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In Elektrik, eight women writers from Haiti, Martinique, and Guadeloupe come together to explore, in poetry and prose, the complex nature of Caribbean existence. A single mother has an intimate encounter with a migrant worker; a teenager discovers her sexuality in the shadow of her twin sister; a poet summons a chorus of sirens, only to warn them: “Keep your voices’ beauty from waylaying sailors.” Through glittering translations from French, Elektrik sings the experience of Franco-Caribbean identity today. These writers communicate through the silence of the past to the unknowability of the future—forever in the rare language of literature.
“These extraordinary translations of Caribbean voices surge with defiance and music. Each ‘I’ asserts itself among the topography of memory and inhabiting, navigating the presence of the past within homelands and female bodies…radical and reclamatory.” —Alina Stefanescu
“The Caribbean depicted in this anthology is one envisioned and defined by its authors, carrying with it a bright future simply through the act of feminine production.…For the women highlighted in this collection, the act of writing is one of critical defiance that gives voice to voiceless women and, further, engages in the creation of a redefined Caribbean femininity that defies patriarchal or colonial coercion.…Elektrik is translation operating as good translation should: as a megaphone for writers who might otherwise remain unheard in the Western canon. To answer Jean-Gilles’ question, the poetry and stories within Elektrik give space for Caribbean women to define, to ‘shore up,’ the borders of their own world.” —Barrelhouse
“The latest volume in the brilliant Calico Series honors and highlights Caribbean identity, life and writing with these powerfully evocative pieces by women from Haiti, Martinique and Guadeloupe.” —Ms. Magazine
Praise for the Calico Series
“By turns cryptic and revealing, phantasmagorical and straightforward, these tales balance reality and fantasy on the edge of a knife.” —Publishers Weekly, *starred review* of That We May Live: Speculative Chinese Fiction
“Unbelievably exciting…These are poems to read and reread, repeating the lines as though they were a secret between yourself and the page.” —The Paris Review on Home: New Arabic Poems
“Essential, a gift that opens up the pleasures of new worlds.” —Hugh Raffles on Elemental: Earth Stories
“This eclectic bilingual anthology from queer Brazilian writers, both living and dead, is as expansive and full of life as the country itself…enticing and poignant.” —Publishers Weekly on Cuíer: Queer Brazil
Visible approaches translation as an act that occurs not only between languages but also between media and disciplines…Thoughtfully curated…Past and present come together in a refreshingly collaborative spirit.” —Brooklyn Rail on Visible
“An absorbing sampler of the literary feast available in Africa’s most widely-spoken language, No Edges should leave readers eager to discover more Swahili writers.” —Shailja Patel, author of Migritude, on No Edges
Mireille Jean-Gilles
Voracious street | The missing | In the unwearied heart of the sea…
Translated by Eric Fishman
Gaël Octavia
African Mask
Translated by Kaiama L. Glover
Fabienne Kanor
Plato’s Stars
Translated by Lynn Palermo
Marie-Célie Agnant
Incandescences | Inventory | O My Land | Fervent Prayer
Translated by Danielle Legros Georges
Marie-Célie Agnant
The Last Photograph
Translated by Dawn Fulton
Kettly Mars
from The Patriarch’s Angel
Translated by Lucy Scott
Adlyne Bonhomme
“I wait by the sea…” | “Here I am, a wound hanging…” | “We built the night…” | “Your naked tongue…” | “I approached the sand…” | “From our arms on the first day of spring…”
Translated by Nathan Dize
Suzanne Dracius
The Macho’s Marathon, the Major’s Martyrology, and the Coquer’s Calvary
Translated by Nancy Naomi Carlson and Catherine Kellogg
Gerty Dambury
Defiant Islands
Translated by Judith Miller and Gerty Dambury