Since my current "review" focus here is on Haitian writers, I thought I'd share with you some of the CRB's latest reviews and work of fiction, which focus on Haiti.
-- Elizabeth Walcott-Hackshaw reviews three recent translations of Dany Laferrière's fiction:
Laferrière is one of the most enigmatic, provocative, and charming writers I have ever met or read. He is unpredictable, save for a trait that few writers escape; what I call an anthropological nature. There are some writers who seldom leave their chosen territory of exploration once they begin to dig. The tools or techniques may vary, but the primary enquiry invested in excavating what they believe is buried can take years, decades, or even a lifetime. For these writers, their creative landscape is determined by this unrelenting curiosity, by their thematic preoccupation or puzzle. [more].
-- Jeremy Taylor reviews Jeanne G. Pocius's survivor's account of the January 2010 Haiti earthquake:
The earthquake began shortly before five on a Tuesday afternoon. Jeanne Pocius, a volunteer American trumpeter, was starting a class in jazz improvisation at the Salle Ste Cecile in downtown Port-au-Prince. She had warmed up her fingers at the stage piano and set out three rows of chairs for her students, some of whom were absent or late. [more].
-- Short fiction: "Lacrimosa" by Roxane Gay:
...The soldier moved in. Every night, he returned to Marise’s well-kept home, complained about the heat, the heavy air, the trash everywhere, the dark shiny people throwing rocks and bottles and angry words. He ate her food. He shared her bed, touched her body with his soldier hands; he filled her and frightened her and she felt something she didn’t understand. [more].
