CC Book Club: In Conversation with Sara Collins
On Tuesday, 28 November at 6pm GMT, CC Book Club hosts a 60-minute Virtual Yard Meeting* featuring special guest, Sara Collins, writer of the critically-acclaimed novel, The Confessions of Frannie Langton. The adaptation of her debut novel was also commissioned by ITV and produced by Drama Republic. Sara, a former barrister, is of Jamaican descent and grew up in the Cayman Islands (bio below).
Join us to hear more about Sara’s journey as a writer, learn more about what she’s currently working on and ask questions during this community chat which will be hosted by CC Book Club Lead Antonio Arch and Cayman Connection Founder and Board Director, Kate Kandiah. Register here.
*Please note: content being discussed is for mature audiences. We are Mental Health First Aiders at Cayman Connection, and committed to creating safe and welcoming programmes, events, and content. We are sensitive to a topic’s potential to cause emotional or physiological distress in members, some of whom may have shared feedback on the topic or individual triggers. We also welcome your feedback on content warnings. Content warnings are not ever used with the intent to censor discussion, only intended to help anyone managing anxiety to prepare to engage with potentially distressing material. Tonight’s discussion may reference slavery and trauma, racism/shadism, eugenics and mutilation, child, physical, sexual and racially motivated abuse, drug misuse and addiction.
Guest Sara Collins
Sara studied law at the London School of Economics before qualifying as a barrister in 1994. She worked as a lawyer for seventeen years before obtaining a Master’s degree in creative writing with distinction from Cambridge University in 2016, where she was the recipient of the Michael Holroyd prize.
Prior to publication, The Confessions of Frannie Langton was shortlisted for the Lucy Cavendish prize. It was published in 2019 by Penguin in the UK and Harper Collins in the US to critical acclaim. The novel was a Times bestseller and has been sold for translation into more than fifteen languages, as well as being adapted for television, and making an appearance in numerous ‘best of’ lists by Oprah magazine, The Guardian, The Observer, Amazon, Apple, and Essence, to name a few. It was shortlisted for a British Book Award and the winner of the Costa First Novel Award.
Sara is also a literary critic, writing for The Guardian and The Washington Post, among others, as well as a screenwriter and broadcaster. She has been a frequent contributor and guest host on BBC Radio 4.
Host Antonio Arch
Antonio has written and edited content for industry, non-profit, travel, lifestyle, government, and the third sector. His writing has appeared in Mondaq, The Caribbean Writer, Medium, Cayman Marl Road, and the Camana Bay Times.
He recently completed an MFA at the Manchester Writing School, and is currently a PhD researcher in the School of Arts & Humanities at the University of Huddersfield, where he co-teaches a course on contemporary life writing.
Host Kate Kandiah
Kate read an English literature Bachelor of Arts Degree at Trinity College in Dublin, Ireland, specialising in Post-Colonial Literature and Slave Narrative. She gained a First honours grade for her dissertation entitled “Go Ena Kumbla…” – Exploring the Spiritual Roots of Jamaican Consciousness, through examining Erna Brodber’s Literary Representations of Hybridised Spirit Realms.
Kate went on to study a Master’s Degree at Birkbeck University in London, in the History of International and Political Relations specialising in the History of Imperialism and Post-Colonial Societies. Kate’s final Master’s dissertation was written on Cultural Identity, Political Relations and Development in the United Kingdom Overseas Territories, exploring specifically the quest for economic success and political development whilst maintaining and preserving cultural identities in British Overseas.
Kate founded Cayman Connection in 2012 in conjunction with CIGO-UK and DOT, established the UK social enterprise not-for-profit CIC in 2018 and the Cayman Islands Non-Profit-Organisation for Cayman Connection in 2021.