In case you missed it ...

The Trinidad Guardian posted a wonderful article about the NYC book-signing event. Enjoy. ER

Read the full article here.

Photos by Donovan Gopie from the NYC book-signing at Trinidad & Tobago Consulate General's office

Fan disc usses series with Author Ewart Rouse

The book-signing at the T&T Consulate General's office in New York was two nights ago and yet my spirits remains buoyed by the camaraderie and sense of community the event fostered.

Everyone agrees it was a roaring success: It gave me a chance to share my Sticky Wicket book series, and Glenroy Chapman the chance to display his beautiful photos of our homeland.

This was certainly not something we could have pulled off by ourselves. So, where do I begin with my thanks?

First, I would like to heap a generous load of gratitude on the Consulate's staff. They provide an invaluable service in keeping Trinidadian culture alive in the United States. If anyone from Trinidad and Tobago is reading this, know that you have a capable team of men and women representing your interests at home, and supporting the Trinidadian community abroad.

I have to single out Consul Nireen Jasper, whom I learned is a budding cricket aficionado, for serving as a gracious host, and her assistant Errolyn Chariah-Mars, for her help in the weeks leading up to the event. Ms. Chariah-Mars provided guidance in everything, from sending out promotional fliers to offering menu suggestions.

We also want to thank the Caribbean media that came out to give us coverage. They include Glenville Ashby, the New York correspondent for the Trinidad Guardian - the news publication where I began my own journalism career; veteran photographer Donovan Gopie of Caribbean Life and other publications; Hakim Muttaq of New Harlem Renaissance Photographers; and the archivists at the Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture.

I also have to mention those media professionals who provided pre-event coverage, including veteran beat writer Jared McCallister of the New York Daily News, Rennie Bishop of WWRL radio, Ian Forrest of WBAI radio, the staff at One Caribbean Radio, and the editors at Carib News and Caribbean Life.

It was very gratifying to look out into the crowd during Friday night's event and see the young and the senior members of the Caribbean community gathered with the wider New York and New Jersey arts community that came out to support Glenroy and me with their presence - and of course, their purchases of my books and Glenroy's photographs.

You all make me proud to call myself a Trinidadian.

Sincerely,
Ewart Rouse, author of the Sticky Wicket cricket series.

Book signing TODAY in New York City

Sticky Wicket featured in New York Daily News

NY Daily News writer Jared McCallister featured Sticky Wicket in his column, "Caribbeat," on Sunday. He is promoting our upcoming book-signing event at the Trinidad and Tobago consulate office in Manhattan on March 18.

About the Sticky Wicket series

"Watkins at Bat"  was the first in the three-part series, followed by "Watkins Fights Back,"  and "Watkins' Finest Inning." The series concludes with "Watkins' Overseas Tour."

Volume 1: Watkins at Bat

Fernwood Cricket Club is a multi-ethnic, multi-national team from suburban Fernwood in southern New Jersey, USA.  Jamaica Rebels Cricket Club is a homogeneous team from urban Newark in northern New Jersey.

Last season, Fernwood, a team that knows how to win only on paper, did the seemingly impossible. It knocked the reigning champs out of the playoffs. It did so by claiming the points when the Jamaicans showed up late for the game on Fernwood’s home grounds.

Today, in their first meeting of the new season, Fernwood is short of players and Watkins, the club’s manager, comes out of retirement to bat for his team. The gritty Jamaicans, still smarting over the loss by default, are out to give Watkins and his rag-tag team a whipping they will never forgot.

But, like they say, cricket is a funny game; the best team doesn’t always win. The field action comes to a head when the president of the Fernwood Little League shows up with scores of uniformed youngsters and demand that the cricketers get off the field so the kids can play.

Volume 2: Watkins Fights Back 

After pledging anew to his wife that he will give up his cricketing life and spend weekends with his family, Freddie Watkins gets some bad news: Fernwood officials have reassigned the cricket field to Little League.

The instigator of this action is none other than the president of the Fernwood Little League. With a membership that vastly outnumbers the cricketers, Little League has political clout and whatever Little League wants Little League gets.

Watkins’ is not about to go quietly.

But asking his wife for another reprieve so he can take on the local anti-cricket, pro-Little League crowd will be a risky move. However, standing idly by while the club he founded 25 years ago is forced to disband for lack of a field isn’t an option.

Volume 3: Watkins' Finest Inning

It’s showdown time in Fernwood, New Jersey, USA. 

Rebuffed by the establishment in his efforts to find a playing field for his cricket club, and to become part of the mainstream, the intrepid Freddie Watkins marshals his forces – including an unlikely group of middle-school recruits – for a final confrontation with the anti-cricket establishment.

The eleventh-hour offensive could backfire, with dire consequences for his club and his marriage, or it could turn out to be Watkins’ finest innings.

Watkins’ Overseas Tour

The season is over, and instead of going their separate ways, members of the Fernwood Cricket Club decide to go on tour to Jamaica. Watkins, with the help of his wife Gina, organizes a dance to raise funds for the trip.

When the dance money disappears suspicion falls on one of the players, fast bowler Napoleon. As Watkins tries to sort things out, everything that can go wrong goes wrong as Napoleon leads the reader on a see-saw of trust and distrust. 

In these books, I draw from my own experience as one of thousands of immigrants who made America home, but can't seem to shake that fondness for a sport many Americans find most puzzling.


These books are meant to rekindle the childhood passions of many young boys from Trinidad, Grenada, Southeast Asia and other lands where Cricket is King, and introduce my American audience to a past-time that helped a generation of new Americans feel a little less far from home.