{{Short description|West Indian writer (born 1958)}} {{For|the American musician|Robert "Stewkey" Antoni}} {{Infobox writer <!-- For more information see :Template:Infobox Writer/doc. --> | name = Robert Antoni | image = Robert antoni 2013.jpg | image_size = | alt = | caption = Antoni at the 2013 Texas Book Festival | pseudonym = | birth_name = | birth_date = {{Birth year and age|1958}} <!--{{Birth date and age|1951|09|09}}--> | birth_place = Detroit, Michigan, .United States | death_date = <!-- {{Death date and age|YYYY|MM|DD|YYYY|MM|DD}} --> | death_place = | resting_place = | occupation = Professor | language = | nationality = American | ethnicity = | citizenship = | education = | alma_mater = Duke University;<br>Johns Hopkins University; <br> Iowa Writers' Workshop | period = | genre = novel | subject = | movement = | notableworks = ''Divina Trace'' (1991); ''As Flies to Whatless Boys'' (2013) | spouse = | partner = | children = | relatives = | awards = Commonwealth Writers' Prize; OCM Bocas Prize for Caribbean Literature | signature = | signature_alt = | module = | website = {{URL|robertantoni.com}} | portaldisp = }} '''Robert Antoni''' (born 1958) is a West Indian writer who was awarded the 1999 Aga Khan Prize for Fiction by ''The Paris Review'' for ''My Grandmother's Tale of How Crab-o Lost His Head''. He was a Guggenheim Fellow for 2010 for his work on the historical novel ''As Flies to Whatless Boys'', which went on to win the 2014 OCM Bocas Prize for Caribbean Literature.
==Early life== Robert Antoni was born in 1958, in Detroit, Michigan, in the United States ("by mistake"),<ref>{{cite news|url=https://www.jamaicaobserver.com/2014/05/17/a-family-affair-at-calabash-lit-fest-hosts-first-family-of-kenyan-letters/|title=A Family Affair at Calabash: Lit Fest hosts First Family of Kenyan Letters|newspaper=Jamaica Observer|date=17 May 2014|access-date=9 May 2026}}</ref> to Trinidadian parents and grew up largely in the Bahamas,<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.cedarcrest.edu/staff/robert-antoni-2/|title=Robert Antoni|publisher=Cedar Crest College|access-date=9 May 2026}}</ref> where his father practised medicine. He says his "fictional world" is "Corpus Christi", the invented island (based on Trinidad) that he introduced in his first novel, ''Divina Trace'' (1991).<ref>[https://www.robertantoni.com/ Biography], Author's website.</ref>
Antoni studied at Duke University and in the creative writing programme at Johns Hopkins University, before joining the Iowa Writers' Workshop at the University of Iowa,<ref name=Tribune>{{cite web|url=https://www.tribune242.com/news/2014/apr/16/lecturer-launches-writing-workshop/|first=Lamech|last=Johnson|title=Lecturer Launches Writing Workshop|website=Tribune 242|date= 16 April 2014|access-date=8 July 2025}}</ref> where he began working on ''Divina Trace''. He has said that he spent a total of ten years completing the novel, which won the Commonwealth Writers' Prize for best first novel in 1992.<ref>[http://www.nalis.gov.tt/Research/SubjectGuide/Biographies/BiographiesAC/tabid/100/Default.aspx?PageContentID=1131 Robert Antoni biography] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140321000710/http://www.nalis.gov.tt/Research/SubjectGuide/Biographies/BiographiesAC/tabid/100/Default.aspx?PageContentID=1131 |date=2014-03-21 }}, NALIS.</ref>
==Career== Antoni lived for a time in Barcelona, Spain, and taught at the University of Miami from 1992 to 2001. In 2004, he began teaching at Barnard College, Columbia University and The New School.<ref>{{Cite web |url=http://www.newschool.edu/public-engagement/faculty-list/?id=88179 |title=Faculty, The New School. |access-date=2013-04-30 |archive-date=2013-09-27 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130927023948/http://www.newschool.edu/public-engagement/faculty-list/?id=88179 |url-status=dead }}</ref> In 2010, he was a Guggenheim Fellow.<ref name=gf>{{cite web|url=https://www.gf.org/fellows/robert-antoni |title=Robert Antoni|publisher=John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation|date=2010|access-date=9 May 2026}}</ref>
His novel ''As Flies to Whatless Boys'' was the overall winner of the 2014 OCM Bocas Prize for Caribbean Literature. At the award ceremony on 26 April, Antoni pledged to share the US$10,000 prize money with the other finalists, Lorna Goodison (winner of the poetry category for ''Oracabessa'') and Kei Miller (winner of the literary non-fiction category for ''Writing Down the Vision: Essays and Prophecies'').<ref>{{cite news|url=https://trinidadexpress.com/news/local/whatless-boys-wins-it-for-writer-antoni/article_9ceeb476-fd1e-504a-ba03-4828d1f16162.html|first=Mark |last=Fraser |title=Whatless Boys’ wins it for writer Antoni|newspaper=Trinidad Express Newspapers|date=27 April 2014|access-date=9 May 2026}}</ref> Kei Miller and Antoni were both featured presenters at the 2018 Key West Literary Seminar: Writers of the Caribbean.<ref>{{Cite news|url=https://www.potentmagazine.com/i-am-a-translation-writing-the-global-caribbean-language/|title="I Am a Translation": Writing the Global Caribbean Language|date=11 February 2018|work=POTENT Magazine|access-date=12 February 2018|language=en-US}}</ref>
