WELCOME TO PAPILLOTE PRESS 

Two new books for 2009 continue to show that books from Dominica in the eastern Caribbean are as eclectic and surprising as the island itself. 

Black and White Sands by Elma Napier is a colonial memoir by a remarkable woman who settled in Dominica in 1932 and became the first woman to sit in a Caribbean parliament. Black and White Sands is acclaimed by Diana Athill, the Costa prize award-winner for  biographer: "A woman I won't forget ... a book that people will love." Take it with you when you visit Dominica or enjoy it at home for its evocation of tropical landscapes, and Napier's sense of adventure and passion for the island, its history and its people.

The second book, Home Again, is very different. This is a collection of contemporary real-life stories of 22 Dominicans who migrated to England, the United States, Canada and the Caribbean region - and then, after decades away, go "back home".What does it feel like to be back home? Read this book and explore the positive aspects of return - and the difficulties. Compelling and intensely moving, Home Again has been compiled by Celia Sorhaindo and Polly Pattullo for the Dominica UK Association.

We also publish fiction, and after launching It Falls Into Place, the acclaimed short stories of Phyllis Shand Allfrey, in 2004, we followed this with a very different collection, Most Wanted: Street Stories from the Caribbean by Christborne Shillingford, a Dominican writer who has created a troublesome anti-hero who gets into scrapes both as an amateur private detective and as an inquisitive citizen. It's a modern, irreverent look straight from the streets. You mad? As Shillingford might say. 

Our wide-ranging approach is reflected by Yet We Survive - The Kalinago People of Dominica: Our Lives in Words and Pictures. Here, the Kalinago (or Carib) people describe and illustrate their own lives. Yet We Survive is edited by Mary Walters, a Scottish teacher, who worked with a group of young Kalinagos on a project to record their culture: work and play, shopping, schools, religion, the differences between women's and men's lives. The result is this exceptional book, which comes with teachers' notes for use in primary schools.

The Gardens of Dominica was the first book published by Papillote Press. It is the first guide to the island's rich tradition of cultivation - from pre-Columbian times to the present - and describes the rich variety of gardens, and their uses, nurtured on this fertile island. 

The Roseau Valley Guide provides an indepth look at all you need to know about this spectacular area of the island, inland from the capital, Roseau.

 

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