Family and Caribbean folklore: Celeste Mohammed on Ever Since We Small
From The Writing Life by National Centre for Writing
February 23, 2026 · 53 min · Episode 363
About this episode
Celeste Mohammed discusses her writing influenced by family and Caribbean folklore.
In this episode of The Writing Life, Trinidadian writer Celeste Mohammed reflects on the role of family, mythology, and Caribbean folklore in her writing. Celeste has been a lawyer since 2001 but she has been telling stories all her life. A native of Trinidad and Tobago, in 2016, she graduated from Lesley University, Cambridge, Massachusetts, with an MFA in Creative Writing (Fiction). Her debut novel Pleasantview won the 2022 OCM Bocas Prize for Caribbean Literature. Ahead of its publication in the Caribbean and the UK, a story from her current novel-in-stories Ever Since We Small was shortlisted for the 2024 Commonwealth Short Story Prize. She sat down with her friend and fellow Trinidadian writer Ayanna Lloyd Banwo to discuss Ever Since We Small, a powerful novel-in-stories in which survival, resilience and self-discovery are passed down through generations of an Indo-Trinidadian family. Together, they explore her use of the short story form to create an intricately woven tapestry of stories, Caribbean folklore, and the book's themes of belonging, resistance, and legacy.
People in this episode
Guest: Celeste Mohammed
Topics covered
- Caribbean folklore
- family
- mythology
- resilience
- self-discovery
- storytelling
Keywords
- Caribbean literature
- Celeste Mohammed
- family stories
- Indo-Trinidadian
- short story
- mythology
- resilience
Mentioned in this episode
Organizations: Lesley University
Books & works: Pleasantview, Ever Since We Small
Places: Trinidad and Tobago
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