In Honor of Caribbean Heritiage Month

Educator and author Ashley Hope Perez put together this great guest post for Color Online earlier in the year. I decided to rerun for Caribbean Heritage Month.

Reading Women Writers of the Caribbean

There’s more to Caribbean literature than the (wonderful) well-known works like A Simple Habana Melody and In the Time of the Butterflies.

Come with me to discover the texts I teach as part of my college class on women writers of the Caribbean. These titles are not to be missed! I’ll discuss them, not in order of publication, but in the order in which I teach them.

“A Small Place” by Jamaica Kincaid (Antigua). This piece is the first text I introduce students to. I start here because Kincaid issues a forceful critique against tourism, and I want to challenge my students to find ways of reading that go beyond literary tourism. This is our starting place for discussions of the connections between reading and ethics. The text often makes readers feel guilty, angry, and uncomfortable. We talk about why.

Prospero’s Daughter by Elizabeth Nunez (Trinidad). This is a fascinating adaptation and retelling of Shakespeare’s The Tempest. This is the first novel I teach in the course because Nunez’s critique of colonialism, valorization of the local and (re)appropriation of a master plot by a white writer are features that are pretty plain to students. This is what I call an “apprenticeship” novel that helps sensitize students to themes that they’ll encounter (more subtly) in subsequent novels.

I, Tituba, Black Witch of Salem by Maryse Condé (Guadeloupe). Here, Condé puts Tituba, a marginal historical figure from the Salem witch trials, on center stage, tracing her travels from the Caribbean to New England and back again. In addition to her reclamation of and play with the Salem history, Condé incorporates a cameo appearance by Hester Prynne of Hawthorne’s The Scarlet Letter, changing Hester’s fate in the retelling. Check out this blog for a subtle reading of I, Tituba

Wide Sargasso Sea by Jean Rhys (Dominica). This classic of Caribbean literature offers yet another instance of rewriting canonical texts, for it imagines the pre-history of the Bertha character (the madwoman in the attic) from Charlotte Brontë’s Jane Eyre. (Don’t worry; you don’t have to know Jane Eyre to enjoy Wide Sargasso Sea. The first time I read it, I hadn’t yet read the Brontë classic.) It also provides readers with an opportunity to reflect on madness as a product of heredity—or of manipulated circumstances. The power of men over women’s lives comes to the fore here.

No Telephone to Heaven by Michelle Cliff (Jamaica). One of my favorite books of all time, this novel explores identity and fragmentation at a number of levels from the national to the personal. Cliff’s masterful storytelling and stylistic finesse make this novel stand out, not merely in Caribbean literature, but in postmodern fiction in general. This is also a novel that the matizes gender identity and political violence.

The Youngest Doll by Rosario Ferré (Puerto Rico). This collection of short stories challenges readers with sudden (unmarked) shifts of perspective, cutting irony, and surreal elements that break through into otherwise realistic narratives. At her best, Ferré provokes fascination and compulsive re-reading with these feminist parables and experiments.



(Note: these stories are ostensibly translations of the texts collected in Papeles de Pandora, but having read the Spanish first, in teaching I discovered that many of the stories in The Youngest Doll have been substantially modified, their experimental edge toned down. This is apparently an authorial decision since Ferré co-translated most of the stories.)

The Pagoda by Patricia Powell (Jamaica). It’s hard to discuss this novel’s plot without giving things away since it is built around the concealment and revelation of a number of family secrets. In this novel, Powell places Asian experience in Jamaica at the center of her story. I love how Powell shows the damage people can do to one another and the possibility of healing.

The Farming of Bones by Edwidge Danticat (Haiti). I save this novel for last in teaching because I want my students to be maximally prepared to savor every aspect of it. Set in the Dominican Republic, Danticat’s novel dramatizes the massacre of Haitian workers in the D.R. during Trujillo’s dictatorship. Prepare yourself to gasp over Danticat’s exquisite prose.



Thanks for having me as a guest. Happy reading, everybody!

Ashley Hope Pérez is a passionate teacher and student of literature. She is also the author of two YA novels. What Can't Wait was just released by Carolrhoda LAB on March 1; look for The Knife and the Butterfly in 2012. She blogs about books, ideas, and writing. You can check her out online at Ashley Perez and find out the secret behind her tattoo, why she dropped out of high school at 16, and how she finds time to write while chasing her 11-month-old, Liam Miguel, who has an obsession with cat food and cabinets.

I loved Perez's YA novel What Can't Wait. It's one of my favorite debuts of 2011. My review An excerpt

Women Writers of the Caribbean - ( A Guest Post)

Educator and debut author Ashley Hope Perez was kind enough to agree to do a guest post on Women Writers of the Caribbean

Reading Women Writers of the Caribbean

There’s more to Caribbean literature than the (wonderful) well-known works like A Simple Habana Melody and In the Time of the Butterflies.

Come with me to discover the texts I teach as part of my college class on women writers of the Caribbean. These titles are not to be missed! I’ll discuss them, not in order of publication, but in the order in which I teach them.

