Caribbean literature resources connect readers, students, and scholars with the writers, journals, festivals, archives, and organizations shaping Caribbean letters. This concise guide covers poetry, fiction, drama, criticism, and postcolonial thought from the region and its diasporas, including literature in English, Spanish, French, Dutch, Creole, Papiamentu, and multilingual forms.
“Where is your tribal memory? Sirs,
in that grey vault. The sea. The sea
has locked them up. The sea is History.”—Derek Walcott, “The Sea Is History”
Essential Caribbean writers and thinkers
This introductory list brings together major poets, novelists, dramatists, essayists, and theorists from different Caribbean countries, territories, languages, and diasporas. It is selective rather than comprehensive.
- Julia Alvarez (Dominican Republic and United States) — In the Time of the Butterflies; How the García Girls Lost Their Accents
- Frank Martinus Arion (Curaçao) — Double Play; The Last Freedom
- Louise Bennett-Coverley (Jamaica) — Jamaica Labrish; Anancy Stories and Dialect Verse
- Marion Bethel (The Bahamas) — Guanahani, My Love; Bougainvillea Ringplay
- Giannina Braschi (Puerto Rico and United States) — Empire of Dreams; United States of Banana
- Kamau Brathwaite (Barbados) — The Arrivants; History of the Voice
- Aimé Césaire (Martinique) — Notebook of a Return to the Native Land; Discourse on Colonialism
- Merle Collins (Grenada) — Angel; Ocean Stirrings
- Maryse Condé (Guadeloupe) — Segu; I, Tituba, Black Witch of Salem
- Edwidge Danticat (Haiti and United States) — Breath, Eyes, Memory; The Farming of Bones
- Nicole Dennis-Benn (Jamaica) — Here Comes the Sun; Patsy
- Zee Edgell (Belize) — Beka Lamb; In Times Like These
- Frantz Fanon (Martinique) — Black Skin, White Masks; The Wretched of the Earth
- Édouard Glissant (Martinique) — Poetics of Relation; The Fourth Century
- Lorna Goodison (Jamaica) — I Am Becoming My Mother; From Harvey River
- Nicolás Guillén (Cuba) — Motivos de son; Sóngoro cosongo
- Wilson Harris (Guyana) — Palace of the Peacock; The Infinite Rehearsal
- Marlon James (Jamaica) — A Brief History of Seven Killings; Black Leopard, Red Wolf
- C. L. R. James (Trinidad and Tobago) — The Black Jacobins; Beyond a Boundary
- Shake Keane (Saint Vincent and the Grenadines) — One a Week with Water; The Volcano Suite
- Jamaica Kincaid (Antigua and Barbuda) — Annie John; A Small Place
- George Lamming (Barbados) — In the Castle of My Skin; The Pleasures of Exile
- Claude McKay (Jamaica) — Home to Harlem; Banana Bottom
- Kei Miller (Jamaica) — Augustown; The Cartographer Tries to Map a Way to Zion
- V. S. Naipaul (Trinidad and Tobago) — A House for Mr Biswas; The Enigma of Arrival
- Caryl Phillips (Saint Kitts and Nevis) — Crossing the River; Cambridge
- Jean Rhys (Dominica) — Wide Sargasso Sea; Voyage in the Dark
- Astrid Roemer (Suriname) — On a Woman’s Madness; Off-White
- Jacques Roumain (Haiti) — Masters of the Dew; The Black Soul
- Mayra Santos-Febres (Puerto Rico) — Sirena Selena vestida de pena; Nuestra señora de la noche
- Samuel Selvon (Trinidad and Tobago) — The Lonely Londoners; Moses Ascending
- Derek Walcott (Saint Lucia) — Omeros; “The Sea Is History”
- Tiphanie Yanique (United States Virgin Islands) — Land of Love and Drowning; How to Escape from a Leper Colony
For additional authors and background, consult this guide to major Caribbean writers.
Caribbean literary journals and magazines
- The Caribbean Writer is an annual refereed journal published by the University of the Virgin Islands.
- Journal of West Indian Literature publishes scholarship on Caribbean writing, with an emphasis on Anglophone literature and criticism.
- Small Axe: A Caribbean Platform for Criticism examines Caribbean intellectual, social, political, and cultural traditions across the region and its diasporas.
- Anthurium: A Caribbean Studies Journal is a peer-reviewed digital journal publishing criticism and original literature, theater, and film.
- Caribbean Quarterly is the University of the West Indies’ long-running journal of Caribbean culture and scholarship.
- Repeating Islands tracks Caribbean literature, art, history, culture, and scholarship. Ivette Romero and Lisa Paravisini-Gebert founded the site in 2009.
- Callaloo publishes creative writing, visual art, and criticism concerning the African diaspora.
Caribbean literary festivals and reading programs
- Bocas Lit Fest is Trinidad and Tobago’s annual literary festival and a year-round organization supporting Caribbean writers, readers, and publishing.
- Read Caribbean Month is observed each June. Founded by Cindy Allman of Book of Cinz, it encourages readers to discover and discuss books from the Caribbean and its diasporas.
- Feria Internacional del Libro de Río Piedras brings authors, publishers, scholars, and readers together at the University of Puerto Rico and throughout Río Piedras.
Because dates change annually, consult each organizer for its current schedule and program.
Caribbean archives and research organizations
- Digital Library of the Caribbean provides access to books, newspapers, photographs, maps, archives, and other historical and cultural materials from the Caribbean and circum-Caribbean.
- Caribbean Studies Association promotes multidisciplinary and multilingual research on the Caribbean.
- Centre for Caribbean Studies at the University of Toronto supports scholarship, teaching, and public programming concerning the Caribbean and its diasporas.
- Latin American Studies Association connects scholars working across Latin American and Caribbean fields.
- Academy of American Poets offers a selection of poems for Caribbean American Heritage Month.
- Modern Language Association: Teaching Anglophone Caribbean Literature presents approaches to teaching Caribbean writing, history, language, and culture.
- CaribbeanPoets.com features Caribbean poets, poems, interviews, and literary news.
- Caribbean Cultural Institute connects Caribbean art and culture with research and public education.
- University of the West Indies Press publishes scholarship in Caribbean literature, history, cultural studies, gender studies, education, and political thought.
Where to begin
For a broad introduction, read “Caribbean Literary Voices Shaping Global Culture”, which considers language, identity, postcolonial thought, and the influence of Caribbean writers on world literature.
Readers seeking poetry can explore the Academy of American Poets’ collection of poems for Caribbean American Heritage Month.
Related Caribbean literature guides
- Caribbean poems and poets
- Major Caribbean writers
- Caribbean philosophy today
- Postcolonial political philosophy
This guide was prepared as a concise starting point for readers, students, teachers, and scholars researching Caribbean literature.