45 - Dante's Old South Radio Show (January 2023)

 Kendel Hippolyte was born in Castries, St. Lucia, in 1952. In the 1970s he studied and lived in Jamaica, receiving a BA from the University of the West Indies in 1976. Hippolyte is the author of several books of poetry, including Fault Lines (Peepal Tree Press, 2012), Night Vision (Triquarterly Books/Northwestern University Press, 2005), and Birthright (Peepal Tree Press, 1997). Of his work, Kwame Dawes writes, “One gets the sense of a writer working in a laboratory patiently, waiting for the right image to come, and then placing it there only when it comes.” Hippolyte, who is also a playwright and a director, is known for writing in Standard English, the varieties of Caribbean English, and in Kewyol, his national language. He is the editor of Confluence: Nine St. Lucian Poets (The Source, 1988) and the author of several plays, including The Drum-Maker in 1976 and Triptych in 2000. With his wife, the poet Jane King, he founded the Lighthouse Theatre Company in St. Lucia in 1984. In 2000, Hippolyte received the St. Lucia Medal of Merit for his service in the arts. He is also the recipient of the Bridget Jones Travel Award and Minvielle; Chastanet Fine Arts Awards in both literature and directing, among other honors and awards. Hippolyte taught theater arts and literature at Sir Arthur Lewis Community College from 1992 to 2007. He lives in St. Lucia.  www.poets.org/poet/kendel-hippolyte  Dinty W. Moore is author of the memoirs Between Panic & Desire and To Hell With It, and the writing guides Crafting the Personal Essay and The Mindful Writer, among other books. He has been published in Harpers, The New York Times Sunday Magazine, The Philadelphia Inquirer Magazine, Creative Nonfiction, The Southern Review, Kenyon Review, The Georgia Review, and Utne Reader, among numerous other venues. Dinty lives just on the edge of Philadelphia. He is deathly afraid of polar bears. www.dintywmoore.com David Armand was born and raised in Louisiana. He has worked as a drywall hanger,a draftsman, and as a press operator in a flag printing factory.  From 2017-2019, he served as Writer-in-Residence at Southeastern Louisiana University, where he is currently assistant professor of creative writing. In 2010, he won the George Garrett Fiction Prize for his first novel, The Pugilist's Wife, which was published by Texas Review Press. He has since published three more novels, three collections of poetry, and a memoir.  His latest book, Mirrors, is forthcoming from the University of Louisiana at Lafayette Press.  www.davidarmandauthor.com Music by: Jump Little Children: www.jumplittlechildren.com Lettuce: https: www.lettucefunk.com Special Thanks Goes to: Mercer University Press: www.mupress.org Woodbridge Inn: www.woodbridgeinnjasper.com Autism Speaks: www.autismspeaks.org Mostly Mutts: www.mostlymutts.org The Red Phone Booth: www.redphonebooth.com Liberty Trust Hotel: https: www.libertytrusthotel.com The host, Clifford Brooks’, The Draw of Broken Eyes & Whirling Metaphysics and Athena Departs are available everywhere books are sold. His chapbook, Exiles of Eden, is only available through my website. To find them all, please reach out to him at: [email protected] Check out his Teachable courses on thriving with autism and creative writing as a profession here: www.brooks-sessions.teachable.com