Today we’d like to introduce you to A.L. Dawn French. Them and their team share their story with us below:
A.L. Dawn French has had her work featured locally, regionally, and internationally since her pre-teen years. She has been part of publications such as “Creation Fire” 1990 published by the Caribbean Association for Feminist Research and Action (CAFRA), “Women’s Future” 2000 published by the United Nations Development Fund for Women (UNIFEM), “Opus Spectrum” 2015 – 2017 the annual anthology published by the Saint Lucia Writers Forum and the “Dictionary of Caribbean and Afro-Latin American Biography” 2016 published by Oxford University Press. On three separate occasions in 2017 and 2018 her non-fiction work: “Souvenir” has reached the number one position on the Amazon Best Sellers in Saint Lucia Country History Chart.
Her works have been presented at the Caribbean Festival of Arts commonly called CARIFESTA; at CARIFESTA VII (St Kitts), CARIFESTA XI (Suriname) CARIFESTA XII (Haiti), CARIFESTA XIII (Barbados), and CARIFESTA IX (Trinidad) as well as the World Expo 2020 in Dubai.
Before the Awards were annulled, she was the 2013 Winner of the Saint Lucia National Arts Festival (NAF) for fiction for her works INVICTUS and INSIDE STORY; the 2014 NAF People’s Choice Award for fiction for “NÖEL”, 2014 NAF People’s Choice Award for non-fiction for the series “CAREERS” and is responsible for the bestselling series “The Commonsense Collection”.
One of her more popular works targets young readers through a series of stories called the PEANUT TALES.
For her years of work in educating children through her stories, in 2021, Dawn was inducted into the Saint Lucia 100 Women Hall of Honour.
Presently she is working on a collection of short stories called UNDER THE MANGO TREE.
Alright, so let’s dig a little deeper into the story – has it been an easy path overall and if not, what were the challenges you’ve had to overcome?
The actual writing process is relatively easy. But that is only 1%.
The rest is editing, rewriting, and getting it just how you want it to be.
The real challenge though is if a writer wants to be commercially viable. Then the work really starts.
As for me, I have been at many stages of the spectrum. There was a moment in time when I thought I could make a few dollars off my writings but I have grown out of that phase. Though I have worked on Amazon, I no longer publish on it or any platform. Except for the annual Peanut Pledge.
I write for pleasure and that’s it.
THE PEANUT PLEDGE is a group of family, friends & fans (home and abroad) of the Peanut Tales. Once a year we put $20 in the pot (some folks give more) and we print one title written by me to give away to children for FREE.
Thanks for sharing that. So, maybe next you can tell us a bit more about your work?
I am a retired Senior Public Servant. My formal training is in Architecture * Town Planning * Disaster Management.
For 20 of my 35 years in Government, I worked in disaster management. 15 of those years, I was the Director of the National Emergency Management Organisation (NEMO).
I have deployed to many sister Caribbean Islands as part of response teams.
Most people on the island of Saint Lucia are aware of me. Between the disaster management work and the Peanut Tales, I am known. Ironically my name is also famous in the UK because there is a well-known comic there called Dawn French which is why I added my initials A.L. to my work.
Is there any advice you’d like to share with our readers who might just be starting out?
Many people stop me on the street with that question. I tell them…
Write. Just write.
Worry about spelling and grammar after. Step one is to get the words down.
Of course, when I started there was no internet so my route was to look out for calls for anthologies. In a way, the model will hold today because not everyone has the money to self-publish.
Contact Info:
- Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/author/dawnnbooks
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/dawnnbooks/
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/dawnnbooksslu
- Twitter: https://twitter.com/dawnnbooks
- Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/c/dawnnbooks
- Chat and Read Channel: t.me/dawnnbooks
- Other: https://allpoetry.com/Dawnnbooks | https://www.wattpad.com/user/Dawnnbooks
Image Credits
A.L. Dawn French
