Nov 22

Nov 22 Caribbean Literary Giants: The Authors

The Caribbean hosts and boasts many pioneering literary giants: Trinidadian Earl Lovelace, Antiguan Jamaica Kincaid, Jamaican Marlon James and Guadeloupean Maryse Condé to name but a few. Some of these writers have won worldwide literary acclaim, originally writing in English, French, Spanish and Creole. All, however, have colourfully and critically examined the Caribbean experience – its indigenous pretext, its colonial context, and its shared history. Today, these writers are part of a canonical patchwork of intellectual traditions and literary experimentations. Here is a compiled list of notable Caribbean writers and their works:

Jamaica Kincaid: Notable works: A Small Place; An Autobiography of My Mother; Mr. Potter; Lucy

If you want to acquaint yourself with personalised stories of growing up in the Caribbean, Kincaid is a starting point. Having migrated from Antigua to America at age 16, Kincaid’s narratives often reflect on her homeland, belonging and identity, which is common amongst many writers who are of dual nationality. Her coming-of-age novel Annie John tells the story of a girl who struggles to find a place for herself within Antiguan society, while her biographical book-length essay A Small Place, problematizes the impact of foreign travellers and tourists who have resided in the West Indies since the onset of European colonialism.

Earl Lovelace: Notable works: The Schoolmaster; The Dragon Can’t Dance; The Wine of Astonishment

Earl Lovelace was a Trinidadian novelist, short-story writer, and playwright best known for his descriptive, dramatic fiction about West Indian culture. As a writer and storyteller his body of works explore the impact social, economic, and political changes had on the lives of individuals in the late twentieth-century. Having travelled to different districts on the outskirts of Port of Spain, Lovelace was well-versed in the nuances of local dialects and cultural particularities of communities and classes.

Maryse Condé: Notable works: Segu; Windward Heights; Crossing the Mangrove; Tree of Life

For nearly four decades, Guadeloupean author, Maryse Condé, has been at the forefront of French Caribbean literature. Condé wrote her first novel at the age of 11. Though, she is best known for her best-selling novel Segu and Windward Heights; the first, an epic historical fiction set in Segou (now part of Mali) and the second, a postcolonial reworking of the English classic, Wuthering Heights by Emily Bronte. Her books respectively examine the violent impact of the slave trade, colonialism and migration on Guadeloupian society. Her most recent title, The Wondrous and Tragic Life of Ivan and Ivana, was published in 2020.

Edwidge Danticat: Notable works: Everything Inside; Brother, I’m Dying; Untwine

Having been born and raised in Port-au-Prince, Haiti, Edwidge Danticat has established herself as one of the region’s most notable writers. Having migrated to New York at age 12, her work largely explores the history and memory of one’s past and country. Her first book, Breath, Eyes, Memory, is loosely inspired from her experience as a Haitian American immigrant. The novel explores the ways in which identity is forged in the merging of American and Haitian sensibilities and cultures. Her novel, The Farming of Bones details the events leading up to the segregation and brutal massacre of Haitians in Haiti and the Dominican Republic, in 1937.

Marlon James: Notable works: John Crow’s Devil; Black Leopard Red Wolf

Marlon James is an exceptional writer of Jamaican descent. He has authored four novels including The Book of Night Women, which recounts a slave woman’s rebellion on a Jamaican plantation to his Booker Prize-winning novel, A Brief History of Seven Killings – exploring several decades of political instability in the island of Jamaica, chronicling the lives of unforgettable characters including the legendary Bob Marley. His most recent work, Moon Witch, Spider King is expected on 15th February 2022.

Mayra Santos-Febres: Notable work: Nuestra Senora De La Noche (Our Lady of the Night); Cualquier Miercoles Soy Tuya (Any Wednesday I’m Yours)

Mayra Santos-Febres is one of a very small group of Black female Puerto Rican authors. She is the author of some twenty books of fiction, literary criticism, and poetry. She is best known for her romantic and at times erotic writings on female sexuality, gender, and relationships. Though the undercurrents of the Black experience - diasporic identity, culture, oppression – are also present in her work. Her novels (originally written in Spanish) have been translated into English, which makes her work readily available to a new readership.