Acknowledgements
I would like to thank and remember Rosalind
Wilkinson and Savitre Gangaram for their strength and for the legacy they left
of a large, caring family.
Thanks to my parents, Dr Lester Efebo
Wilkinson and Lucille Wilkinson, for your steady and enduring love and the
countless sacrifices. You are wonderful examples to me in life and you have
been awesome first readers.
Karma, Tony and Kwon, you are my safe space
and my comfort. I admire you and have learned from all three of you.
Thank you to Lincoln and family for
adventures shared and for helping me to grow.
I wish to thank my extended family of Aunts
and Uncles, who helped to raise me, cousins who were constant companions as we
grew and my god-children, nieces and nephews.
I want to thank my friends. Indeed, friends
help to shoulder the load and you have been steadfast. I also have the very
best neighbours and business partners.
I am grateful to my publishers, the UWI
Press, for a seamless and supportive publishing process. Thank you for
embracing this work and enabling me to be a part of the UWI Press legacy.
Special thanks to Ms Nadine Buckland and Ms Althea Brown of the UWI Press, who
guided me through the process.
Thank you to Mohammed Raffi and artist Dina
Poon Chong for your valuable contributions.
Similarly, I thank the following patrons of
literature – the Bocas Lit Fest, the Massy Foundation, the University of
Münster in Germany, Bookends, NALIS and the Ministry of Community Development,
Culture and the Arts – for helping to share my writing.
Very importantly, I must thank my writing
mentors including my father, Dr Efebo Wilkinson, as well as Professor Funso
Aiyejina, Rachel Manley and Dr Merle Hodge.
I am also grateful for the guidance and
support of Professor Paula Morgan, Professor Gordon Rohlehr, Dr Geraldine
Skeete, Dr Karen Sanderson Cole, Dr Scott Timcke, Dr David Mastey,
Professor Elizabeth Walcott-Hackshaw, Professor Ian Robertson, Dr Rose-Ann
Walker, Dr Genevieve Phagoo, Dr Gabrielle Hezekiah and Dr Suzanne Burke.
Special shout-out to my high school
teachers including Ms Kathleen Stroud, Ms Nicolette Laird Paddington and Ms
Lorraine Neves who challenged me to be better.
Further, to my students, you are one of my
greatest joys – even as I teach you, I learn from you.
And indeed, I am grateful to you, my
readers, for spending this time and giving yourself over to the experience of
this story.
Finally, all praise and thanks to the Most
High . . . yuh done know . . . who is always with us and is always for us.
