Our Caribbean: A Gathering of Lesbian and Gay Writing from the Antilles

The first book of its kind, Our Caribbean is an anthology of lesbian and gay writing from across the Antilles. The author and activist Thomas Glave has gathered outstanding fiction, nonfiction, memoir, and poetry by little-known writers together with selections by internationally celebrated figures such as Jos Alc ntara Alm nzar, Reinaldo Arenas, Dionne Brand, Michelle Cliff, Audre Lorde, Achy Obejas, and Assotto Saint. The result is an unprecedented literary conversation on gay, lesbian, bisexual, and transgendered experiences throughout the Caribbean and its far-flung diaspora. Many selections were originally published in Spanish, Dutch, or creole languages; some are translated into English here for the first time.

The thirty-seven authors hail from the Bahamas, Barbados, Cuba, the Dominican Republic, Grenada, Guyana, Haiti, Jamaica, Panama, Puerto Rico, St. Vincent, St. Kitts, Suriname, and Trinidad. Many have lived outside the Caribbean, and their writing depicts histories of voluntary migration as well as exile from repressive governments, communities, and families. Many pieces have a political urgency that reflects their authors' work as activists, teachers, community organizers, and performers. Desire commingles with ostracism and alienation throughout: in the evocative portrayals of same-sex love and longing, and in the selections addressing religion, family, race, and class. From the poem "Saturday Night in San Juan with the Right Sailors" to the poignant narrative "We Came All the Way from Cuba So You Could Dress Like This?" to an eloquent call for the embrace of difference that appeared in the Nassau Daily Tribune on the eve of an anti-gay protest, Our Caribbean is a brave and necessary book.

Contributors: Jos Alc ntara Alm nzar, Aldo Alvarez, Reinaldo Arenas, Rane Arroyo, Jes s J. Barquet, Marilyn Bobes, Dionne Brand, Timothy S. Chin, Michelle Cliff, Wesley E. A. Crichlow,
Mabel Rodr guez Cuesta, Ochy Curiel, Faizal Deen, Pedro de Jes s, R. Erica Doyle, Thomas Glave,
Rosamond S. King, Helen Klonaris, Lawrence La Fountain-Stokes, Audre Lorde, Shani Mootoo,
Anton Nimblett, Achy Obejas, Leonardo Padura Fuentes, Virgilio Pi era, Patricia Powell, Kevin Everod Quashie, Juanita Ramos, Colin Robinson, Assotto Saint, Andrew Salkey, Lawrence Scott,
Makeda Silvera, H. Nigel Thomas, Rinaldo Walcott, Gloria Wekker, Lawson Williams

Author: Thomas Glave
Publisher: Duke University Press
Published: 06/10/2008
Pages: 418
Binding Type: Paperback
Weight: 1.30lbs
Size: 9.26h x 6.16w x 0.96d
ISBN: 9780822342267


Award: IndieFab awards - Second Place


Review Citation(s):
Publishers Weekly 03/24/2008 pg. 60
Lambda Book Report 04/01/2008 pg. 11
Foreword 04/14/2008

About the Author

Thomas Glave is the author of the short story collections Whose Song? and Other Stories and The Torturer's Wife, and the essay collections Words to Our Now: Imagination and Dissent (Lambda Literary Award, 2005) and Among the Bloodpeople: Politics and Flesh. A founding member of the Jamaica Forum for Lesbians, All-Sexuals, and Gays (J-FLAG), Glave has been Martin Luther King, Jr. Visiting Professor at MIT, a 2012 Visiting Fellow at Clare Hall, Cambridge, and Leverhulme Visiting Professor at the University of Warwick. He lives in Birmingham (U.K.).