“A Small Place” by Jamaica Kincaid (Antigua). This piece is the first text I introduce students to. I start here because Kincaid issues a forceful critique against tourism, and I want to challenge my students to find ways of reading that go beyond literary tourism. This is our st arting place for discussions of the connections between reading and ethics. The text often makes readers feel guilty, angry, and uncomfortable. We talk about why.



Prospero’s Daughter by Elizabeth Nunez (Trinidad). This is a fascinating adaptation and retelling of Shakespeare’s The Tempest. This is the first novel I teach in the course because Nunez’s critique of colonialism, valorization of the local and (re)appropriation of a master plot by a white writer are features that are pretty plain to students. This is what I call an “apprenticeship” novel that helps sensitize students to themes that they’ll encounter (more subtly) in subsequent novels.

I, Tituba, Black Witch of Salem by Maryse Condé (Guadeloupe). Here, Condé puts Tituba, a marginal historical figure from the Salem witch trials, on center stage, tracing her travels from the Caribbean to New England and back again. In addition to her reclamation of and play with the Salem history, Condé incorporates a cameo appearance by Hester Prynne of Hawthorne’s The Scarlet Letter, changing Hester’s fate in the retelling. Check out this blog for a subtle reading of I, Tituba



Wide Sargasso Sea by Jean Rhys (Dominica). This classic of Caribbean literature offers yet another instance of rewriting canonical texts, for it imagines the pre-history of the Bertha character (the madwoman in the attic) from Charlotte Brontë’s Jane Eyre. (Don’t worry; you don’t have to know Jane Eyre to enjoy Wide Sargasso Sea. The first time I read it, I hadn’t yet read the Brontë classic.) It also provides readers with an opportunity to reflect on madness as a product of heredity—or of manipulated circumstances. The power of men over women’s lives comes to the fore here.

No Telephone to Heaven by Michelle Cliff (Jamaica). One of my favorite books of all time, this novel explores identity and fragmentation at a number of levels from the national to the personal. Cliff’s masterful storytelling and stylistic finesse make this novel stand out, not merely in Caribbean literature, but in postmodern fiction in general. This is also a novel that thematizes gender identity and political violence.

The Youngest Doll by Rosario Ferré (Puerto Rico). This collection of short stories challenges readers with sudden (unmarked) shifts of perspective, cutting irony, and surreal elements that break through into otherwise realistic narratives. At her best, Ferré provokes fascination and compulsive re-reading with these feminist parables and experiments.



(Note: these stories are ostensibly translations of the texts collected in Papeles de Pandora, but having read the Spanish first, in teaching I discovered that many of the stories in The Youngest Doll have been substantially modified, their experimental edge toned down. This is apparently an authorial decision since Ferré co-translated most of the stories.)

The Pagoda by Patricia Powell (Jamaica). It’s hard to discuss this novel’s plot without giving things away since it is built around the concealment and revelation of a number of family secrets. In this novel, Powell places Asian experience in Jamaica at the center of her story. I love how Powell shows the damage people can do to one another and the possibility of healing.

The Farming of Bones by Edwidge Danticat (Haiti). I save this novel for last in teaching because I want my students to be maximally prepared to savor every aspect of it. Set in the Dominican Republic, Danticat’s novel dramatizes the massacre of Haitian workers in the D.R. during Trujillo’s dictatorship. Prepare yourself to gasp over Danticat’s exquisite prose.



Thanks for having me as a guest. Happy reading, everybody!

Ashley Hope Pérez is a passionate teacher and student of literature. She is also the author of two YA novels. What Can't Wait was just released by Carolrhoda LAB on March 1; look for The Knife and the Butterfly in 2012. She blogs about books, ideas, and writing. You can check her out online at Ashley Perez and find out the secret behind her tattoo, why she dropped out of high school at 16, and how she finds time to write while chasing her 11-month-old, Liam Miguel, who has an obsession with cat food and cabinets.

I loved Perez's debut, What Can't Wait. My review

In the Time of Butterflies - Algonquin Book Club

I am currently reading In the Time of Butterflies by Julia Alvarez and loving it. When I found out it was the first book selected for the new Algonquin Book Club, I decided to finally pick it up. Some novels are classics for a reason, In the Time of Butterflies is one of them. Looking forward to watching out the book club webcast, author Edwidge Danticat interviews Julia Alvarez about In the Time of Butterflies. The event was held at a Miami bookstore and sold out, 250 tickets.

Algonquin's New Book Club Series

Alqonquin Books is launching a new book club series beginning March 21.

We’ll be featuring four Algonquin Book Club selections a year for dynamic literary events held around the country and simultaneously webcast on our site. For each event, an Algonquin author will be interviewed by a notable writer.

I am mentioning the book club at Color Online because in this inaugural year two of four books are written by female authors of color. Its not often that women authors of color make up fifty percent.

