Tiphanie Yanique is an assistant professor of creative
writing at Drew University. A former Fulbright Scholar, she has received the
Mary Grant Charles Award for fiction, the Academy of American Poets Prize
and the Tufts University Africana Prize for Creativity. She is the recipient
of a 2008 Pushcart Prize, the 2006 Boston Review Fiction Prize, and was the
Parks Fellow/Writer-in-Residence at Rice University. Her short story "The
Saving Work" was chosen by Margot Livesey for the 2007 Kore Press Short
Fiction Award.
How
to Escape from a Leper Colony: A Novella and Stories
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Paperback: 240 pages
Publisher: Graywolf Press; Original edition (March 2, 2010)
Language: English
ISBN-10: 155597550X
ISBN-13: 978-1555975500
Product Dimensions: 8.9 x 5.9 x 0.7 inches
An enthralling debut collection from a singular Caribbean voice
For a leper, many things are impossible, and many other things are easily
done. Babalao Chuck said he could fly to the other side of the island and
peek at the nuns bathing. And when a man with no hands claims that he can
fly, you listen.
The inhabitants of an island walk into the sea. A man passes a jail cell’s
window, shouldering a wooden cross. And in the international shop of
coffins, a story repeats itself, pointing toward an inevitable tragedy. If
the facts of these stories are sometimes fantastical, the situations they
describe are complex and all too real.
Lyrical, lush, and haunting, the prose shimmers in this nuanced debut, set
mostly in the U.S. Virgin Islands. Part oral history, part postcolonial
narrative, How to Escape from a Leper Colony is ultimately a loving portrait
of a wholly unique place. Like Gabriel
García Márquez, Edwidge Danticat, and
Maryse Condé before her, Tiphanie Yanique
has crafted a book that is heartbreaking, hilarious, magical, and
mesmerizing. An unforgettable collection.
The Saving
Work
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Chapbook: 20 pages
Publisher: Kore Press; First edition (September 10, 2007)
Language: English
ISBN-10: 1888553235
ISBN-13: 978-1888553239
Short story chapbook, laser printed and hand assembled with unique burn mark on cover. This is the first in a series of short fiction chapbooks published by Kore Press for the annual Kore Press Short Fiction Award.
An Excerpt from The Saving Work
A church is burning down. On a Caribbean island, in the countryside, up a
road that might lead to a saving beach, but does not—a church is burning
down. Everyone who is associated with this church will later think “my
church has burnt down.” But for now there are only two women there to look
at the fire, and blame each other.
They are both white American women in the middle of their lives. They and
their families are members of this church. They are each married to a local
black man, both of whom are skinny and frail of body. These women want to be
the strong ones. They have always been the strong ones.
Deirdre Thompson has brought the garlands for the church stairs. She has
brought the pew pins and the flowers for the altar. She was the first to
arrive and see the bright flames. She is already dressed in her gold silk
suit. She saw the smoke from far away in her car, but she imagined some
filthy native was burning garbage in his yard. The smoke seemed to disappear
as Deirdre drew near the church. This was an illusion.
Her car had lumbered its way along the narrow cut into the land that is the
church road. The men of the church laid the road, and, as a result, it dips
erratically. The arms of thin trees scraped at the closed windows of
Deirdre’s car. She wondered why no one had cut them back. She thought, with
some worry, about how the limousine would make its way. The road opened into
the clearing where the church crackled in the center. Through the windshield
Deirdre saw what she thought was just a smallish fire, more smoke than
anything. Nothing to alert the people in the nearby houses, some two hundred
yards beyond the bushes.
But now Deirdre knows what she’s seeing. She’s seeing the end.
Tiphanie is included in the following Anthologies:
The
Best African American Fiction (2009)
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Paperback: 336 pages
Publisher: Bantam (January 13, 2009)
Language: English
ISBN-10: 0553385348
ISBN-13: 978-0553385342
Product Dimensions: 9.1 x 6.1 x 1 inches
Introducing the first volume in an
exciting new annual anthology featuring the year’s most outstanding fiction
by some of today’s finest African American writers.
From stories that depict black life in times
gone by to those that address contemporary issues, this inaugural volume
gathers the very best recent African American fiction. Created during a
period of electrifying political dialogue and cultural, social, and economic
change that is sure to captivate the imaginations of writers and readers for
years to come, these short stories and novel excerpts explore a rich variety
of subjects. But most of all, they represent exceptional artistry.
Here you’ll find work by both established names
and up-and-comers, ranging from Walter Dean Myers
to Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie,
Mat Johnson, and
Junot Díaz. They write about subjects as diverse as the complexities of
black middle-class life and the challenges of interracial relationships, a
modern-day lynching in the South and a young musician’s coming-of-age during
the Harlem Renaissance.
What unites these stories, whether set in suburbia, in eighteenth-century
New York City, or on a Caribbean island that is supposed to be “brown skin
paradise,” is their creators’ passionate engagement with matters of the
human heart.
Masterful and engaging, this first volume of
Best African American Fiction features stories you’ll want to savor, share,
and return to again and again.
Trinidad Noir
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Paperback: 340 pages
Publisher: Akashic Books (August 1, 2008)
Language: English
ISBN-10: 1933354550
ISBN-13: 978-1933354552
Product Dimensions: 19.6 x 12.1 x 1.2 inches
Trinidad Noir reveals the Caribbean island's darkness and its appeal with an unexpected and gratifying result. Features brand-new stories by Robert Antoni, Elizabeth Nunez, Lawrence
Scott, Ramabai Espinet, Shani Mootoo, Kevin Baldeosingh, Vahni Capildeo, Willi Chen, Lisa Allen-Agostini, Keith Jardim, Reena Andrea Manickchand, Tiphanie Yanique, and more.
Related Links
A wonderful Essay - My Superhero Secret by Tiphanie Yanique
http://korepress.blogspot.com/2007/08/my-superhero-secret.html
