Our Most Anticipated Caribbean Books of 2021

2020 was an incredible year for Caribbean literature and after announcing the Caribbean Readers’ Awards everyone couldn’t wait to hear the line-up for 2021. This list is by no means exhaustive, but it is representative of what the Rebel Women Lit community is excited about getting on our bookshelves.

Contemporary and Literary Fiction

Mrs Death Misses Death by Salena Godden (January - Cannongate)
Black Buck by Mateo Askaripour (January - Houghton Mifflin Harcourt)
The Vanishing Girls by Callie Browning (February - Self-Published)
How the One-Armed Sister Sweeps Her House by Cherie Jones (February - Little, Brown and Company)
What’s Mine and Yours by Naima Coster (March - Grand Central Publishing)
This One Sky Day (UK) / Popisho (US) by Leone Ross (April - Faber Faber (UK) and Farrar, Straus and Giroux (US))
Waiting for the Waters to Rise by Maryse Condé (August - World Editions)

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Poetry Collections

Too Young, Too Loud, Too Different: Twenty Years of British Poetry from Malika’s Poetry Kitchen (August - Corsair)
Mother Muse by Lorna Goodison (June - Carcarnet)
Thinking with Trees by Jason Allen-Paisant ( June - Carcarnet)

(Photos to be added once released - Dunno why dem always leggo the poet dem artwork late)

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Speculative Fiction

(Fantasy, Magical Realism, Sci-Fiction, and a Seamless Blend of Our Spiritual and Physical Worlds)

A River Called Time by Courttia Newland (January - Cannongate and June- Akashic)
A Master of Djinn (Fatma el-Sha’arawi #3) by P. Djèlí Clark (May - TOR)
Witches Steeped in Gold by Ciannon Smart (April - HarperTeen US and Hot Key Books UK) (Also in Young Adult)
No Gods, No Monsters by Cadwell Turnbull (Sep - Blackstone Publishing)

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Young Adult Novels

One of the Good Ones by Maika Moulite & Maritza Moulite (January - Inkyard Press)
Your Corner Dark by Desmond Hall (January - Simon & Schuster)
Your Heart, My Sky: Love in a Time of Hunger by Margarita Engle (March - Simon & Schuster)
Hurricane Summer by Asha Bromfield (May - Wednesday Books)
Josephine Against the Sea by Shakirah Bourne (July - Scholastic Inc.)

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Romance

Scandal in the VIP Suite by Nadine Séïde Gonzalez (January - Harlequin Desires)
Where the Rhythm Takes You by Sarah Dass (May - Balzer + Bray)
Sweethand (Island Bites Book 1) by N.G. Peltier (March - self-published)

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Historical Fiction

Island Queen by Vanessa Riley (July - William Morrow)

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Short Story Collections

Folk Stories from the Hills of Puerto Rico / Cuentos folklóricos de las montañas de Puerto Rico edited by Rafael Ocasio (May 2021, Rutgers University Press)

Translated Works

Folk Stories from the Hills of Puerto Rico / Cuentos folklóricos de las montañas de Puerto Rico edited by Rafael Ocasio (translated by Spanish) (May 2021, Rutgers University Press)
Waiting for the Waters to Rise by Marse Condé (translated from French) (August - World Editions)

Reprints

Sprucing up some favourite Caribbean Classics for today’s readers to enjoy

The Fat Lady Sings by Jacqueline Roy (February - Penguin UK)
Minty Alley Black Britain by C.L.R. James (February - Penguin UK)
Without Prejudice by Nicola Williams (February - Penguin UK)
The Dancing Face by Mike Phillips (February - Penguin UK)

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Biographies, Autobiographies, and Memoirs

The Gift of Music and Song: Interviews with Jamaican Women Writers by Jacqueline Bishop (January - Peepal Tree Press)
Bird Uncaged: An Abolitionist's Freedom Song by Marlon Peterson (April - Bold Type Books

Essays, Creative Non-Fiction, and Literary Criticism

We Must Learn to Sit Together and Talk About a Little Culture: Decolonizing Essays 1967-1984 by Sylivia Wynter (February - Peepal Tree Press)
In the Eye of the Storm: Edgar Mittelholzer 1909–2009: Critical Perspectives by Juanita Cox (Feb - Peepal Tree Press)
The Disordered Cosmos: A Journey into Dark Matter, Spacetime, and Dreams Deferred by Chanda Prescod-Weinstein (March - Bold Type Books)
The Shape of That Hurt by Gordon Rohlehr (Mar - Peepal Tree Press)
Things I Have Withheld by Kei Miller (May - Canongate)
Writing the Caribbean in Magazine Time by Katerina Gonzalez Seligmann (June - Rutgers University Press)

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Academic Texts

Talawa Theatre Company: Theatrical History and the Brewster Era by David Vivian Johnson (January - Bloomsbury)
The Haiti Reader: History, Culture, Politics editors: Editor(s): Laurent Dubois, Kaiama L. Glover, Nadève Ménard, Millery Polyné & Chantalle F. Verna (January - Duke University Press)
A Contested Caribbean Indigeneity: Language, Social Practice, and Identity within Puerto Rican Taíno Activism by Sherina Feliciano-Santos (February - Rutgers University Press)
Black Flags of the Caribbean: How Trinidad Became an ISIS Hotspot by Simon Cottee (February - Bloomsbury)
The Bloomsbury Handbook to Edwidge Danticat edited by Jana Evans Braziel & Nadège T. Clitandre (February - Bloomsbury)
The Struggle of Non-Sovereign Caribbean Territories Neoliberalism since the French Antillean Uprisings of 2009 edited by H. Adlai Murdoch (February - Rutgers University Press)
Kincraft The Making of Black Evangelical Sociality by Todne Thomas (March - Duke University Press)
Colonial Debts: The Case of Puerto Rico by Rocaio Zambrana (May - Duke University Press)
Selected Writings on Race and Difference by Stuart Hall (April Duke University Press)
Ian Fleming and the Politics of Ambivalence by Ian Kinane (May - Bloomsbury)
Slavery in Africa and the Caribbean: A History of Enslavement and Identity Since the Eighteenth Century edited by Olatunji Ojo & Nadine Hunt (May - Bloomsbury)
The Jamaica Reader: History, Culture, Politics editors: Diana Paton and Matthew J. Smith (May - Duke University Press)
The Natural, Moral, and Political History of Jamaica From the First Discovery of the Island by Christopher Columbus to the Year 1746 by James Knight (May - University of Virginia Press)
Beyond Man: Race Coloniality, and Philosophy of Religion editors An Yountae & Eleanor Craig (June - Duke University Press)
Cuba: An American History by Ada Ferrer (September - Simon & Schuster)

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Index:
Contemporary and Literary Fiction | Poetry | Speculative Fiction | Young Adult Novels | Romance | Historical Fiction | Reprints
Biographies, Autobiographies, Memoirs | Essays, Creative Non-Fiction, and Literary Criticism | Academic Texts

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