Book of Cinz: "The mission is to get persons to read, read more and Read Caribbean. "
June is the Caribbean-heritage month. In 2019, blogger and bookstagrammer Cindy started the #ReadCaribbean challenge. For this second year, I applied to be an ambassador. For those of you who, just like me, are new to this bookstagram game, I asked Cindy a few questions to have a better understanding of what #ReadCaribbean is about.
Hello Cindy. Can you introduce yourself to the Karukerament readers?
Hello, I am Cindy, a Jamaican living in Trinidad and Tobago. I am a book blogger, bookstagrammer and I run a book club. The mission is to get persons to read, read more and Read Caribbean.
I know you like traveling. Have you ever been to a French Caribbean island?
Unfortunately, I have not visited the French Caribbean but Guadeloupe and Martinique are top on my list.
So let’s dive right in. If you were to describe yourself as a reader with three words, which words would you use?
Widely and Deeply Read.
Do you remember your first Caribbean reading experience?
I think my first Caribbean reading experience was me reading “The Wooing of Beppo Tate”, I can distinctly remember how great the feeling was to read a book that's set in a place I know intimately.
How and when did #Readcaribbean get started?
Read Caribbean got started in June 2019. I remember researching whether the Caribbean had a date when it was celebrated internationally and that is when I came across Caribbean Heritage Month. I thought it would be great to have a month where we read Caribbean and highlight Caribbean authors.
For you, what were the highlights of Year 1?
I think the highlight for me was seeing people embracing the Read Caribbean challenge. I was fairly new to Bookstagram and I wasn’t sure how to navigate that space and whether people would be interested. I saw the Read Caribbean hashtag go from 400 post to over 3,200 today.
This is awesome indeed! So, what can we expect for this Year 2 ?
This year we have way more read Caribbean ambassadors who will be highlighting the initiative on their platforms. We have publishing houses getting involved, author interviews and a lot of giveaways.
Thank you Cindy! Make sure you’ll go and visit her blog bookofcinz.com and follow her on Instagram and Twitter @bookofcinz. See you in June for the Readcaribbean Challenge.