C.L.R. James: A Life Beyond the Boundaries (Constable) by British author John L. Williams
is the full-scale, scrupulously researched, admiring but clear-eyed biography of the T&T
intellectual icon that Caribbean readers have awaited for decades. James’s long, complicated,
continent-crossing life is documented here in gripping detail, from his literary and political
interests and achievements to the intricacies of radical activism to his equally intricate personal
relationships. As Williams shows, James was decades ahead of his time, intellectually, and his
ideas are more relevant and indeed more urgent than ever before.
We Slaves of Suriname (Polity) by Anton de Kom is a classic work by the early-20th-century
Surinamese Independence activist, finally available in English translation nearly nine decades
after its original publication. Banished from the then Dutch colony in 1933, de Kom wrote this
historical study as “a fierce indictment of racism and colonialism” and an integral part of his
political activism. Described as “one of the most important works of twentieth-century
anticolonial literature,” it remains little known to many Caribbean readers.
A Revolutionary for Our Time: The Walter Rodney Story (Haymarket) by writer and activist
Leo Zeilig is the first book-length study of the groundbreaking Guyanese scholar and activist.
Exploring Rodney’s life and research, thought and revolutionary action, and his significance for
today’s political struggles, this volume both consolidates and illuminates the story of one of the
Caribbean’s most influential intellectual and political figures.
Shabine and Other Stories (UWI Press), the debut fiction collection by St. Lucian Hazel
Simmons-McDonald, puts family matters at the heart of these short stories, with a touch of
magical realism. From the mysteries of childhood to questions of religion and class, these stories
feature “characters who closely guard the secrets of their hearts,” and make room for voices that
often remain unheard.
Cane / Fire (Book*hug Press) is a new collection of poems by Shani Mootoo, the Canada-based
Trinidadian writer and artist best known for her fiction. Accompanied by the author’s own

artworks, this sequence of poems is described as akin to a memoir, ranging from Ireland to South
Trinidad to Canada, vividly delving into personal and family history, and showing “how a life
can not only be shaped, but even reimagined.”
Let the Dead In (Alan Squire Publishing), the first full-length poetry collection by Guyana-born
Saida Agostini, journeys from Guyana to Britain to the United States in its exploration of “the
mythologies that seek to subjugate Black bodies, and the counter-stories that reject such
subjugation.” By turns sensual and sorrowful, joyful and righteously enraged, these poems offer
stories of Black women’s love and survival, celebration and memory, in language of bountiful
lyricism.
Living on Islands Not Found on Maps (FlowerSong Press) is a new collection of poems by
Luivette Resto, born in Puerto Rico and now based in New York City. Childhood, motherhood,
desire, love, and revolution collide in these poems that combine candour with lyrical craft,
featuring imagined conversations with icons like Audre Lorde and Tina Turner, and “trapping
memories in a circle of fire and music.”
Pòtoprens: The Urban Artists of Port-au-Prince (Pioneer Works Press), edited by Leah
Gordon, co-founder of the Ghetto Biennale, is a massive survey of the “majority art” of Haiti’s
capital, exploring how contemporary urban culture is linked to the country’s revolutionary
history. Images, critical essays, and oral histories are organised by specific neighbourhoods,
suggesting how geography shapes creative expression.