Address

Maryland

Mail Us

carmen@demerarapress.com

Call Us

240-302-5479

Shop Now
Address

Maryland

Mail Us

carmen@demerarapress.com

Call Us

240-302-5479

0
Shop Now
One of the beautiful waterways in Guyana Spectacular Orinduik

Orinduik Falls

Spectacular Orinduik

Secure Payment

We care about your data.

Free Shipping

Postage included in your purchase.

New Book!

Legacy-Front-Book-Cover

LEGACY. A WOMAN’S JOURNEY TO HEALING

Price : $35
Buy Now
This 400+ page memoir chronicles the author’s life from the relatively unknown little South American country of Guyana, once British Guiana, to the United States of America, perhaps the most important country in the world. Experience important historical and contemporary events through the author’s eyes, her 46 years of memories as a student and faculty member of Howard University, as well as the deep psychological scars that shaped her consciousness.

Dr. Carmen Subryan

About the Author

As a child, Carmen Barclay Subryan lived beside the beautiful Demerara River at Retrieve, Mackenzie, where the roots of her mother’s ancestors, the Allicocks, run deep into the history of the region. In 1757 her Scottish ancestor Robert Frederick Allicock purchased the 4,901 acre plantation Noit Gedacht,that he renamed Retrieve, located in the Upper Demerara River area about sixty-five miles from Georgetown, Guyana’s capital city. At his death in 1822, he willed his plantation to a colored woman Ann Mansfield with whom he had 8 children. Allicock’s descendants lived on the plantation until c1954 when the Demerara Bauxite Company that had bought the land in 1914 and started bauxite mining in 1916 claimed the land because it wanted to expand into alumina production. After years of court battles, the Allicock families were forced to move, so her family relocated to Wismar across the river.  She attended Christianburg Scots School, where she later taught, Mackenzie High School, and Guyana Teachers College.  In 1968, she immigrated to the USA to attend Howard University in Washington, D.C.  There she received a B.A magna cum laude, Phi Beta Kappa, an M.A., and in 1983, a Ph.D. degree, all in English.  In 1974, she began teaching at Howard University, retiring in 2015 after 41 years there.  She is the mother of two daughters and grandmother to two grandsons and one granddaughter.

Always interested in her roots, Carmen has penned three novels, Black-Water Women, Black-Water People, and Black-Water Children, based loosely on the Allicock family history.  She has also authored three books of poetry: Reprise, Rachel’s Tears, and Sketches: People-Watching in the U S of A.  In 2016, she published a book of short stories entitled Realities: Stories from our Times.   In addition, she has written three booklets about the Linden area: “The Story of Christianburg”, “The Story of Wismar” and “The Story of Mackenzie”.

In May 2017, on her return from a six and a half month stay in Guyana, she began writing Stepping on Cracks: Reflections on my Homeland. After having her DNA analyzed in 2018, she began writing Finding My Roots and Other Stories, a series of ten short stories that she completed in 2019.

During the Covid-19 pandemic, she did extensive research for her latest book, Connecting with my African Roots, that yielded surprising and disturbing results.  This controversial book she published in 2021. In 2024 she published her memoir LEGACY. A WOMAN’S JOURNEY TO HEALING that chronicles her journey from Guyana to the United States.

An avid reader, Carmen is focusing on developing a love of reading in children and to this end she distributed copies of her book Black-Water People to high school students in the Linden area.

GUYANA UPDATE

The Demerara Bauxite Company mentioned in my profile, once the main employer in the country, started mining in 1916 and is now a minimal part of Guyana’s industries. It employs a few hundred workers and is owned by the Chinese. The Alumina Plant that started operating in 1961 closed in 1982 and its ruins stand on the bank of the Demerara River. Today, Guyana is all about oil and gas. In 2015, Exxon Mobil discovered huge reservoirs of oil and gas in the Essequibo region bordering Venezuela, signed contracts and began drilling. Other oil companies have joined in the drilling since more oil is being discovered. Venezuela, that has long claimed most of the oil-bearing land despite the fact that the ongoing dispute was settled decades ago by international arbitration and reaffirmed in 2007, is now flexing its muscles and has soldiers at the border while Guyana’s inadequate little army has soldiers there also. In February 2025, Venezuelan soldiers wounded some Guyanese soldiers. The situation is dire. Pray for Guyana.

