Fabian Adekunle Badejo. (HNP photo)
The cover of "Fantasies – Love-making poems ” was designed by Sundiata Lake using art by Mosera.
COLE BAY--Fantasies – Love-making poems by Fabian Adekunle Badejo, which has just been published here by House of Nehesi Publishers (HNP), will be launched at the opening ceremony of the sixteenth annual St. Martin Book Fair, at Motorworld Showroom in Cole Bay at 8:00pm Friday, June 1.
Badejo will read selections from the adult-theme collection following the literary festival’s keynote address by award-winning author Edwidge Danticat (USA/Haiti).
“Edwidge Danticat is one of the most sought-after authors in the world today,” said HNP Projects Director Lasana M. Sekou, “and it’s an honour to launch an HNP title during her first visit to the St. Martin Book Fair.”
The newest book by St. Maarten writer Badejo is “a grown-up literary confection that does what verse written by men seems to seldom do these days,” said author and journalist Sharon Leach of the Jamaica Observer newspaper.
The poems in Fantasies “celebrate male strength by exploring in all its big-hearted glory … its vulnerability, honesty … and, yes, avid beauty,” said Leach.
Aruban poet Rosabelle Illes calls Fantasies “A sensual Odyssey. Badejo communicates with the intensity only found in infatuation and a truth only discovered through relentless devotion.”
Badejo was the subject of a May 20 interview on his own Culture Time radio magazine, by University of St. Martin literature lecturer Rhoda Arrindell. The Fantasies manuscript was accepted by HNP and worked on by candlelight and in-between repairs and other challenges like most people had during the aftermath of Hurricane Irma, but the poems were written much earlier, said Badejo.
Following the interview, “a Facebook buzz started, with comments by men and women ranging from curious to excited about Fantasies,” said HNP President Jacqueline Sample. “Some people are surprised that a usually serious-topic author like Mr. Badejo would write erotic poems with names like ‘Strip,’ ‘The First Kiss,’ ‘Beauty & the Priest,’ ‘Lick Me,’ ‘Mating Sounds,’ ‘Girl Talk,’ and ‘Bragging Rights.’”
Fantasies is available at Van Dorp and Arnia’s bookstores and at SPDbooks.org goo.gl/2KgGuj.
