In Conversation: On What Storm, What Thunder: A Novel

Guerda Nicolas, Ph.D.,  is a multicultural (Haitian American), multilingual psychologist (Spanish, French, and Haitian Creole) and author. She has published several books including Building Mental Health Capacity in Haiti through Collaborative Partnerships (Nova Publishers) and Conséquences Psychologiques de la Pauvreté Extrême En Haïti (The Psychological Consequences of Extreme Poverty in Haiti) with Grégory Gustemable (Caribbean Studies Press). Her current research focuses on the integration of race, culture, and well-being for ethnically diverse and immigrant communities.

Myriam J. A. Chancy is a Guggenheim fellow, HBA chair of the humanities at Scripps College, and the author of What Storm, What Thunder: A Novel (Harper Collins Canada/Tin House Books). Her past novels include The Loneliness of Angels (Peepal Tree, 2010), winner of the 2010 Guyana Prize in Literature Caribbean Award for best fiction; The Scorpion’s Claw (Peepal Tree Press, 2005); and Spirit of Haiti (Mango, 2003), shortlisted in the best first book category, Canada/Caribbean region of the Commonwealth Prize, 2004. She has also authored several academic books, including Framing Silence: Revolutionary Novels by Haitian Women (Rutgers, 1997). She served as an editorial advisory board member for PMLA from 2010-12, as a humanities advisor for the Fetzer Institute from 2011-13, and as a 2018 advisor for the John S. Guggenheim Memorial Foundation. What Storm, What Thunder – named a best book by Time, The Washington Post, the Chicago Tribune, LitHub, and Harper's Bazaar, among other accolades – recounts the aftermath of the devastating 2010 earthquake from which Haiti still hasn’t recovered. Opening at the end of a long, sweltering day, the earthquake shakes Port-au-Prince, leaving desolation wreaked by both nature and humankind in its wake. In telling the stories of the people affected, Chancy delivers both a haunting record of heartbreaking trauma and a testimony to the tenacity of the human spirit. Publishers Weekly, called it “extraordinary … lyrical … dazzling. … Each of the voices entrances, thanks to Chancy’s beautiful prose and rich themes. This is not to be missed.”