Repeating Islands

The new edition of Guanahani, My Love by Bahamian poet Marion Bethel has just been published by House of Nehesi Publishers. Bahamian history, culture, family, and Caribbean connections are explored critically and exposed creatively in the award-winning poetry collection, says HNP president Jacqueline Sample.

“Guanahani” is the Amerindian name for The Bahamas, and in a Caribbean country that is uniquely more sea than land, “the water is shamelessly beautiful,” writes Bethel in the poem “In the Shallow Seas.” Rooted in the multiple islands that make up the Bahamas, Bethel’s Guanahani poems are “entries into Caribbean magical realism” says Kamau Brathwaite, celebrated author and literature professor at New York University. Guanahani, my Love has received shining reviews from authors and critics such as Brathwaite, Yolanda Wood, director of the Center for Caribbean Studies at Casa de las Américas, and Guyanese critic Petamber Persaud, who wrote the introduction, among many others. In 1994, Bethel won the prestigious Casa de las Americas Prize for Guanahaní, mi amor y otros poemas, which was published in Cuba as a bilingual edition by Casa that same year. In 2009, this “first book of contemporary Bahamian poetry to receive critical acclaim, comes at a time of unprecedented excitement and productivity for Bahamian writers,” says author Christian Campbell.

Marion Bethel obtained her law degree at Cambridge University, England, and has worked as an attorney since 1986. Her writing includes poetry, short stories and essays. Her new poetry collection, Bougainvillea Ringplay, will be published this summer.

For more information on Guanahani, my Love, see http://www.houseofnehesipublish.com/