My first brushes with Caribbean literature is V.S. Naipaul’s Miguel Street (1959). I read the novel in 2018, when I was barely expanding my reading to another language other than Indonesian and Arabic. The tales of the humdrum of a street in small part of West Indies tickles my brain in a way that I didn’t know was possible before. Despite written with the imposing colonialist language of English, Naipaul successfully introducing me to the vernacular, the dialect, the theme, and the particular ecriture that decolonize my perceived notion when it comes to English. Years after, I read Blue Latitudes (2006) as my first book of 2025.

Originally titled Stories from Blue Latitudes: Caribbean Women Writers at Home and Abroad, this book introduces 27 writers and published by Seal Press, an imprint of Avalon Publishing. Edited by Elizabeth Nunez and Jennifer Sparrow, this short story collection has 26 stories, and 1 poem to start the reading journey.

Some of the stories reintroduce me to Caribbean dialect in English writing. With the authors came from different background, the writings also touches a lot of issues. Especially, since the writers are women and lives in different part of the world. The vernacular intersectionality is so apparent in this collection just from the authors’ background alone. I was served with a vast and various experiences manifested in different length of words: from reimagining folklore to a peculiar historical account. Despite only features one color in the title, the contents are colorful. Similar to how Ester Phillips describe their home in the introductory poem Just Riffing as, Where God borrow colors//From Eden days.

My favorite piece would be Pauline Melville’s The Parrot and Descartes that follows a historical account from a parrot! Following the political turmoil of the 17th century, where the parrot witnesses the performance of William Shakespeare, the reign of Frederick and Elizabeth of Bohemia, and the revelation that befalls René Descartes. I would like to think this piece as an allegory to an active, angry, cynical epistemological decolonizing from West historical narratives and philosophy.

Another piece, titled Boat Man by Margaret Cezair-Thompson, is a gut-punching tragedy. It’s a tale of multi-faceted seaside violence due to underprivileged condition. Another is Firstborn by Alesia McKenzie that speaks about the familiar disconnection due to generational trauma and the tragedy of discrimination.

The reading experience vary for each story. Sometimes it gets tedious, or gets incredibly particular with their vernacular—allowing me as a reader quite some times to figure out what it means. But the vibes are pretty much uniform; each piece brings about the same underlining theme, challenging colonial and patriarchal notions through different use of dialect and plots. Blue Latitudes was a nice expansion to my reading journey for the year!

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Book Identification

Title	: Stories from Blue Latitudes: Caribbean Women Writers at Home and Abroad
Writer(s)	: Elizabeth Nunez and Jennifer Sparrow (ed.)
Publisher	: Seal Press: an imprint of Avalon Publishing Group, California
Year	: 2006
Pages	: 336 pages
ISBN	: 978-1-58005-139-2