is space for contemplation, the poet not only reflects upon the inequalities of race and gender, but also writes with authenticity on the contemporary experiences of Jamaican and Caribbean life.Now retired, Velma Pollard is a former Dean of the Faculty of Education at UWI, as well as Senior Lecturer and Head, Department of Educational Studies. She writes both poetry and fiction and has previously published several collections, including Crown Point and Other poems (1988), Shame Trees Don’t Grow Here (1992) and Considering Woman 1 & 2 (2010). Her novella, Karl, received the Casa de las Americas prize in 1992. Velma is also well known for her 1994 landmark publication Dread Talk: The Language of Rastafari.Dr. Pollard’s research interests include Creole languages of the Anglophone Caribbean, the language of Caribbean literature and Caribbean women’s writing. In these areas she has often found sources of inspiration for her poetry, and has also been especially strongly affected by her visits to the Baths, Virgin Gorda, British Virgin Islands and Caret Bay, St. Thomas, U.S. Virgin Islands – for which she admits feeling an ‘obsession’ and from which she has taken the title of her latest publication. Contact: Rachel Moseley-WoodDepartment of Literatures in English, UWI, Mona927 2217