Caribbean Books

Books from the Caribbean

Papillote Press is a small, independent publishing house specialising in books about Dominica and the wider Caribbean.

“Papillote Press is committed to telling our stories in books that are made to be treasured.” Marina Salandy-Brown, founder and director of the Bocas Lit Fest

“Papillote Press has been etching out a space for themselves as an outlet for burgeoning talent.” Richard Georges, poet, winner of the Bocas Lit Fest award for Caribbean literature, 2020

Updates

First Visit – Meeting Dominica and Phyllis Shand Allfrey

Forty years ago I first visited Dominica to interview writer and politician Phyllis Shand Allfrey (and Prime Minister Eugenia Charles) for a UK newspaper.

Elma Napier Remembered

It is 50 years this month since the death of Elma Napier, writer, pioneering environmentalist, and the first woman to sit in a West Indian House of Assembly.

Cover of children's picture book, Good Night My Sweet Island

FEATURED BOOK

Good Night My Sweet Island

By Petrea Honychurch Seaman
Illustrations by Susanne Heitz

ISBN: 9781838041595
Original paperback
Price: £7.99
Publication: September 2023

Saying good night “to all things we love”: in a homage to a magical Caribbean island, Good Night My Sweet Island takes the reader through a poetic and visually stimulating journey. Each verse celebrates aspects of tropical island life: birds and beaches, fruits and forests, dancing and music, rivers and rain. As the sun goes down, a child says a dreamy good night to all the rich experiences of the day.

“A beautifully illustrated poetic depiction of an island I love with all my heart.” – Trish Cooke, author of So Much and Look Back!

“A feast for the ears and eyes. Beautiful.”
– Margaret Bateson-Hill, author of Masha and the Firebird

The rhythms, sights and sounds of the Caribbean are beautifully captured. A real joy.” – Valerie Bloom, Jamaican-born poet and novelist

Caribbean Books

Books from the Caribbean

Papillote Press is a small, independent publishing house specialising in books about Dominica and the wider Caribbean.

“Papillote Press is committed to telling our stories in books that are made to be treasured.” Marina Salandy-Brown, founder and director of the Bocas Lit Fest

“Papillote Press has been etching out a space for themselves as an outlet for burgeoning talent.” Richard Georges, poet, winner of the Bocas Lit Fest award for Caribbean literature, 2020

Updates

First Visit – Meeting Dominica and Phyllis Shand Allfrey

Forty years ago I first visited Dominica to interview writer and politician Phyllis Shand Allfrey (and Prime Minister Eugenia Charles) for a UK newspaper.

Elma Napier Remembered

It is 50 years this month since the death of Elma Napier, writer, pioneering environmentalist, and the first woman to sit in a West Indian House of Assembly.

FEATURED BOOK

Cover of children's picture book, Good Night My Sweet Island

Good Night My Sweet Island

By Petrea Honychurch Seaman
Illustrations by Susanne Heitz

ISBN: 9781838041595
Original paperback
Price: £7.99
Publication: September 2023

Saying good night “to all things we love”: in a homage to a magical Caribbean island, Good Night My Sweet Island takes the reader through a poetic and visually stimulating journey. Each verse celebrates aspects of tropical island life: birds and beaches, fruits and forests, dancing and music, rivers and rain. As the sun goes down, a child says a dreamy good night to all the rich experiences of the day.

“A beautifully illustrated poetic depiction of an island I love with all my heart.” – Trish Cooke, author of So Much and Look Back!

“A feast for the ears and eyes. Beautiful.”
– Margaret Bateson-Hill, author of Masha and the Firebird

The rhythms, sights and sounds of the Caribbean are beautifully captured. A real joy.” – Valerie Bloom, Jamaican-born poet and novelist

Recent and Recommended

Still Standing, Ti Kais of Dominica

Still Standing

The Ti Kais of Dominica

By Adom Philogene Heron
Photographs by Marica Honychurch

ISBN: 9781838041588
2022, Paperback, £21.50

“A truly superb introduction to a traditional, yet evolving, element of Caribbean vernacular architecture and a fine example of creolization in material culture.” New West Indian Guide 98, forthcoming in “Bookshelf 2023”, spring 2024

This beautifully illustrated book is a celebration of the vanishing vernacular architecture of Dominica. These small wooden homes, ingeniously crafted and carefully adapted to their environment, have withstood hurricanes and earthquakes since their emergence in the post-emancipation period. While many modern, concrete homes have been destroyed, they are “still standing’. Even so, they are under threat from the forces of ‘modernity’ and ‘development’.

Read more >

Book cover for White River Blues, Papillote Press, Dominica

Black Man Listen

The Life of JR Ralph Casimir

By Kathy Casimir MacLean

ISBN: 9781838041526
2022, Paperback, £8.99

This is the first biography of the pioneering life of JR Ralph Casimir (1898-1986), a Pan- Africanist and poet from Dominica. Calling himself a “New Negro”, for more than half a century he confronted not just colonial rule, but his island’s elites.

Read more >

Book cover for White River Blues, Papillote Press, Dominica

A Scream in the Shadows

By Mac Donald Dixon

ISBN: 9781838041533
2022, Paperback, £8.99

So close to home… so far from justice… so far from paradise.

