Tiphanie Yanique

Tiphanie Yanique
(source: Philly Fun Guide)
no copyright infringement intended

Caribbean writer, born in the Virgin Islands (with ancestors from St. Thomas, Tortola, St. Croix, and Dominica); her debut collection (How to Escape from a Leper Colony) was praised as fiercely original and poetic, revealing a Caribbean beyond tourist brochures (quote: For a leper, many things are impossible, and many other things are easily done. Babalao Chuck said he could fly to the other side of the island and peek at the nuns bathing. And when a man with no hands claims that he can fly, you listen); it was followed by I am the Virgin Islands, a children's picture book (quote: I am green mountains and blue sky / I am scratch band and steel pan); Land of Love and Drowning is a novel spawned on three generations, from 1916 to the 1970's, a story of love and magic set in her native places, echoing Márquez (quote: Eona is so beautiful that many call her pure and they think on the virgin hills. Or they call her pristine and they think of the clear and open ocean... So on damp nights men imagine that they are angels and may touch her as they please, but when they wake, they sign themselves with the cross); her most recent book is Wife, a poetry collection whose spellbinding language offers the reader an experience of transformation and song (Stacey D'Erasmo); this being said, let me give you the address of her website:

http://tiphanieyanique.com/

• Last Yanique Nation

(A Life in Books)