[Note from the Proprietor: In case you're wondering what it's all about, well, we're smack in the middle of BLOGAPALOOZA! Hey, you're welcome to join in the fun if you like! All ya gotta do is click that cute little link and read all about it!]

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Guest post by Geoffrey Philp who writes over at Geoffrey Philp’s Blog Spot

Geoffrey Philp’s Blog Spot, which published its first post on December 13, 2005, features interviews, podcasts, readings, essays by writers from the Caribbean and South Florida. In 2008, I expanded my experiments with the potential of the site by inviting writers from the Caribbean and South Florida to write guest posts called In My Own Words. The site has also grown into a conversation space for published and yet-to-be published writers to share some of the joys and frustrations of writing.

This sample of posts demonstrates the richness and variety of the writing talent from the Caribbean and South Florida. Enjoy!

• January: Virtual Yardies: A Hypertext Novel”-my experiment with creating a “blog novel.”
• February: “How to Choose an MFA in Creative Writing”-several published writers answer a reader’s question.
• March: “A Jamaican in Las Vegas”-my trip to “Sin City” to celebrate my fiftieth birthday.
• April: “Summer, Florida Keys”–an original poem by Cuban-American poet, Ricardo Pau-Llosa.
• May: “How to Use Allusions”-practical advice for young writers.
• June: “Dancing with Katrina, for Kalamu ya Salaam”-an original poem about Hurricane Katrina.
• July: “The Top Five Reasons I Blog”-pretty self explanatory.
• August: “It Could Happen to You”-my reaction to a Google notice that my blog stood the possibility of being deleted because their robots suspected that I had a spam site.
• September: “A Rubric for Poetry?’-a discussion about poetry and creating a rubric for evaluating poetry.
• October: “For Alton Ellis, O.D.” –an original poem by Malachi on the sudden death of Reggae pioneer Alton Ellis.
• November: “Let No Harm, for Barack Obama”-an original poem by Trinidadian poet, Mervyn Taylor.
• December: “Christmas Evening”–an excerpt from my book, Twelve Poems and a Story for Christmas, tells the Christmas story from Joseph’s point-of-view.

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Geoffrey Philp is the author of Benjamin, my son, Uncle Obadiah and the Alien, five poetry collections, and a children’s book, Grandpa Sydney’s Anancy Stories. Geoffrey maintains a blog (Geoffrey Philp’s Blog Spot) and teaches English at Miami Dade College where he is the chairperson of the College Prep. Department at the North Campus. His next collection of short stories, Who’s Your Daddy? and Other Stories will be published by Peepal Tree Press in May 2009.

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[Further note from the Proprietor: Hey, if you're interested in having your own "best of 2008" posts highlighted right here at the Middle Zone, then by all means, click on this link: (BLOGAPALOOZA: What I Learned From 2008) and read all about it! BLOGAPALOOZA will be open for entries from now until Sunday, January 25.]

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