Land of Upheaval: A Literary Journey Through Haiti’s Modern History

Fabienne Josaphat received her M.F.A. in creative writing from Florida International University. She serves as fiction editor for Sliver of Stone literary magazine. Josaphat is the author of Requiem pour Anaise, a novel published in Nice, France in 2002. Her short stories have appeared in various journals and magazines, including The Caribbean Writer and MiamiZine. Dancing in the Baron’s Shadow, her first novel, is forthcoming from UNnamed Press in the spring of 2016.

Hector Duarte Jr. is a writer and seventh-grade English teacher in Miami, Florida. His work has appeared in Sliver of Stone, Flash Fiction Offensive, Shotgun Honey, Near to the Knuckle, Shadows and Light: An Anthology to Benefit Women’s Aid UK, and The Whimsical Project.

Panel: Land of Upheaval: A Literary Journey through Haiti’s Modern History Panel Three authors. Three voices. Three slices of chaotic Haitian history. Fabienne Josaphat, M.J. Fievre, and Katia Ulysse will share accounts of Haiti’s difficult past, from the days of Papa Doc Duvalier, to the tumultuous times of President Aristide, to the earthquake tragedy that displaced more than 1.5 million people. The panel will discuss how myths and tales about Haiti have been used for political ends.

M.J. (Jessica) Fievre published her first mystery novel at the age of sixteen. She went on to author nine books in French. Her children’s book, I Am Riding, is written in three languages: English, French, and Haitian Creole. Fievre lived in Port-au-Prince, Haiti under the regime of President-Priest, Jean-Bertrand Aristide. It was a time of violent protests, a crippling embargo, nightly shootings, home invasions and robberies, and the burning alive of former security-militia members in neighborhood streets. Her memoir, A Sky the Color of Chaos (Beating Windward), tells of M.J.’s childhood growing up steeped in the danger and violence that rocked Haiti in the 1990’s. Intent on escaping her country and her home, dominated by her irascible father, Fievre developed an interest in medicine and writing, both of which proved a salvation. Edwidge Danticat writes, “. . . a heartfelt and deeply honest coming of age memoir that examines her family as well as her country.”