Celebrating Caribbean Heritage Month
June is Caribbean Heritage Month and what a rich trove of literature there is to celebrate! This month we rounded up some of our favorite new literature from authors of Caribbean heritage. From poetry to fiction to children’s and young adult books, from the beautiful to the painful, from the magical to the realist, these are stories that celebrate the unique culture of those from Caribbean countries while exploring relationships with family, capitalism, nature, gender, sports, and so much more.
For more book recommendations see the booklist on our website.
The Perseverance by Raymond Antrobus
Innovative, insightful, and wide-ranging, this collection uses a variety of poetic tools to examine the rich complexities of the poet’s experience as a deaf British Jamaican man. Autobiographical explorations of masculinity, heritage, and language, exist alongside deft interrogations around grief & illness. The poems are notably referential, and Antrobus has garnered comparisons to American poets Ilya Kaminsky, Danez Smith, & José Olivarez, to which I’d add Nate Marshall, Shira Erlichman, and Cortney Lamar Charleston. — Serena
What Noise Against the Cane by Desiree C. Bailey
This book begins with the Haitian revolution and carries that revolutionary, incantatory spirit throughout every page. Epic, fluid, and dynamic, the collection draws from Caribbean folk tradition to explore dual themes of fugitivity & liberty, in particular as they relate to Black womanhood & Black diaspora. As much salt as it is water, What Noise Against the Cane stings, soothes, records, and reflects. — Serena
A Story About Afiya by James Berry & Anna Cunha
Everyday Afiya wears her freshly washed white frock, and everyday the beautiful nature surrounding her imprints itself on the clean blank slate of her dress. This wonderfully whimsical picture book was written by master poet James Berry and is gorgeously brought to life by artist Anna Cunha. These two together have created a perfectly stunning and magical story around one vibrant young girl’s connection to the natural world. — Lindsay
These Ghosts Are Family by Maisy Card
Stanford Solomon, actually Abel Paisley, faked his own death thirty-five years ago and stole the identity of his best friend. Now, his firstborn daughter, whom he has never met, is his new home health aide and is surprised to find she will be caring for the father she thought was dead. This engrossing novel is all about family secrets and their costs, switching back and forth between colonial Jamaica and modern-day Harlem. Card’s writing is immaculate and I would never guess this novel is a debut! — Lindsay
Dominicana by Angie Cruz
It’s the early 1960’s when 15-year-old Ana Cancion emigrates to New York City by way of the Dominican Republic, after her mother forces her to marry 32-year-old businessman, Juan Ruiz. Homesick Ana must now attempt to carve a small life for herself under the surveillance of an oppressive husband, in a dizzyingly foreign new land. This story—inspired by the author’s mother—enters your heart surreptitiously and never leaves. I can’t stop thinking about Ana, in her, Cruz honors the sacrifices made by every first-generation, immigrant girl of her likeness; in particular, those forced to become women too soon. — Serena
Also now available in Spanish!
Patsy by Nicole Dennis-Benn
If you are looking for a stunner of a novel to sink into this summer, please let me recommend Nicole Dennis-Benn’s Patsy! Following the journey of Patsy from Jamaica to America, leaving behind her daughter to live with a former lover in hopes of a better life, Dennis-Benn tackles difficult and painful relationships with family, sexuality and gender identity, racism, and poverty with such compassion and courage. Her writing is so powerful and so deeply felt. — Colleen
Here Comes the Sun by Nicole Dennis Benn
This book is a sun-soaked & vibrant story of sisterhood, race, and class in a post-colonial Jamaica. Dennis-Benn's portrayal of these sisters & the boundaries they're fighting against is a powerful debut. — Emma
Libertie by Kaitlyn Greenidge
I love this historical fiction set in the free Black community of Weeksville in Brooklyn during the Civil War and postbellum era. Libertie is raised by her mother, the community’s doctor, and taught to honor her independence, her mind and her work ethic, but throws a wrench into everything when she drops out of college and follows her love to Haiti, the first independent Caribbean state and leading the revolution. Inspired by Susan Smith McKinney Steward, the first Black woman to become a doctor in New York, this book is about freedom, ambition, love, care, and the narratives we dream and accept for our lives. — Colleen
The Life Assignment by Ricardo Alberto Maldonado
In this bilingual collection, Maldonado laments late capitalism while also defying it by making love his industry, his language, and his “life assignment,” declaring “I loved. I loved. I love presently.” This is queer love but also love of his nation, Puerto Rico, a homeland whose presence is felt throughout the collection. Though these poems hold space for the melancholy, rage, and exhaustion that accompany unending economic exploitation, the lyrics remain rebellious of Empire, and the body is reclaimed (from labor alone) as “substance riotous with living.” — Serena
The Poet X by Elizabeth Acevedo
I was first introduced to Acevedo’s work through her slim but mighty chapbook Beastgirl & Other Origin Myths, so it’s been such a delight to see this author rise triumphantly into the literary limelight. This award-winning novel-in-verse follows Xiomara, a teenaged Afro-Latina Harlemite who, like the author, discovers her power through slam poetry. Acevedo distills all the heart, sweat, and soul of the NYC slam scene into the pages of this book and the result is glorious. — Serena
Antiman: A Hybrid Memoir by Rajiv Mohabir
In this highly-saturated and multi-textured memoir, Rajiv Mohabir invents a mode to encompass the complexities of his existence as an Indo-Guyanese poet who is “queer sexually, queer religiously, queer by caste, and queer countried.” With an intergenerational life story marked by various migrations—and some may say, transgressions—Mohabir carves a vessel to contain his multitudes using the instruments of prose, song, poetry, and prayer. Authentic and defiant, this memoir responds to erasure with assertion, to derogation with reclamation, and to fragmentation with relation. Fans of Ocean Vuong, Alexander Chee, and Saeed Jones will adore this book! — Serena
Popisho by Leone Ross
Take a trip to the archipelago of Popisho, where magic is a part of everyday life. Everyone is born with cors, a unique magical gift that grants them abilities like detecting lies, flavoring foods with the touch of your hand, or even being born with an extra body part; sealing their destinies. Over the course of a day their lives change forever, while they struggle with love, grief, corruption, addiction, and family. Popisho is meant to be savored, and Ross’ lyrical writing draws you into this absurd and imaginative land. It's witty, weird, and wonderful--the perfect escape without even having to leave your home. — Anthony
See our whole book list on our website!
