WELCOME TO PAPILLOTE PRESS 

A new departure for 2010: Papillote Press is publishing a children's book, The Snake King of the Kalinago, based on a myth of the Kalinago (Carib) people of Dominica. The book is written by children from Atkinson School, close to the Carib Territory, the home of the Kalingo people. The illustrations first appeared in another Papillote Press book, Yet We Survive, and were created by members of a former youth group from the Carib Territory. We hope you will enjoy this book and buy it for your children.

Myths and legends are now taught in UK primary schools and The Snake King of the Kalinago will be a welcome addition for classrooms and libraries. Wandsworth Council in south London has already backed "Snake King", and every primary school in the borough will receive copies of the book.

The two books published in 2009 continue to show that books from Dominica 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.

Black and White Sands was reviewed by the actor Diana Quick  in The Literary Review (December 2009) and in The Scotsman newspaper. It was featured in the Guardian's travel pages and was discussed on BBC Radio Scotland's arts programme and on the BBC's Caribbean Magazine. It was even the prize in a competition in a Scottish regional newspaper.

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.

Home Again also created press interest, with a major feature in the Guardian Weekend Magazine by Gary Younge, who wrote about the issue of return migration by interviewing some of the contributors to the book. It was also discussed on BBC Radio 4's Thinking Aloud, and Franklyn Georges, one of Home Again contributors, was interviewed for the Radio 4's Saturday morning programme, Saturday Live.

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. This book is now out of print although can be obtained (at a price) online from second-hand book outlets.

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.

 

Order these books online at: