Meet The Team

​Susan Sayre grew up in Massachusetts in the 60s. She graduated from college with a BA in English/Music and later earned an MAT in English. She taught high school literature and writing courses for 24 years while serving as the school newspaper advisor. Upon retirement, she taught writing and literature courses for 4 years at Bristol Community College as an adjunct instructor.  In 2011 she moved to Anguilla where she established and hosted a B&B. While there she developed and conducted 2 writing classes, 1 for adult professionals at Anguilla Community College, and 1 for inmates at Her Majesty’s Prison all while she continued teaching writing at BCC remotely. She returned to Rhode Island in the US in 2017 and has since been teaching online writing classes for the Community College of Rhode Island (CCRI) as they are offered. She also began editing online for Emmanuel Publishing House in 2017 and is delighted to be part of the EPH team.   She is extremely proud of her son Adam Machado who won a Grammy in 2013 for writing about music, and of her niece Carrie Arcos who is the author of 5 published young adult novels, her first honored as a National Book Award finalist.

Ivenia A Benjamin is an Attorney- at- Law from the island of Dominica. She holds a Degree in law (honors) from the University of the West Indies Cave Hill Campus 1995. She attended the Sir Hugh Wooding Law School in Trinidad and Tobago 1997. She is admitted to the bar in Dominica as well as some other Caribbean islands and is admitted to the Roll of Solicitors in the UK. She holds a Master’s Degree from the University of London. Ms. Benjamin is an author and the founder /CEO and Acquisitions Manager of Emmanuel Publishing House which was established in 2005.

Alick Lazare is the author of Pharcel: Runaway Slave (a historical novel about the maroons of Dominica), Kalinago Blood (a fictional account of the genocide of the Kalinago tribe in the Eastern Caribbean), Nature Island Verses (a volume of poetry on the themes of Love, Life and Politics), and a collection of short stories – Carib and Other Stories. One of his stories, Carib, was chosen for inclusion in Under the Perfume Tree, a collection of Caribbean stories published by The Macmillan Caribbean Writers Series. A poem, Little Bird, from his book, Nature Island Verses, has been selected for publication in an anthology released in 2015 by the Commonwealth Education Trust. In his two novels, writing from the perspective of his subjects and telling their story as seen from their own eyes and with their own voice, he has been a revisionist of colonial history and has brought new understanding to the nature of his subjects and the narrative of their past. Born in Dominica 17th. October 1934, Alick Lazare was a career civil servant, Financial Secretary and regional consultant in government finance; and, on retirement, spends his time on historical research and exploring Dominica’s literature.

Alma A.G. Darroux was born and raised in the Commonwealth of Dominica. She is a Published Writer, Poet, Computer Operator, Graphics Designer, videographer and human rights activist advocating for persons with challenges/disabilities. She designs bookmarks, business cards, wedding invitations/programmes, logos, labels, flyers, certificates, and so much more! A few years ago she began creating videos to promote books for Emmanuel Publishing House. This began when she first created a video to promote her own book ‘I Am Soul!’ This video can now be seen on YouTube, Amazon, Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest, GoodReads, among other social media platforms. When she was asked to create videos to promote other writers’ books she eagerly took up that position. Alma not only loves working as a videographer but it brings her joy to design the videos and bring books to “life” at Emmanuel Publishing House, “Where Books Take Flight”.