- Paperback: 174 pages
- Published: 7/3/18
- IBSN: 9781617756702
- e-IBSN: 9781617756757
- Hardcover
- IBSN: 9781617756740
Catalog » Browse by Title: S » So Many Islands: Stories from the Caribbean, Mediterranean, Indian, and Pacific Oceans
So Many Islands: Stories from the Caribbean, Mediterranean, Indian, and Pacific Oceans
Brand-new fiction, essays, and poems from seventeen island countries around the world.
Available as an e-book for:
What people are saying…
“The 17 selections of fiction, nonfiction, and poetry in this vibrant collection unite the voices of islanders from around the globe, complete with an excellent introduction by Marlon James . . . Readers encounter the language, customs, and flora and fauna of many island nations in this delightful and enlightening volume, an invitation to share and experience islands around the globe.”
—Publishers Weekly, STARRED Review
“As an anthology, this collection of work is amazingly well-rounded . . . This collection is a unique and worthy addition to any library . . . These writers offer a window into genuine, unglazed local life in far-flung, ill-understood parts of the world. It’s a gift beyond price.”
—Sinkhole Magazine
Description
Collecting new fiction, essays, and poems from seventeen countries around the world, So Many Islands brings us stories about love and protest, about childhood innocence and the traumas of history, about leaving home and trying to return. These writers’s island homes may seem remote on the map, but there is nothing isolated about their compelling, fresh voices.
Featuring contributions by authors from Antigua and Barbuda, Barbados, Bermuda, Cyprus, Grenada, Jamaica, Kiribati, Malta, Mauritius, Niue, Rotuma (Fiji), Samoa, Singapore, Saint Lucia, Saint Vincent and the Grenadines, Tonga, and Trinidad and Tobago. So Many Islands is the fourth publication of Peekash Press, an imprint of Akashic Books and Peepal Tree Press, committed to supporting the emergence of new Caribbean writing, and as part of the CaribLit project.
From the introduction by Marlon James:
I wonder if it is because we island people are surrounded by sea, hemmed in and branching out at once, that we are always in a state of flux. The sea and even the sky are definers and confiners, they have spent millions of years carving space, while at the same time giving us clear openings to map the voyage out. And, today, to be an islander is to live in one place and a thousand, to be part of a family that is way too close by for your business ever to be your own, or way too far but only a remittance cheque away. Or, put another way, to be island people means to be both coming and going. Passing and running, running and passing, as the song goes. Living there, but not always present, travelling or migrating, but never leaving. Or what has never been a new thing, but might turn into a new movement: more and more authors staying put, all the better to let their words wander.
- Subjects: Black Interest, Caribbean Interest, Literary Fiction, Peekash Press, Poetry
- Tags: Antigua and Barbuda, Barbados, Bermuda, CaribLit, Coming Up Hot, Coming Up Hot: Eight New Poets from the Caribbean, Cyprus, FIji, Grenada, Jamaica, Kiribati, Malta, Marlon James, Mauritius, Nailah Folami Imoja, New Worlds Old Ways, New Worlds Old Ways: Speculative Tales from the Caribbean, Nicholas Laughlin, Niue, Peekash Press, Peepal Tree Press, Pepperpot, Pepperpot: Best New Stories from the Caribbean, Rotuma, Saint Lucia, Saint Vincent and the Grenadines, Samoa, Singapore, So Many Islands, So Many Islands: Stories from the Caribbean Mediterranean Indian and Pacific Oceans, Tonga, Trinidad and Tobago
Book Details
Authors
NICHOLAS LAUGHLIN (Trinidad and Tobago) is the editor of the Caribbean Review of Books and the arts and travel magazine Caribbean Beat, and program director of the Bocas Lit Fest, an annual literature festival and literary development organization based in Trinidad. He is also codirector of the contemporary art space Alice Yard. His book of poems The Strange Years of My Life was published in 2015. He is the editor of So Many Islands with Nailah Folami Imoja.
NAILAH FOLAMI IMOJA (Barbados) is a Barbadian/British writer, performer, and educator. As a poet, novelist, and journalist, she has contributed significantly to the Barbadian litscape. She has performed her work in England, Canada, Suriname, Guyana, and Trinidad. So Many Islands is her latest work.
MARLON JAMES was born in Jamaica in 1970. He is the author of the New York Times-bestseller Black Leopard, Red Wolf, which was a finalist for the National Book Award for fiction in 2019. His novel A Brief History of Seven Killings won the 2015 Man Booker Prize. It was also a finalist for the National Book Critics Circle Award and won the OCM Bocas Prize for Caribbean Literature for fiction, the Anisfield-Wolf Book Award for fiction, and the Minnesota Book Award. It was also a New York Times Notable Book. James is also the author of The Book of Night Women, which won the 2010 Dayton Literary Peace Prize and the Minnesota Book Award, and was a finalist for the 2010 National Book Critics Circle Award in fiction and an NAACP Image Award. His first novel, John Crow’s Devil, was a finalist for the Los Angeles Times Book Prize for first fiction and the Commonwealth Writers’ Prize, and was a New York Times Editors’ Choice. James divides his time between Minnesota and New York.