Repeating Islands

Éditions Desnel announces for this month the publication of Pour Haïti, a collective project spearheaded and coordinated by writer Suzanne Dracius for the benefit of the Bibliothèques sans Frontières (BSF) association. Proceeds will help in the reconstruction of libraries and bookstores in Haiti. The book will include prose and verse by René Depestre, Maryse Condé, Alain Mabanckou, Tahar Bekri, Zoé Valdès, Joël Des Rosiers, Ernest Pépin, Juan Gelman, Jean Métellus, Tanella Boni, Léonora Miano, Koffi Kwahulé, and others.

The main theme of Pour Haïti is Haiti and its terrible present situation, with evocations of its past and its history and, most of all, a sense of solidarity with the Haitian people. This collection will gather previously unpublished texts together by nearly 130 writers and poets from around the world—the Caribbean, Europe, Africa, Latin America, the Pacific Ocean, and North America “demonstrating that the trauma of January 12, 2010 is global.”  Pour Haïti will feature a large representation of Francophone writers and will also constitute a tribute to Alexandre Dumas. Texts by non-Francophone authors will be included in the original and translated into French. The book is an ode to Haiti. It represents an act of anamnesis, in order to not allow us to forget what has happened and the hundreds of thousands who died, but also an expression of hope for the future and the reconstruction of Haiti and its repositories of art, beauty, and knowledge.

For full descriptions (in French), see http://www.suzannedracius.com/spip.php?article228 and http://www.desnel.com/spip.php?article267

For ordering information, see http://www.desnel.com/spip.php?article278