Books by Carmen

Featured Categories

Discover Your Next Book

Feedback

What Our Readers Are Saying

I am writing to let you know of the several positive effects of reading your book. I have never laughed so hard and was so engrossed in your story that I could not put the book down. The nostalgia…

Stepping on Cracks Reflections on my Homeland

The narrative quickly takes one through a scaling world historical landscape including a review of the settler colonization of the Indigenous Peoples/Amerindians in British Guiana/Guyana around which the author weaves her maternal Indigenous roots and how colonizers established various…

LEGACY. A WOMAN’S JOURNEY TO HEALING

Legacy encapsulates History, Biography, Culture, Psychology, and smooth story telling. Daphne Franklin

LEGACY. A WOMAN’S JOURNEY TO HEALING

CONNECTING WITH MY AFRICAN ROOTS is Dr. Carmen Subryan’s latest book. In it she explores what it means to connect with her African heritage, particularly since she comes from a mixed background. This book is beautifully written. Besides it…

Testimonial by Nkewesi Wiggins

Reading Review

Reading your book was quite a history lesson. Thanks for making us, the readers, more aware of our African ancestry and the few ups and downs of being hyphenated Africans, Guyanese and Americans throughout these years since enslavement of…

CONNECTING WITH MY AFRICAN ROOTS

Reading Review

“Connecting with My African Roots” by Dr. Carmen Barclay Subryan can stand alone as a thought stimulator for forging critical analysis on Afrikan consciousness! It is a compelling read fusing Historical universal markers and Ancestral cultural religious snap shots…

Compelling read!

Reading Review

Petamber Persaud  Guyana Times International  August 31 2018 Excerpt…… In her eighth book, Carmen Barclay Subryan has pushed the boundaries of her writing to another level after safely writing about what she knows and successfully canvassing through the genre…

Stepping on Cracks Reflections on my Homeland

Reading Review

In this series of short stories, the author has captured a great deal of historical information about the Upper Demerara River area, including influences on the lives of the inhabitants living there mainly during the 1960’s. This book is…

Finding My Roots

Reading Review

Dr. Subryan’s stories span her years from adolescence to adulthood, and in that sense FINDING MY ROOTS AND OTHER STORIES is an “epic” work. It is of note that her quest begins with a story having the same name…

FINDING MY ROOTS AND OTHER STORIES is an “epic” work

Reading Review

It is a surest sign of maturity when a people begins to represent themselves and their environment decidedly from their own points of view. Dr. Carmen Subryan’s books center on Linden, up the Demerara River in Guyana, South America,…

Collage of Life

Reading Review

This collection of short stories is brilliantly composed. It traps the essence of the history, culture, and aspects of the socioeconomic dynamics of the city of Linden/Mackenzie, one of the foremost of our mining towns in Guyana, South America….

Brilliantly Composed

Reading Review

A great read. Janice Beaman  

Stepping on Cracks

Stepping on Cracks is quite a complex work that does not follow the regular mold for a novel, but Doreen in the center holds together all of what appear to be digressions to form one compelling read.  Much of…

Stepping on Cracks Reflections of my homeland

STEPPING ON CRACKS provides historical, political, and social information about Guyana and includes vivid details of how the political unrest of the 1960’s played out in Linden as well as its impact on race relations in Guyana to this…

Stepping on Cracks Reflections on my homeland.

Reading Review

These books are a heart warming historical discovery of my homeland.

Awesome and Accurate

Reading Review

Buy one for you

Best sellers

Gallery

Connect With Us

Reader Reviews

Reading your book was quite a history lesson. Thanks for making us, the readers, more aware of our African ancestry and the few ups and downs of being hyphenated Africans, Guyanese and Americans throughout these years since enslavement of our people. Thank you for giving me the privilege of reading this masterpiece. (Quite a history lesson)

Dr. Carmen Bovell

CONNECTING WITH MY AFRICAN ROOTS is Dr. Carmen Subryan’s latest book. In it she explores what it means to connect with her African heritage, particularly since she comes from a mixed background. This book is beautifully written. Besides it being a book of self-discovery, it’s also a sociological journey into our African self. The poet Countee Cullen asked the question: “What is Africa to me?” Dr. Subryan boldly answers this question by exploring how we as a post-colonial people are connected to this continent. From her DNA test, to the history of our ancestors’ journey through the Middle Passage, colonialism, enslavement, loss of heritage and why many Africans in this so-called New World have embarked on a journey of self-discovery and connection, Dr. Subryan is comprehensive in her research. Guyana is a tapestry of many cultures and it is important that we as Guyanese learn about each other’s culture and journey to foster respect and understanding. Everyone can benefit from reading this book.

Nkewesi Wiggins

© Copyright 2024. All Rights Reserved.
Powered by Kubitt.