Modern Caribbean Fiction: Power, Disaster & Rebirth

Tilla, the central character in Asha Bromfield’s Hurricane Summer: A Novel (Wednesday Books), is a young woman who desperately loves her father but is troubled by his leaving the family every six months to return to his true home: Jamaica. When her mother tells her she’ll be spending the summer on the island, Tilla dreads the idea of seeing him, but she also longs to discover what life in Jamaica has always held for him. And as she learns about the dark secrets that lie beyond the veil of paradise, looming threats include the hurricane that approaches. Booklist noted that “Bromfield may have made a name for herself for her role on Riverdale, but with this debut, about a volatile father-daughter relationship and discovering the ugly truths hidden beneath even the most beautiful façades, she is establishing herself as a promising writer ... this is a must.”

Cherie S.A. Jones is a lawyer and writer. Her short stories have been published in PANK, Cadenza, Eclectica, and The Feminist Wire and broadcast on BBC Radio 4. How the One-Armed Sister Sweeps Her House: A Novel (Back Bay Books) is her first book. In Baxter’s Beach, Barbados, Lala’s grandmother Wilma tells the story of the one-armed sister. It’s a cautionary tale about what happens to girls who disobey their mothers and go into Baxter’s Tunnels. Years later, an adult Lala lives on the beach with her husband, Adan – a petty criminal whose thwarted burglary of a beach mansion sets off a chain of events with terrible consequences. A gunshot no one was meant to witness. A new mother whose baby is found lifeless on the beach. A woman torn between two worlds and incapacitated by grief. And two men driven into the Tunnels by desperation and greed who attempt a crime that will risk their freedom and lives. The New York Times called it “Dazzling. … The storytelling is far from breathless, but it will leave you that way: The effect is of a horrific opera in which ugliness is inevitable, but no less gutting when it appears. And in this opera, there are no minor characters. Each one, carefully and vividly crafted, has a crucial part to play.”

Born in Port-au-Prince, Haiti, M.J. Fievre is a longtime educator and writer. A seasoned K–12 teacher, she has taught creative writing workshops to children at the O Miami Poetry Festival and the Miami Art Museum, and at schools in Santa Cruz de la Sierra (Bolivia), Port-au-Prince (Haiti), and South Florida. She is also the coordinator of Miami Book Fair’s ReadCaribbean program and directs and produces the children’s cultural show Taptap Krik? Krak! Young Trailblazers: The Book of Black Inventors and Scientists (Dragonfruit), a collaborative project with illustrator Kim Balacuit, is a salute to Black pioneers in literature, entertainment, science, education, business, military, sports, spirituality, and more. It’s a journey populated by figures we know – such as Katherine Johnson, George Washington Carver, and Madam C.J. Walker – but many we don’t. Consider James West, a critical figure in the invention of the microphone, or Garrett Morgan, who invented the traffic signal.

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.”