{"id":5305,"date":"2021-02-03T15:24:54","date_gmt":"2021-02-03T15:24:54","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/wordpress.satellite.mmu.ac.uk\/northernquota-old\/2021\/02\/03\/man-met-lecturer-monique-roffey-wins-costa-book-award-mermaid-black-conch\/"},"modified":"2021-02-03T15:24:54","modified_gmt":"2021-02-03T15:24:54","slug":"man-met-lecturer-monique-roffey-wins-costa-book-award-mermaid-black-conch","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/satellite.mmu.ac.uk\/northernquota-old\/man-met-lecturer-monique-roffey-wins-costa-book-award-mermaid-black-conch\/","title":{"rendered":"Man Met lecturer Monique Roffey wins Costa Book Award with The Mermaid of Black Conch"},"content":{"rendered":"

A senior lecturer at the at Manchester Metropolitan has won the \u00a330,000 prize 2020 Costa Book Award.<\/a><\/p>\n

Monique Roffey, part of the Writing School at Man Met, has written seven other novels as well as various essays, literacy journalism and a memoir.  <\/p>\n

The Trinidadian author has previously won the OCM Bocas award<\/a> for Caribbean literature in 2013 for her novel called Archipelago.<\/p>\n

Her latest novel, The Mermaid of Black Conch, won the 2020 Costa Book Award. It has been described as a love story set in a small Caribbean village, about a young fisherman who catches the attention of a mermaid called Aycayia by singing on his pirogue.<\/p>\n

Roffey said she was inspired by “Dreams of mermaids, a Taino legend, the sea, big game fishing, feminism, and the desire to write a Caribbean love story\u201d when writing the novel.<\/p>\n

The author confessed her favourite when speaking about Caribbean myths and legends.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe legend of La Diablesse is one of my favourites. She is a tall, beautiful African woman with one hidden cloven hoof under her voluminous skirts. In Trinidad\u2019s folklore, she mostly wanders the rural roads, hoping to lure men into her clutches. Her legend is thought to be of Martiniquan extraction, harking back to when French planters arrived with their enslaved Africans in the late 18th Century,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

One of the many interesting things about the novel is the use of patchwork effect to split the narrative into three different voices.<\/p>\n

Roffey explains: “We rarely tell each other stories in a linear\/chronological way. This way felt more real, more like how stories are actually told, from many POVs and voices.\u201d<\/p>\n

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Despite lockdown, Roffey was still confident in the novels success as she felt the lockdown could be a blessing.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis is perhaps one of the few good things coming out of the current pandemic. People are reading more.<\/p>\n

“Yes. The stats or a new report is saying this is what’s happened, book sales are high currently,\u201d she explained.<\/p>\n

When questioned on what she has been reading recently, she said: \u201cCorine Fowler\u2019s Green Unpleasant Land,\u201d published by Peepal Tree Press.<\/p>\n

\u2014 Monique Roffey (@moniqueroffey) January 31, 2021<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n