Laureate’s Chair Dr Jolien Harmsen

[dropcap]D[/dropcap]escribed as a power of a writer and keenly interested in local history, the featured writer for this month’s Laureate’s Chair is Dr. Jolien Harmsen. This public reading activity takes place on Tuesday April 25 at the Castries Central Library from 7pm.

Jolien Harmsen is a Dutch social historian and author who has been studying St Lucian history for over twenty years.

Jolien is based in Vieux Fort, St Lucia, where she helps to run The Reef Beach Cafe, Kite + Surf. She regularly gives lectures on aspects of St Lucia’s history.

In 1999, the St Lucia National Trust published her book “Sugar, slavery and settlement, A social history of Vieux Fort, St Lucia, from the Amerindians to the present”.

Following 16 years of painstaking research, “A History of St Lucia” was published in 2012 by Lighthouse Road Publications, a Vieux Fort-based company. It is the first comprehensive history ever produced on St Lucia’s past and came about with the help of co-authors Robert Devaux and Guy Ellis.

Dr. Harmsen is also an author of fiction. Her crime novel “Rum Justice” was published 2008 by MacMillan Caribbean. She will have a few copies of her books on sale at the event.

The Laureate’s Chair is a monthly event produced by the Saint Lucia Writer’s Forum in honour of Nobel Laureate Sir Derek Walcott. Dr Harmsen follows Mrs Margo Thomas, Mr. Melchoir Henry and Mr Gandolph St Clair who have been featured writers for the year 2017.