Reading My Way Back to Haiti
I was 14 years old when I first read a book by a Haitian author. My cousin handed it to me and said read this. I think she was trying to prove that there were other famous Haitian creatives besides Wyclef Jean. At the time, my teenage mind had no idea Haitians were writing for a living. I was surrounded by people whose career goals were nursing, medicine, or law. Any creative career felt like a fantasy, not a reality. So when I found out there was a book from and by my people, I was genuinely excited.
The book was Breath, Eyes, Memory by Edwidge Danticat. Reading it taught me about the struggles and suffering my mother carried as a Haitian immigrant. It gave me a deeper sympathy and empathy for her and for Haitian women who share that story. After finishing it, I went to my local library looking for more, specifically Krik? Krak!, but I couldn't find it. I eventually forgot about it, but I'm adding it to my reading list now. I want to read more about the country I hope to visit again one day.
This list is just getting started. If you've read any of these, I want to know what you thought. And if there's a book about Haiti I'm missing, drop it in the comments.
translation to creole:
Mwen te gen 14 an lè m te li liv yon otè Ayisyen te ekri pou premye fwa. Kouzin mwen te ban mwen l epi li te di m li sa. M panse li t ap eseye pwouve ke te gen lòt kreyatif Ayisyen pi popilè apa Wyclef Jean. Nan moman sa a, lespri adolesan mwen pa t konnen Ayisyen t ap ekri pou yo viv. mwen te antoure ak moun ki te gen objektif karyè pou yo te enfimyè, medsin, oswa lalwa. Nenpòt karyè kreyatif te sanble ak yon fantezi, pa yon reyalite. Donk, lè m te dekouvri te gen yon liv ki soti nan men pèp mwen an, mwen te vrèman eksite.
Liv la te rele Souf, Je, Memwa pa Edwidge Danticat. Lekti liv la te anseye m sou lit ak soufrans manman m te pote kòm yon imigran Ayisyen. Li te ban m yon senpati ak yon konpasyon pi pwofon pou li ak pou fanm Ayisyen ki pataje istwa sa a. Apre m te fin li, m t al nan bibliyotèk lokal mwen an pou m chèche plis, espesyalman Krik? Krak!, men m pa t ka jwenn li. Finalman mwen te bliye l, men m ap ajoute l nan lis lekti mwen kounye a. Mwen vle li plis sou peyi mwen espere vizite ankò yon jou.
Lis sa a fèk kòmanse. Si ou te li nenpòt nan sa yo, mwen ta renmen konnen sa ou te panse. Epi si gen yon liv sou Ayiti mwen pa wè, kite l nan kòmantè yo.
Breath, Eyes, Memory by Edwidge Danticat
At the age of twelve, Sophie Caco is sent from the impoverished village of Croix-des-Rosets to New York to be reunited with her mother, where she inherits a legacy of shame that can only be healed when she returns to Haiti and the woman who first raised her.
This one I've already read. It's the book that opened the door for me. I need to go back to it as an adult and see what hits different now.
Krik? Krak! by Edwidge Danticat
A collection of nine short stories and an epilogue highlighting the struggles, resilience, and intimate lives of Haitians under the brutal Duvalier regime and as immigrants in New York. The stories, titled after a traditional storytelling call-and-response, center on themes of political violence, poverty, maternal bonds, and the longing for home.
The one that got away. I looked for it at the library at 14 and couldn't find it. Better late than never.
God Loves Haiti by Dimitry Elias Léger
Haiti's first lady, Natasha Robert, is living in Port-au-Prince when the 2010 earthquake strikes, and wonders if she will ever see her true love, Alain Destinée, again after he is injured in the disaster.
The title caught my attention. The 2010 earthquake changed everything for Haiti, and I want to understand that moment through a story, not through American news coverage.
Ayiti by Roxane Gay
A collection of stories exploring the Haitian diaspora experience from a married couple seeking boat passage to America, to a mother taking a foreign soldier into her home as a boarder.
I knew Roxane Gay as a popular writer before I found out she was Haitian American. Once I did, I needed to know how she writes about the diaspora experience.
Dance on the Volcano by Marie Chauvet, translated by Kaiama L. Glover
The story of two sisters coming of age during the Haitian Revolution in a society that swings between decadence and poverty, sensuality and depravity. One sister's singing ability earns her entry into white colonial society that is otherwise off-limits to people of color. A story about hatred and fear, love and loss, and the complex tensions between colonizer and colonized.
The cover caught my attention first, and then I wanted to learn more about the women who lived through the Haitian Revolution.
Dear Haiti, Love Elaine by Maika and Maritza Moulite
Told in epistolary style through letters, articles, emails, and diary entries, this novel follows Alaine Beauparlant, a Haitian American teenager sent to work at a Haitian nonprofit, where she discovers her family's culture, heritage, and a generations-long family curse her mother has been hiding.
A Haitian American teen navigating identity and family secrets, that's a story I wish had existed when I was 14.
Haiti Glass by Lenelle Moise
In her debut collection of verse and prose, Moise moves between memories of growing up as a Haitian immigrant in the suburbs of Boston, bearing witness to brutality and catastrophe, and playful explorations of pop culture figures like Michael Jackson and Jean-Michel Basquiat. Haiti Glass lays bare a world of resistance and survival, mourning and desire, triumph and prayer.
I love poetry, and prose about growing up Haitian in America felt like something I needed to read slowly.
Haiti: The Black Republic
A portrait of Haiti's history and culture, supplemented with travel information and a basic Creole-French vocabulary guide.
Written in 1954, I want to read old Haitian academic writing and see what the country looked like through that lens.
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