A compelling crime story set in the rural Caribbean where traditional allegiances and a flawed legal system provide a backdrop to the rape and murder of a young girl. When her step-father is accused of the crime, her brother joins the police to try and clear their father’s name. While the suspect languishes in jail, the young detective makes some disturbing discoveries.

Read more >

Dangerous Freedom, Papillote Press, Dominica

Dangerous Freedom

By Lawrence Scott

ISBN: 9781999776862
2021, Paperback, £10.99

‘This is a thought-provoking and subtle novel, from an award-winning Trinidadian writer, which will not be easily forgotten,’ says the Historical Novel Society

In this radical and moving historical novel, Scott weaves fact with fiction to reveal “the great deception” exercised by the powerful on a mixed-race child born in the late 18th century and brought up in the London home of England’s Lord Chief Justice.

Dido Belle was the daughter of an African-born enslaved woman and the sea-faring nephew of Lord Mansfield…

Read more >

RECOMMENDED

Still Standing, Ti Kais of Dominica

Still Standing

The Ti Kais of Dominica

By Adom Philogene Heron
Photographs by Marica Honychurch

ISBN: 9781838041588
2022, Paperback, £21.50

This beautifully illustrated book is a celebration of the vanishing vernacular architecture of Dominica. These small wooden homes, ingeniously crafted and carefully adapted to their environment, have withstood hurricanes and earthquakes since their emergence in the post-emancipation period. While many modern, concrete homes have been destroyed, they are “still standing’. Even so, they are under threat from the forces of ‘modernity’ and ‘development’.

Read more >

Book cover for White River Blues, Papillote Press, Dominica

Black Man Listen

By Kathy Casimir MacLean

ISBN: 9781838041526
2022, Paperback, £8.99

This is the first biography of the pioneering life of JR Ralph Casimir (1898-1986), a Pan- Africanist and poet from Dominica. Calling himself a “New Negro”, for more than half a century he confronted not just colonial rule, but his island’s elites.

Read more >

Book cover for White River Blues, Papillote Press, Dominica

A Scream in the Shadows

By Mac Donald Dixon

ISBN: 9781838041533
2022, Paperback, £8.99

So close to home… so far from justice… so far from paradise.

A compelling crime story set in the rural Caribbean where traditional allegiances and a flawed legal system provide a backdrop to the rape and murder of a young girl. When her step-father is accused of the crime, her brother joins the police to try and clear their father’s name. While the suspect languishes in jail, the young detective makes some disturbing discoveries.

Read more >

Dangerous Freedom, Papillote Press, Dominica

Dangerous Freedom

By Lawrence Scott

ISBN: 9781999776862
2021, Paperback, £10.99

‘This is a thought-provoking and subtle novel, from an award-winning Trinidadian writer, which will not be easily forgotten,’ says the Historical Novel Society

In this radical and moving historical novel, Scott weaves fact with fiction to reveal “the great deception” exercised by the powerful on a mixed-race child born in the late 18th century and brought up in the London home of England’s Lord Chief Justice.

Dido Belle was the daughter of an African-born enslaved woman and the sea-faring nephew of Lord Mansfield…

Read more >

featured contributors

Adom Philogene Heron

Adom Philogene Heron is an ethnographer of the Caribbean whose scholarship centres on Caribbean ecologies, hurricanes, and repair; Britain’s haunted post-imperial land/seascapes; and Caribbean fatherhood and family lives. 

Read more >

Marica Honychurch

Marica Honychurch is a photographer and videographer from Dominica. After living abroad, she has returned to her roots working in travel, portrait and documentary. 

Read more >

Kathy Casimir MacLean

Kathy Casimir MacLean was born in Dominica, and lives in London. She was head of the Ethnic Minority Achievement (EMA) Service in Wandsworth’s Children’s Services, south London…

Read more >

Mac Donald Dixon

Mac Donald Dixon was born in St Lucia, West Indies, where he still lives. He is best known as a playwright, but is also an accomplished poet, painter and photographer.

Read more >

featured contributors

Adom Philogene Heron

Adom Philogene Heron is an ethnographer of the Caribbean whose scholarship centres on Caribbean ecologies, hurricanes, and repair; Britain’s haunted post-imperial land/seascapes; and Caribbean fatherhood and family lives.

Read more >

Marica Honychurch

Marica Honychurch is a photographer and videographer from Dominica. After living abroad, she has returned to her roots working in travel, portrait and documentary.

Read more >

Kathy Casimir MacLean

Kathy Casimir MacLean was born in Dominica, and lives in London. She was head of the Ethnic Minority Achievement (EMA) Service in Wandsworth’s Children’s Services, south London…

Read more >

Mac Donald Dixon

Mac Donald Dixon was born in St Lucia, West Indies, where he still lives. He is best known as a playwright, but is also an accomplished poet, painter and photographer.

Read more >

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Papillote Press

Papillote Press

Papillote Press publishes books from Dominica and the wider Caribbean. It's small but lovingly formed and is keen to engage its readers - present and future - into the possibilities for new Papillote Press projects.

