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

Updates

Resistance Refuge Revival, written by Lennox Honychurch

FORTHCOMING

Resistance, Refuge, Revival

The Indigenous Kalinagos of Dominica

Lennox Honychurch

ISBN: 9781739130329
Original paperback
Price: £15.99
Publication: September 2024
ebook

Dominica is the only place in the Caribbean where the Kalinagos – the indigenous people of the region – were able to secure a portion of their own land after everywhere else had been taken from them. This is their remarkable story. Written by a Dominican whose knowledge of the Kalinagos is unsurpassed, it sheds new light on how they shifted identities – from the early years of resistance to European colonisation, through tactical withdrawal to a revival of traditions and respect in the 21st century.

“I am honoured as a Kalinago leader to be part of this wonderful work as it relates to the history of our people.” Irvince Auguiste, former Kalinago Chief.

Read more >

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

FORTHCOMING

Resistance Refuge Revival, written by Lennox Honychurch

Resistance, Refuge, Revival

The Indigenous Kalinagos of Dominica

Lennox Honychurch

ISBN: 9781739130329
Original paperback
Price: £15.99
Publication: September 2024
ebook

Dominica is the only place in the Caribbean where the Kalinagos – the indigenous people of the region – were able to secure a portion of their own land after everywhere else had been taken from them. This is their remarkable story. Written by a Dominican whose knowledge of the Kalinagos is unsurpassed, it sheds new light on how they shifted identities – from the early years of resistance to European colonisation, through tactical withdrawal to a revival of traditions and respect in the 21st century.

“I am honoured as a Kalinago leader to be part of this wonderful work as it relates to the history of our people.” Irvince Auguiste, former Kalinago Chief.

Read more >

Updates

RECOMMENDED

Looking for Cazabon by Lawrence Scott

Looking for Cazabon

By Lawrence Scott

ISBN: 978173930367
2024, Paperback, £11.99

Lawrence Scott returns in his reflections to the watercolours and the sites of the 19th-century Trinidadian artist Michel Jean Cazabon, the subject of his novel, Light Falling on Bamboo. Beautifully crafted, these highly regarded poems, mostly sonnets, celebrate the landscape of Trinidad and revisit loves and friendships while evoking both the historical and contemporary violence of its society.

Read more >

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

Good Night My Sweet Island

By Petrea Honychurch Seaman
Illustrated by Susanne Heitz

ISBN: 9781838041595
2023, Paperback, £7.99

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

Read more >

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 >

featured contributors

Lennox Honychurch

Lennox Honychurch is a Dominican historian and anthropologist. He has published numerous academic papers and books on the history of Dominica and the Caribbean region. He was awarded his PhD from the University of Oxford on the material culture of the Kalinago people of Dominica.

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Lawrence Scott

Lawrence Scott is an award-winning Caribbean novelist and short-story writer from Trinidad & Tobago. His first novel Witchbroom (1992, and reissued by Papillote Press in 2017) was a BBC Book at Bedtime, while his second novel, Aelred’s Sin, won the Commonwealth Writers’ Prize Best Book for Canada and the Caribbean in 1999.

Read more >

Petrea Honychurch Seaman

Petrea Honychurch Seaman was born and grew up on the Caribbean island of Dominica. She began to write children’s fiction inspired by her two young daughters, both great readers and explorers of this lush and mountainous island.

Read more >

Susan Heitz

Susanne Heitz was born in Germany but has spent much of her life in the Caribbean. Trained at the Hochschule for Fine Art and Design in Hannover, Germany, her love of nature and vibrant colours are key elements in her work.

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.

7 days ago

Papillote Press
Looking forward to learning more. Thanks for mention of Home Again. ... See MoreSee Less
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3 weeks ago

Papillote Press
Bridget Brereton writes "There has been a surge of interest in the history and cultures of the indigenous peoples of the Caribbean, both before and after European contact, over the last decade or so.In 2016 historian/archaeologist/anthropologist Arie Boomert published an excellent book, The Indigenous Peoples of Trinidad and Tobago From the First Settlers Until Today. Now Lennox Honychurch, with his new book, Resistance, Refuge, Revival: The Indigenous Kalinagos of Dominica (Papillote Press), has provided an authoritative but accessible study of Dominica’s First People..." Read the rest of the article (link in bio). trinidadexpress.com/opinion/columnists/the-kalinagos-of-dominica/article_81fc6442-7614-11ef-a577-... #bookrecommendations #readcaribbean #readhistory #history #kalinago #dominica #dominicahistory #heritage #caribbeanhistory #indigenous #BooksToRead ... See MoreSee Less
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1 month ago

Papillote Press
REVIVAL: Political and cultural consciousness evolved in the last decades of the 20th century, as in this poster of 1993, protesting the celebration of the 500th anniversary of the arrival of Columbus.Resistance Refuge Revival: the Indigenous Kalinagos of Dominica" by the Dominican anthropologist and historian Lennox Honychurch will be published on Kalinago Day, 19 September 2024.#bookrecommendations #readcaribbean #readhistory #history #kalinago #dominica #dominicahistory #heritage #caribbeanhistory #indigenous #BooksToRead #lennoxhonychurch ... See MoreSee Less
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1 month ago

Papillote Press
REFUGE: The indigenous people of Dominica depicted by the Italian artist Antonio Brunias in the 1760s, nearly 300 years after their first contact with Europeans. "Resistance Refuge Revival: the Indigenous Kalinagos of Dominica" by the Dominican anthropologist and historian Lennox Honychurch will be published on Kalinago Day, 19 September 2024.#bookrecommendations #readcaribbean #readhistory #history #kalinago #dominica #dominicahistory #heritage #caribbeanhistory #indigenous #BooksToRead #lennoxhonychurch ... See MoreSee Less
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1 month ago

Papillote Press
RESISTANCE Engraving by Theodor de Bry showing Kalinagos in their canoes trading with Europeans at Ouyouhao (Portsmoouth) in 1514. It was an uneasy relationship. Trading was often replaced by raiding and killings as the European incursion intensified.#bookrecommendations #readcaribbean #readhistory #history #kalinago #Dominica #DominicaHistory #heritage #caribbeanhistory #indigenous #bookstoread #lennoxhonychurch ... See MoreSee Less
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