By: Staff Writer
August 20, 2021
The youngest published author you will ever meet in your lifetime is right here in the Caribbean. Her name is Coryn Anaya Clarke, a five year old from Trinidad and Tobago who has published two books already and is already onto her third.
Coryn spoke to Caribbean Magazine Plus about her “Chronicles” series where she has written and published her first book, “Chronicles of Coryn: 7 Days of Fun” and her recently published book, “Chronicles of Coryn: Adventures in Saint Kitts and Nevis.”
Adventures of Saint Kitts and Nevis was as a result of her visit to the island of Saint Kitts and Nevis to spend time with her paternal grandmother, where she visited all of the historic sites in the twin island country.
Her first book, however, came as a result of her participating in Read2Me_TT, a programme dedicated to keeping children busy and enhancing their literature skills, where she read on the programme twice, but was not allowed to read again because she had too many times and was told to give the other children a chance. As a result, she wrote her own book as a way to show them this is what she wanted to do. After completing 7 Days of Fun, she never stopped writing.
“7 Days of Fun is about me doing fun activities with my family. I did yoga, ballet, music, baking, swimming and painting,” Coryn said.
Coryn also told us, “My third book is going to be called ‘Chronicles of Coryn: My trip to Penal’.” Trip to Penal is about her trip to Penal, Trinidad to visit her maternal grandmother. “It’s going to be about all of the fun places I visited while being here.”
Trip to Penal will be release sometime next year Coryn told us, because she still is trying to gather her thoughts to tell you all about her visit to her grandmother.
Writing down her travel experiences with her family features prominently in Coryn’s book, as she documents everything. Her mother told us Coryn has several notebooks she keeps with thoughts of the day, words she finds interesting and things she wants to do.
Dionne Baptiste, Coryn’s mother, told us: “Coryn is an extrovert and being locked down because of the COVID-19 she needed something to do and release her energy. Since we could not travel anymore because of the lockdown, Coryn started to imagine she was going to places and research on all of the places she wants to visit and imagines herself as a ballerina visiting all of these places. She loves Unicorns, so she probably has about seven books that she writes in different things. Every day she writes.”
Coryn also said: “I like to write. Writing is fun, but it is hard work. Sometimes my challenges are getting my thoughts to line up because sometimes they are jumbled up.”
If you think Coryn wants to be a writer when she grows up, think again. She wants to be a chef because “that’s what Mommy does.” Ms Baptiste is a journalist by profession and she only cooks at home as a personal chef, but despite that Coryn is fascinated with her mother’s cooking.
You can order all of Coryn’s books on Amazon or visit her website at: https://www.chroniclesofcoryn.com/