Literature & Book Reviews
Haiti has a wonderfully rich tradition of fiction and non-fiction literature. Below we recommend our favourite books on its history, politics, art, culture, vodou and fiction.
Please do contact us at [email protected] if you have suggestions you would like to add to this list.
HISTORY & POLITICS
ART, CULTURE, VODOU
FICTION
HISTORY & POLITICS
Charles Arthur, Libete: A Haitian Anthology (Latin American Bureau 1999)
Susan Buck-Morss, Hegel, Haiti, and Universal History (University of Pittsburgh Press 2009)
John Cussans, Undead Uprising (MIT & Strange Attractor Press 2017)
Laurent Dubois, Avengers of the New World: The Story of the Haitian Revolution (Harvard University Press 2005)
Alex Dupuy, Rethinking the Haitian Revolution (Rowman & Littlefield 2019)
Carolyn Fick, The Making of Haiti: Saint Domingue Revolution From Below (University of Tennessee Press 1991)
Sibylle Fischer, Modernity Disavowed: Haiti and the Cultures of Slavery in the Age of Revolution (Duke University Press 2004)
Charles Forsdick & Christian Hogsbjerg, Toussaint Louverture: A Black Jacobin in the Age of Revolutions (Pluto Press 2017)
Peter Hallward, Damning the Flood: Haiti, Aristide and the Politics of Containment, (Verso 2007)
C.L.R. James, The Black Jacobins: Toussaint L’ouverture and the San Domingo Revolution (Penguin 2001)
David Nicholls, From Dessalines to Duvalier, (Macmillan 1988)
Mark Schuller, Killing With Kindness: International Aid and NGOs, (Rutgers University Press 2012)
Julius Scott, The Common Wind: Afro-American Currents in the Age of the Haitian Revolution (Verso 2018)
Matthew J Smith, Red and Black in Haiti: Radicalism, Conflict and Political Change 1934-1957, (UNC Press 2009)
Michel-Rolph Trouillot, State Against Nation, (Monthly Review Press 1990)
Amy Willentz, Farewell Fred Voodoo, (Simon & Schuster 2013)
ART, CULTURE, VODOU
Jana Braziel, Riding with Death: Vodou Art and Urban Ecology in the Streets of Port-au-Prince (University Press of Mississippi 2017)
Karen McCarthy Brown, Tracing the Spirit: Ethnographic Essays on Haitian Art, (Davenport Museum of Art 1995)
Barbara Browning, Infectious Rhythm, (Routledge 1998)
Donald Cosentino (ed.), Sacred Arts of Vodou, (UCLA Fowler Museum 1995)
Donald Cosentino, Vodou Things: The Art of Pierrot Barra & Marie Cassaise, (University Press of Mississippi 1997)
Donald Cosentino, In Extremis: Death and Life in 21st-century Haitian Art, (Fowler Museum 2013)
Harold Courlander, The Drum & the Hoe: Life & Lore of the Haitian People,
(University of California Press 1960)
Joan Dayan, Haiti, History & the Gods, (University of California Press 1995)
Maya Deren, Divine Horsemen: The Living Gods of Haiti, (Documentext 1970)
Alex Farquharson & Leah Gordon (eds.)’Kafou: Haiti, Art and Vodou’, (Nottingham Contemporary)
Alan Foubert, Forgerons du Vodou: Vodou Blacksmiths, (Cidihca Deschamps Ulys 1990)
Leah Gordon, Ghetto Biennale | Geto Byenal 2009-2015 (No Eraser Publishing 2017)
Leah Gordon, Kanaval: Vodou, Politics and Revolution on the Streets of Haiti, (Soul Jazz 2010)
Laënnec Hurbon, Voodoo: Truth & Fantasy, (Thames & Hudson 1995)
Zora Neale Hurston, Tell My Horse: Voodoo and Life in Haiti and Jamaica,
(Perennial Library 1990)
Elizabeth McAlister, Rara: Vodou, Power and Performance in Haiti and its Diaspora, (University of California Press 2002)
Albert Metraux, Voodoo in Haiti, (Shocken Books 1972)
Patrick Arthur Polk, Haitian Vodou Flags, (University Press of Mississippi 1997)
Michael Richardson (ed.), Refusal of the Shadow: Surrealism and the Caribbean, (Verso 1996)
Selden Rodman, Spirits of the Night: The Vaudun Gods of Haiti, (Spring Publications Inc 1992)
FICTION
Jacques Stephen Alexis, General Sun, My Brother, (University Press of Virginia 1999)
Jacques Stephen Alexis, In the Flicker of an Eyelid, (University Press of Virginia 2002)
Alejo Carpentier, The Kingdom of this World, (Noonday Press 1989)
Edwidge Danticat, Breath, Eyes, Memory, (Soho Press 1994)
Rene Depestre, The Festival of the Greasy Pole, (University Press of Virginia 1990)
Graham Greene, The Comedians, (Penguin Books 1967)
Dani Laferriere, An Aroma of Coffee, (Coach House Press 1993)
Dani Laferriere, Dining with the Dictator, (Coach House Press 1994)
Jacques Roumain, Masters of the Dew, (Heinemann 1994)
Articles featuring Literature on Haiti
Discussion on Michel-Rolph Trouillot: University College of London
20th December 2012
Discussion on Michel-Rolph Trouillot: University College of London. Wednesday, January 23, 2013 – 5:30pm The Institute of the Americas, University
Paramilitarism in Haiti – Book Launch
25th September 2012
Paramilitarism and the Assault on Democracy in Haiti Tuesday, September 25th. 5:00pm-7:30pm ICC McGhee Library Georgetown University In this path-breaking
Journalism in Haiti
28th May 2010
Journalism in Haiti Haiti is a dangerous place to be a journalist. For decades, the press has been at times
Books on Haiti: Recommendations from the Haiti Support Group
The Haiti Support Group
2nd May 2010
Books on Haiti: Recommendations from the Haiti Support Group. Founder and Chairman of the Haiti Support Group, and Head of