March 21 Julia Alvarez (In the Time of the Butterflies) interviewed by Edwidge Danticat, author of Brother, I’m Dying

April 26 Sara Gruen (Water for Elephants) interviewed by Kathryn Stockett, author of The Help
August 18 Heidi Durrow (The Girl Who Fell from the Sky) interviewed by Terry McMillan, author of Getting to Happy

October 20 Robert Goolrick (A Reliable Wife) interviewed by Patricia Cornwell, author of Port Mortuary

Anyone who has read In the Time of Butterflies is encourged to Join the Conversation.

Want to chat with other readers about In the Time of the Butterflies? Each week, we’ll be giving away Algonquin Book Club tote bags, autographed Julia Alvarez books, Advance Review Copies, brand new titles hot off the press, and other swag to people who join in the conversation by:

Posting comments on the In the Time of the Butterflies discussion section on our Facebook page.
Sharing thoughts on Twitter using #AlgBookClub.

Contributing feedback to our In the Time of the Butterflies book club discussion blog posts leading up to the event.

Do you have a question for Julia Alvarez? Submit it to the discussion section on our Facebook page, or post about it on Twitter using #AlgBookClub, and yours may be asked during the March 21 live webcast, where you’ll be able to chat with other viewers from around the world.

Check out the user friendly Algonquin Book Blog to learn more about the book club series.

I've read Alvarez before but not In the Time of Butterflies. Now I am looking forward to reading it though Alvarez is going to have to get in line behind Tayari Jones. Tomorrow I will start Jones upcoming novel Silver Sparrow which is published by Algonquin books.

Survival and Hope after the Earthquake in Haiti

Eight Days: A Story of Haiti by Edwidge Danticat illus. by Alix Delinois

The first three words that come to my mind when I think of Eight Days are healing, survival and hope. I think its the perfect first picture book after the earthquake in Haiti that killed many and forced the Island to rebuild. Rather than focus on loss, Danticat writes about a boy who is saved thanks in part to his imagination.

The story begins with 7 yr old Junior being pulled from the rubble eight days after the earthquake. Though Junior's body was trapped his mind was free, and each day he did something new. Junior tells the people assembled at his rescue what he did on each day.

Junior is having fun most days with best friend Oscar or his sister Justine. Though on the 5th day Oscar went to sleep and never woke up. "That was the day I cried"

I was touched by that line. Its not often boys are seen crying in books. I think Eight Days is quietly beautiful. Its also gorgeous. Delinois illustrations are simply wonderful. The colors are Haiti.

The note from the author in the back, is a must read for adults.

The earthquake on January 12, 2010, dramatically change their lives. Many watched loved ones die. Others, like Junior, were stuck in the rubble of their homes and were rescued several days later. Yet in spite of everything, Haiti's children still dream. They laugh. They live. They love."

There's so much more, including the fact that nearly half of Haiti's population is under fifteen. Danticat wrote Eight Days for the children. Though adults will take something away from it as well. Eight Days will touch your heart.

Scholastic the publishers of Eight Days are donating $10,000 to the International Rescue Committe (IRC). Click on the link and check it out. You can also make a donation of your own. Or simply buy a copy of Eight Days.

An NPR interview with the author

Create Dangerously by Edwidge Danticat

Create Dangerously by Edwidge Danticat
"In this deeply personal book, the celebrated Haitian American writer Edwidge Danticat reflects on art and exile, examining what it means to be an immigrant artist from a country in crisis. Inspired by Albert Camus lecture Create Dangerously, and combining memoir and essay, Danticat tells the stories of artists, including herself who create despite or because of, the horrors that drove them from their homelands and that continue to haunt them."

The above is from the inside flap and truly captures what this book is about. Danticat opens with the 1964 public execution in Haiti, under dictator Francois "Papa Doc" Duvalier of two artist, Marcel Numa, Louis Drouin. The author quickly establishes that some artist risk their lives to create and speak in a hostile environment. This work addresses the role immigrant artist must play for their birth countries that suffer from censorship and unjust rule. We learn about many Haitian artist. Some who gave hope and inspiration, others who were exiled or murdered. Danticat tells us about Jean Dominque, a journalist who spent his life speaking out against the government and was assassinated. Sharing stories and memories, Danticat makes Dominque real.

"During the dictatorship in the early 1960's, a young Jean had created a cinema club, hosting weekly screenings at the Alliance Francaise in Port-au-Prince. There he showed films such as Federico Fellini's La Strada, which is, among other things, about a girl's near enslavement as a circus performer. "If you see a good film correctly" Jean said, "the grammar of that film is a political act. Everytime you see Fellini's La Strada, even if there is no question of fascism, of politcal persecution, you feel something against the black part of life." Another favorite of his was the Alian Resnais documentary Night and Fog, which describes the horrors of concentration camps. "To us, Auschwitz was Fort Dimanche," he said, referring to the Duvalier-era dungeonlike prison where thousands of Haitians were tortured and killed."

Danticat's writing is inviting, beautiful and honest. At times I felt the author shared more then she probably thought she would. Create Dangerously is a very powerful read. Read an excerpt