Antoni resides in New York City,<ref name="Tribune" /> where he teaches literature at The New School for Public Engagement.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.newschool.edu/public-engagement/faculty-list/?id=4f44-597a-4e6a-413d|title=Robert Antoni – Public Engagement|website=www.newschool.edu|language=en|access-date=12 February 2018}}</ref>
==Awards and honours== *1992: Commonwealth Writers' Prize: Best First Book, ''Divina Trace'' *1999: Aga Khan Prize for Fiction from the ''Paris Review'', for ''My Grandmother's Tale of How Crab-o Lost His Head'' *2010: Guggenheim Fellow for his work on the historical novel ''As Flies to Whatless Boys''<ref name=gf/> *2014: OCM Bocas Prize for Caribbean Literature (Fiction and overall winner), ''As Flies to Whatless Boys''<ref>{{cite web |url=https://guardian.co.tt/entertainment/2014-03-31/top-three-ocm-bocas-prize-named |title=Top three for OCM Bocas Prize named |work=T&T Guardian |author= |date=31 March 2014 |access-date= 3 April 2014}}</ref>
== Bibliography ==
===Novels=== *''Divina Trace'', Robin Clark, 1991, {{ISBN|978-0-86072-136-9}} *''Blessed Is the Fruit'', Henry Holt and Co., 1997, {{ISBN|978-0-8050-4925-1}} *''My Grandmother's Erotic Folktales'', 2000; Grove Press, 2002, {{ISBN|978-0-8021-3900-9}} *''Carnival'', Black Cat, 2005, {{ISBN|978-0-8021-7005-7}} *{{cite book|title=As Flies to Whatless Boys|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=14EMkmK8tQQC&pg=PA154|year=2013|publisher=Akashic Books|isbn=978-1-61775-156-1|pages=154–}}
===Nonfiction=== *1998: "Another Day Under the Black Volcano" in ''Outside Magazine'' *1999: "Blackbeard Doesn't Come Here Anymore" in ''Outside Magazine'' *2001: "Party in the Islands" in ''Ocean Drive Magazine''
===Anthologies=== *Robert Antoni, Bradford Morrow (eds), ''The Archipelago: New writing from and about the Caribbean'', Bard College, 1996, {{ISBN|978-0-941964-43-2}} * Co-editor with Earl Lovelace, ''Trinidad Noir: The Classics'', Akashic Books, 2017, {{ISBN|978-1-61775-435-7}}.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.kirkusreviews.com/book-reviews/earl-lovelace/trinidad-noir-Lovelace/|title=Trinidad Noir|website=Kirkus Reviews|date=6 March 2017|access-date=8 July 2025}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.publishersweekly.com/9781617754357|title=Trinidad Noir: The Classics|website=Publishers Weekly|date=27 March 2017|access-date=8 July 2025}}</ref>
== See also ==
* Caribbean literature * Caribbean poetry * Postcolonial literature
==Notes== {{Reflist|30em}}
==References== *Gifford, Sheryl. "(Re)Making Men, Representing the Caribbean Nation: Individuation in the Works of Fred D’Aguiar, Robert Antoni, and Marlon James". Diss. Florida Atlantic University, 2013. *{{Citation|last= Machado Sáez |first= Elena |year= 2015 |chapter= Electronic Archives and the Digital Futures of Caribbean Diasporic Writing |title= Market Aesthetics: The Purchase of the Past in Caribbean Diasporic Fiction |place= Charlottesville |publisher= University of Virginia Press |isbn= 978-0-8139-3705-2}}. *Patteson, Richard Francis. ''The Fiction of Robert Antoni: Writing in the Estuary'', University of the West Indies Press, 2010, {{ISBN|978-976-640-229-7}}.
==External links== * [https://www.robertantoni.com/ Official website] * Lawrence Scott, [https://bombmagazine.org/articles/2005/04/01/robert-antoni/ "Interview: Robert Antoni"], ''BOMB'' 91, 1 April 2005. {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140429061737/http://bombmagazine.org/article/2729/robert-antoni |date=29 April 2014 }}. * [https://digitalcollections.library.miami.edu/digital/collection/asu0281/id/150/ "Readings by Robert Antoni and Adrian Castro (1996)"], University of Miami Digital Collections.
{{OCM Bocas Prize for Caribbean Literature}} {{Authority control}}
{{DEFAULTSORT:Antoni, Robert}} Category:1958 births Category:Living people Category:20th-century Trinidad and Tobago male writers Category:21st-century male writers Category:American people of Trinidad and Tobago descent Category:Anthologists Category:Barnard College faculty Category:Duke University alumni Category:Iowa Writers' Workshop alumni Category:The New School faculty Category:Trinidad and Tobago male writers Category:Trinidad and Tobago novelists