THE University of the West Indies Press (UWI Press) is pleased to announce that one of its published books, My Political Journey: Jamaica’s Sixth Prime Minister by PJ Patterson, has won a Next Generation Indie Book Award—the ‘Memoirs (Career)’ category for 2020. The prestigious Awards programme is the largest for independent publishers and authors worldwide.
Released by UWI Press in December 2018, My Political Journey is the former Prime Minister’s account of his time as an active and successful participant in the political and social development of Jamaica and the Caribbean from the mid-1950s well into the early 2000s. He is widely regarded as a master political strategist and universally acknowledged as an astute negotiator and now serves as Statesman in Residence at The University of the West Indies’ recently launched PJ Patterson Centre for Africa-Caribbean Advocacy.
In response to the news, Dr Luz Longsworth, Chair of the UWI Press Board said, “On behalf of the Board of the Directors, I am delighted to offer congratulations to our outstanding author, The Rt. Honourable PJ Patterson on this award. My Political Journey has been one of the most successful publications in the UWI Press’ over 25 years of existence. We salute him on producing a book that is an absorbing narrative, not just of a successful and exciting career, but also of the development of a national, regional and global consciousness in his more than six decades of outstanding advocacy and service. The award is a fitting recognition of the importance of this book, which especially at this critical time should be on the reading list for any student of political science, history and international development”.
One of the judges of the Next Generation Indie Book Awards noted, “People often think autobiographies or biographies of government officials must be primarily of scholarly or historical interest. Depending on the writer, they can sometimes attract a broader audience. PJ Patterson’s Political Journey is such a book. Written with grace and style, Patterson describes the challenges of building community and national consensus in an era of growing international interest in Caribbean and Latin American history”.
In addition to former Prime Minister Patterson’s book, two other UWI Press publications were named finalists in this year’s Next Generation Indie Book Awards. Plantation Coffee in Jamaica, 1790–1848 by Kathleen E.A. Monteith is a finalist in the Historical (Non-Fiction) category and Free: A Novel by Martin Mordecai is a finalist in the General Fiction/Novel (over 80,000 words) category.