3 days ago

Papillote Press
On this day…210 years ago, in Roseau, Dominica....Sunday 13 MARCH 1814The TRIALS of HESTER, FRANCOISE, REGISTE, PERINE, JENNY and BETTY"Another court martial was held in which six women were found guilty, of whom two were sentenced to hang. Women featured in marronage throughout the Caribbean. Of the 577 Maroons officially listed as killed, taken and surrendered between May 1813 and November 1814, 194 were women representing nearly one third of those taken while 78 were children. Like the men, the women left the estates for a variety of reasons, such as cruelty and overwork. Many, also like the men, were in the forests for many years. In the trials, some women defendants told the court that they had wanted to return to the plantations but had been stopped by the men. They were often accompanied by children. There are no known women chiefs in this period but Sarah of Hillsborough was certainly a leader."....YOUR TIME IS DONE NOWSlavery, Resistance and Defeat: the Maroon Trials of Dominica (1813-1814)Edited by Polly Pattullo, with an introduction by Bernard WiltshireWhen the Maroons of Dominica challenged the British Empire 200 years ago, they were captured and put on trial. Here, for the first time, you can read their evidence and, unusually, hear their voices — in resistance and defeat.#caribbeanreads #historicreads #BooksToRead #onthisdayinhistory #dominica #maroons #caribbeanbookstagram #caribbeanbooks ... See MoreSee Less
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4 days ago

Papillote Press
This cat loves jazz and poetry.#bookstoread #CaribbeanReads #stvincent #stvincentandthegrenadines #jazzmusic #ShakeKeane ... See MoreSee Less
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6 days ago

Papillote Press
Another impressive line up.📣Announcing the 2024 OCM Bocas Prize longlist!Books by nine authors, writing across a diverse range of subjects, styles, and approaches, have been longlisted for the 2024 OCM Bocas Prize for Caribbean Literature, sponsored by One Caribbean Media Limited, owner of the Trinidad and Tobago Express newspaper, TV6, and the OCM radio network.The books longlisted for the 2024 OCM Bocas Prize are:🌟PoetrySelf-Portrait as Othello, by Jason Allen-Paisant 🇯🇲 (Carcanet Press)School of Instructions, by Ishion Hutchinson 🇯🇲 (Farrar, Straus and Giroux/Faber Books)The Ferguson Report: An Erasure, by Nicole Sealey 🇻🇮 (Alfred A. Knopf/Bloodaxe Books)🌟FictionOcean Stirrings: A Work of Fiction in Tribute to Louise Langdon Norton Little, Working Mother and Activist, Mother of Malcolm X and Seven Siblings, by Merle Collins 🇬🇩 (Peepal Tree Press)Hungry Ghosts, by Kevin Jared Hosein 🇹🇹 (Ecco Books/Bloomsbury Publishing UK)You Were Watching from the Sand, by Juliana Lamy 🇭🇹 (Red Hen Press)🌟Non-fictionHarvesting Haiti: Reflections on Unnatural Disasters, by Myriam Chancy 🇭🇹 (University of Texas Press)Equal to Mystery: In Search of Harold Sonny Ladoo, by Christopher Laird 🇹🇹 (Peepal Tree Press)How to Say Babylon: A Memoir, by Safiya Sinclair 🇯🇲 (Simon & Schuster Books UK/Fourth Estate)For more about the longlisted books, visit www.bocaslitfest.com/2024/03/10/2024-ocm-bocas-prize-longlist/The OCM Bocas Prize, now in its 14th consecutive year, is the most coveted award for Caribbean books — the prize all Caribbean writers hope to win. Annually, it recognises books in three genre categories — poetry, fiction, and literary non-fiction — published by authors of Caribbean birth or citizenship in the preceding year. Five different countries and territories are represented among the authors of the nine books longlisted for the 2024 Prize.The winners of the three genre categories will be announced on 7 April, 2024.The overall winner of the 2024 OCM Bocas Prize for Caribbean Literature will be announced on Saturday 27 April at the 2024 NGC Bocas Lit Fest.#OCMBocasPrize2024 #OneCaribbeanMedia #bocas2024 #CaribbeanLiterature #CaribbeanWriters Trinidad Express Newspapers ... See MoreSee Less
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1 week ago

Papillote Press
It’s International Women’s Day and Papillote Press (nothing if not a feminist publisher) likes this quote from The Orchid House by Phyllis Shand Allfrey, as Lally, the family nurse, reflects on the three sisters whom she cared for in their childhood years: "Madam would not have it thought that her daughters could not stand alone at any time, just as she stood alone all those years when the Master was fighting in the war, and afterwards. She would not have it thought that they needed men to be supporting them and caring for them..... with or without men they were Madam’s daughters, and that means to say that they could be sufficient unto themselves.”Credit: Picture Palace/1990 Virago Book Cover. Caption: Frances Barber (standing), Kate Buffery (right) and Liz Hurley (left) as the three sisters in the TV series The Orchid House. Lally is played by the inspiring Jamaican actor Madge Sinclair.#internationalwomensday #womensday2024 #caribbeanreads #phyllisshandallfrey ... See MoreSee Less
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