Belizean Author Debuts Second Book: Mahagni Gyal  

Today, at the Image Factory, Belizean author, Melissa Bradely debuted her second book, titled Mahagni Gyal. This book tells the story of a young girl as she navigates life, puberty, and love in Belize. The book also features illustrations from Belizean artist, Nisa Sanchez, who also illustrated Bradley’s first book. We attended the book launch today, where Bradley told us that she wrote this book with the goal of capturing the essence of lived experiences, while allowing others to interact with a story that carries on the heritage of Belize.

 

Melissa Bradley, Author

“One of the reasons why I really wanted to implement Creole, I wanted to do this a long time. And my studies at this moment really pushed me because at one point I was looking for Creole stories in my, for my dissertation work and I could not find Creole stories. When I looked around, I would find folklores, but we are not looking for folklores, we are looking for lived experiences of Belizean people, Belizean Creole people, because I was looking for Creole stories. And so I said, you know what?  I need to start writing this because we need to start seeing more of us in our literature in school. And when I say us, I am talking about all ethnic groups in Belize. We need to give more power to the languages we speak and to our identities. Because I am an advocate for using all of our language within the classroom. I’m not saying go and teach all these languages in the classroom. What I’m saying is allow students to use their language so that they can understand the content that you are teaching. Because sometimes, we do not say things the best in English because even as teachers, English is not our first language. It’s not our first language. We have a multicultural society, yet our language of instruction is English. If we do not see something wrong with that picture, then something is wrong with us.”

 

Nisa Sanchez, Illustrator

“It was so wonderful when she approached me. I felt so happy that she approached me again. Because, it was another opportunity to work with her. And the best thing about working with MISS Bradley is that she really lets me just have this open canvas. I can interpret the story, I can interpret the characters however I want. I can propose to her new ideas and she’ll interact with them. I think, for me I was excited to work with her again.”