Stories from blue latitudes : Caribbean women writers at home and abroad

"Stories from Blue Latitudes gathers the major and emerging women fiction writers from the Caribbean, including Dionne Brand, Michelle Cliff, Merle Collins, Edwidge Danticat, Jamaica Kincaid, Paule Marshall, and Pauline Melville. Similar themes grace their stories of life at home and abroad. In some, the sexual exploitation of Caribbean girls and women becomes a metaphor for neocolonialism, a biting rejoinder to enticing travel brochures that depict the Caribbean as a tropical playground and encourage Americans to "make it your own." Other tales deal with the sad legacy of colonial history and the ways in which race, skin color, and class complicate relationships between men and women, parents and children. But whether writing about childhood or adulthood, life in the islands or life abroad, the writers express their particular concerns with a passion that comes from lived experience, and with a love of place and a feminist sensibility that are accessible to new readers of Caribbean literature as well as to an academic audience. "What matters is how well we have told our tale, how well we have drawn pictures of the people and places we write about, " Nunez says. And indeed, this anthology makes those pictures come alive."--amazon.ca Frontmatter "Just Riffing" (a poem) (ESTHER PHILLIPS, page VII) Introduction (page 1) "In a Window" an excerpt from the novel At the Full and Change of the Moon (DIONNE BRAND, page 9) "Sleeping's Beauty and the Prince Charming" (ERNA BRODBER, page 27) "Boat Man" (MARGARET CEZAIR-THOMPSON, page 32) "Transactions" (MICHELLE CLIFF, page 43) "Shadowboxing" (MERLE COLLINS, page 58) "Tatiana, Mon Amour" (EDWIDGE DANTICAT, page 70) "The Entertainment" (ZEE EDGELL, page 94) "In the Minor Key" an excerpt from the novel The Swinging Bridge (RAMABAI ESPINET, page 104) "Mother's Collection" (DONNA HEMANS, page 112) "Limbo Island" (MERLE HODGE, page 122) "Shift" (NALO HOPKINSON, page 138) "Baywatch an' de Preacher" an excerpt from the novel Tide Running (OONYA KEMPADOO, page 155) "Columbus in Chains" an excerpt from the novel Annie John (JAMAICA KINCAID, page 160) "Sugar" (SHARON LEACH, page 170) "Hortense" an excerpt from the novel Small Island (ANDREA LEVY, page 179) "To Da-duh, in Memoriam" (PAULE MARSHALL, page 190) "Firstborn" (ALECIA McKENZIE, page 203) "Salt" an excerpt from the novel Dragons Cry (TESSA McWATT, page 220) "The Parrot and Descartes" (PAULINE MELVILLE, page 236) "Blood" (PAMELA MORDECAI, page 250) "Zuela" an excerpt from the novel Bruised Hibiscus (ELIZABETH NUNEZ, page 261) "Stop Frame" (M. NOURBESE PHILIP, page 270) "SMILE (God Loves You)" (VELMA POLLARD, page 284) "The Good Life" (PATRICIA POWELL, page 292) "The Pain Tree" (OLIVE SENIOR, page 307) "Volcano" (YVONNE WEEKES, page 319) An anthology of stories by Caribbean women writers explores such themes as residency in a tourist environment that invites visitors to make the area their own, the sexual exploitation of Caribbean women, and the region's tragic colonial history, in a volume that includes contributions by such authors as Edwidge Danticat, Jamaica Kincaid, and Dionne Brand. Reprint.