The next two weeks are exciting ones in the Desk universe: On this coming Monday, May 18, we’re going to have a members-only writing workshop at 11 a.m. EST—submit your nonfiction today, if you’d like to join us—and then a 2 p.m. discussion of Sidney Mintz’s 1985 classic Sweetness and Power: The Place of Sugar in Modern History. At 3 p.m. will be our usual Discord salon chat, where we all talk about what we’ve been eating, cooking, reading, watching, etc.
Then, the following Tuesday, May 26, we’ll have writer Ariel Saramandi visiting with us for the Salon Series to discuss her brilliant essay collection Portrait of an Island on Fire. On Friday, May 29, issue 02 of Tomato Tomato will be released.
If this seems like a lot, well, not everyone must participate in everything—or even anything: I’ve just tried to create a little digital world where we get to take each other’s lives and books seriously; where food, culture, and climate change are (yes!) connected and open for conversation; and the worlds of publishing and food studies are a little less gate-kept. I don’t like to do a hard sell on membership, but I do find it necessary to remind folks of all that we’re doing here.
Going forward, things like the writing workshops, Salon Series, and (as always) the Book Club will only be open to members. I’m also hoping to bring people together more IRL—stay tuned.
Let’s now get on with the notes for our current selection! The Zoom link for Monday’s discussion is at the bottom. I’ll also post a reminder in the Discord.
The brand-new Everything You’ve Wanted to Know About Selling a Book will be on Tuesday May 19 at 11 a.m. EST. The next Food Essay sessions will take place each Tuesday in June at 11 a.m. EST. The Newsletter, Research & Organization, and How to Create an Editorial Vision (free) workshops are now available as downloads.
First, I think of Sweetness and Power as a book that demonstrates the meaning of this short 2014 piece by Lillian Guerra called “Why Caribbean History Matters”:
Caribbean history matters for the same reason everyone in the Caribbean “remembers” slavery: the legacies of slavery, imperialism, and historical responses to it are, in the Caribbean, immediately evident in all the “weightier” concepts we associate with modernity: notions of citizenship, individual freedom, collective liberation, and nation. Caribbean history is not merely about the “colonial origins of poverty”; it addresses the most fundamental questions of who we are, what we believe, and how we got that way. Yet the uncomfortable facts of Caribbean history rarely make it into the consciousness of even the most educated of our society’s elite. … While countries of the Caribbean may be geographically tiny, their impact on the development of global economies and political thought has been fundamental.
Want to join the conversation?
Members get my book notes, discounts from our partner bookstore, and come to our virtual conversations that usually have the author as a guest.
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