Rhona Pilgrim, former proprietor of the Sunshine Bookshop, has passed away in Grenada, after illness.
Mrs. Pilgrim first came to Saint Lucia many years ago from Grenada. She established the bookshop first on Brazil Street, then on the narrow alleyway between the Boulevard and Micoud Street, later moving to the Gablewood and JQ Rodney Bay Malls.
She stocked a variety of reading materials: international best sellers, classics of world literature, Saint Lucian and Caribbean literature, children’s books, magazines, local, regional and international newspapers.
She hosted book launches and readings by local and visiting writers and was very supportive of local writers and artists. Her friends and patrons included Nobel laureates like Derek Walcott and Seamus Heaney, internationally-acclaimed playwright Arthur Miller and Martinican award-winner Patrick Chamoiseau. Her bookshop was present at major events like the annual Nobel laureate Week celebrations, school-book fairs and the short-lived Word Alive Literary Festival. The shop was also represented at several editions of Carifesta and the Nature Island Literature Festival in Dominica.
The Sunshine Bookshop closed in 2015 and left a void in the arts and literature community which missed the support of Mrs. Pilgrim and her bookshop. Mrs. Pilgrim and her husband Arthur had returned to Grenada.
Condolences are offered to her family and friends in Saint Lucia, the region and further abroad.
Write-up by Mr. John Robert Lee
