Colin Channer is the father of two children, Addis and Makonnen. He was born in Kingston, Jamaica and moved to New York in his late teens. He is the editor of the groundbreaking anthology Iron Balloons: Hit Fiction from Jamaica’s Calabash Writer’s Workshop. He is also the author of two novels, two novellas and a collection of stories. His first novel Waiting in Vain was a Critic’s Choice selection of the Washington Post, which described it as “a clear redefinition of the Caribbean novel.” Colin’s essays, criticism and short fiction have appeared in the New York Times, Bomb, the Times Literary Supplement, Renaissance Noire, Obsidian III and Essence. He’s also written for the screen and has adapted his own work for the stage. He is an assistant professor of English and the coordinator of the B.A. creative writing program at Medgar Evers College in Brooklyn, NY. His most recent work is the novella The Girl With the Golden Shoes, which includes an afterword by Russell Banks, who hails the work as “a nearly perfect moral fable.” Set on a remote Caribbean island in the 1940s, the novella shadows what Edwidge Denticat describes as the “very moving and mesmerizing journey” of a shoeless 14 year-old girl who is determined to get all the way to Europe after she’s banished from her isolated fishing village. In 2001, Colin founded the not-for-profit Calabash International Literary Festival Trust, which produces the annual Calabash International Literary Festival in Treasure Beach, Jamaica. The Trust also produces publishing seminars, writing workshops and a film series in Kingston, Jamaica, at various times of the year. All events, including the festival, are offered to the public free of charge. Passion is the only price of entry. The Calabash International Literary Festival has won high praise on both sides of the Atlantic. Britain’s Independent on Sunday describes it as “a high-grade international event in which writing from the Americas, Europe, Africa and Asia forms a thought-provoking mosaic of story, history and mythology.” The Associated Press describes it as “one of the most vibrant literary festivals to come around in a long time.” In its June 15, 2005 edition Canada’s Globe and Mail assessed Colin’s value as a writer and arts administrator in very clear terms: “Channer has become one of the most significant literary figures in the Caribbean, influencing writers in the islands and those living and working abroad.” His  new book, Lover’s Rock, will be published by Atria Books in 2008.