When the Calabash International Literary Festival Trust began its workshop in 2003, most people said the writing talent in Jamaica had been cased in tempered steel. On an island with a population closing in on three million, only one workshop existed and it wasn't cheap. Taking many cues from the local music industry, the dynamo that helped to generate careers for acts like Bob Marley and the Wailers, Jimmy Cliff and Shabba Ranks, the Calabash Writers Workshop has produced a loud discordant chorus of contemporary fiction writers who are encourage to value their voices.