Posts by: Patti Marxsen
Finding Toussaint Louverture, Spartacus of the Haitian Revolution
Contemplating Toussaint Louverture’s unfulfilled promise alongside his immense accomplishments.
This wave in the mind: Woolf in the middle of my life’s journey
The following essay won second place in the 2017 Geneva Writers’ Group Literary Awards for Nonfiction, judged by Nick Barlay. The house was full of excitement bursting and receding like…
Inventing a Nation: Jacques Roumain and Haitian Kreyòl
Haitian independence from France in 1804 led to a host of consequences for the first black republic in the world. Among them was a fraught relationship with the new nation’s…
A Taste of Immortality: The Post-Earthquake Haitian Novel
Quand on revient de l’enfer, chaque baiser a un goût d’immortalité. (When you come back from hell, every kiss has a taste of immortality.) —Yanick Lahens, Failles (all translations by…
In Another Country with Michelle Bailat-Jones
Dangling like a geologic afterthought at the southwestern tail of Japan’s archipelago, Kyushu Island is home to over thirteen million people and a chain of volcanic mountains. In the slopes,…
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