{"version":"1.0","type":"rich","provider_name":"Acast","provider_url":"https://acast.com","height":250,"width":700,"html":"","title":"Brown Girl in the Ring: Hopkinson's Caribbean Toronto","thumbnail_width":200,"thumbnail_height":200,"thumbnail_url":"https://open-images.acast.com/shows/6a28001ca917ce4c7065c483/1170ff95-4486-4102-b9d1-5c3cdd07020f.jpg?height=200","description":"Nalo Hopkinson's Brown Girl in the Ring (1998) won the Warner Aspect First Novel Contest and announced a major new voice in SF. The novel imagines a near-future Toronto where the wealthy suburbs have fled and the city's core has been abandoned to the poor — primarily Caribbean diaspora communities who have built their own economy and social structures through urban farming, barter, and herb lore. Protagonist Ti-Jeanne must navigate the criminal overlord Rudy (her grandfather, who rules from the CN Tower) and the demands of the Caribbean spirit world — orishas, loas, and duppies — to save her grandmother Gros-Jeanne and her community. Hopkinson was born in Kingston, Jamaica, grew up in Trinidad, Guyana, and Canada (moving to Toronto at age 16 in 1977), and writes from within the Caribbean diaspora tradition — her SF incorporates Trinidadian Creole, Jamaican patois, Caribbean folklore, and the specific textures of diaspora life. The novel also won the 1999 Locus Award for Best First Novel. This episode examines the novel as Caribbean SF, its use of the orishas and Caribbean spiritual traditions, and what it means to write SF from outside the Anglo-American tradition.","author_name":"Atween Studios"}