Art visual np2

Novelist Amanda Smyth. Photo by Lee Thomas. Her first novel, Black Rock,  was this month nominated for an  NAACP Image Award for best work of fiction by a debut author. Trinidadian/Irish novelist Amanda Smyth will vie for the honour alongside the likes of Whoopi Goldberg and Marlon James (who are also nominated in the literature categories) not to mention dozens nominated in other categories like Denzel Washington, Morgan Freeman and Sandra Bullock. As she celebrated, Smyth took a moment to tell PLEASURE about the writing life, her highly anticipated second book, her past career as an actress and the toll of being split between Trinidad and the UK. Her interview is the tenth in a series of interviews on this blog featuring Trinidad artists. FIND the full interview here . READ an extract from Black Rock here .

WHO? I was born in Ireland, on the west coast. My father was a musician and my Trinidadian mother was young and in love, but she was also homesick. When they broke up, my mother decided that we (my brother and I) should go back to Trinidad. But it was the early 70s and there was trouble brewing. So instead, she hopped across the Irish Sea to England. I grew up in Yorkshire, but the three of us came to Trinidad every summer to see my grandparents, cousins, uncles and aunts. I always hated leaving. I still hate leaving. I’m really pleased that my husband, Lee, loves Trinidad, too. That could’ve been tricky. WHAT? I’m sure there was a high price for this kind of life – one foot in England and one in Trinidad. And in some ways we’re still paying it now. Our family is scattered, and that’s tough when something happens - good or bad, because you want to share it with them. What to do? WHEN+WHERE? I was an actress in my twenties, in TV and commercials. I was in a movie called Savage Hearts (1...

The novel's cover is a detail from 'Grand Rivere' (2001-2002) by Trinidad-based British artist Peter Doig.  "There were no answers. I had nothing. There was only heat and the bright light that made that kind of heat. There was no shade, nowhere to rest, nowhere that the sun was not. You follow your life, you don't lead your life. I could sing with pain. Sing so high, high, high. Would my mother hear my singing? Once I had nothing. Now I had less than nothing. My whole life. My whole life I wanted to know my father. I wanted him more than anybody. More that Dr Emmanuel Rodiguez. I shall never know happiness. The light was on the other side of the world, in Southhampton, England. All my life I stepped towards it, little steps. I was halfway there and then I sank. The light pulled me from my darkness. I remembered the light when everything was bad. And now you put out the light. Just like that. I had less than nothing. It couldn't be like this. It couldn't be ...