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

featured

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

featured

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.

6 days ago

Papillote Press
In December 1674, Phillip Warner, the son of the governor of St Kitts, attacked his half-brother, known as "Indian Warner" (his mother was a Kalinago woman) in Dominica, at what is now known as Massacre, on the island's west coast. "Indian Warner" and many of his people were killed. A contemporary mural (painted by Dominican artist Earl Etienne) in Massacre commemorates those events.Read all about this...in Resistance, Refuge, Revival: the Indigenous Kalinagos of Dominica by Lennox Honychurch.See link in bio.#kalinago #dominica #history #caribbeanreads #caribbeanhistory #dominicastory ... See MoreSee Less
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2 weeks ago

Papillote Press
@readingagency is taking part in the @biggiveorg #ChristmasChallenge this year, whichkicks off on Tuesday 3 December! Find out more about how you can help them support adults across the UK in their readingjourney: bit.ly/4fwX8W3 (link in bio).The Reading Agency is a UK charity with a mission to empower people of all ages to read. Evidence shows that reading improves health and wellbeing, life chances and social connections.#TurningthePage @readingagency Papillote Press ... See MoreSee Less
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2 weeks ago

Papillote Press
"Poignant and spirited commentary on Trinidad & Tobago's past and present" Trinidad Express on Lawrence Scott's Looking for Cazabon. To read the review - see link in our bio. Looking for Cazabon is available for sale online. Visit PapillotePress.co.uk or visit the link in our bio.#books #reading #bookclub #trinidad #caribbean #cazabon #bookrecommendations #readcaribbean #BooksToRead #booksofinstagram #bookstagram #readingtime #papillotepress ... See MoreSee Less
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