A native of Trinidad and Tobago, Glenda Jack spent much of the past 25 years living in Bermuda and the Cayman Islands before settling in Miami in 2024 to be closer to family. She shares her book recommendations and musings on Instagram @shereadswithwine.
You haven’t been here long – how do you like Miami?
Oh, I love Miami! I visited many, many times before moving here – my mother was living here and my sister and her family are here, too. I’ve got a great bunch of nieces and nephews.
What have you been up to since coming here – are you still working?
I’m semi-retired now. I worked in finance and law but made a switch to substitute teaching when I got here – I didn’t want to go back to corporate and reporting to people and going to staff meetings. [laughs]
How did you first learn about Miami Book Fair?
I knew of it before living here; I’ve been following Books & Books on social media for years. I love the café there! Every time I was in town I’d try to get to the store and have a coffee and pick up a book.
You’ve been a Miamian just a couple of years, but having been familiar with the Fair before that and a longtime visitor, what do you think the Fair brings to Miami?
I love how it brings literary intellectuals together and that it’s international – we have South America, the U.K., and other places represented – it’s not just the United States. And – being from the Caribbean, so I’m quite biased about this [laughs] – I like that Caribbean authors are part of the programming and that Little Haiti Book Festival is something that happens every year.
You joined Friends of the Fair as soon as you moved here – which benefits do you most enjoy?
I really like the year-round author events and receptions and special events, where you can get up close and personal with the panelists; they’re much more intimate than the larger programs at the Fair. I went to the Stories We Share event in March and that was great.
What’s an MBF moment or experience that really stands out for you?
It’s more than a single moment, because the 2025 Fair was such a bumper year of Caribbean authors! I’m a founding member of an online Caribbean book club that’s been going since 2020 – we started it up during the pandemic and we still meet every month – and it was so phenomenal to be at the Fair and meet the authors of the books that we’ve discussed. Marlon James, Edwidge Danticat, Geoffrey Philp – who’s a member of the book club – Camille Adams, Ryan Bachoo, Marlene Daut … I got to mix and mingle and spend time with them and attend their panels. Book Fair really is a literary paradise.
Tell me about the last great book you read.
There Are Rivers in the Sky by Elif Shafak. It’s written across three time periods, starting way back BCE with Gilgamesh to modern times, connected by a single raindrop. I love water, I love the rain, I love the ocean – no matter where I’ve lived, it’s always been close to the water – and so the story really appealed to me. I also recently read Dear Haiti, Love Alaine by Maika and Maritza Moulite, which I really liked. It’s a young adult book, but I saw last year that they were being honored at the Next Page Dinner and my curiosity was piqued.
Which MBF 2025 program did you find particularly engaging?
I can’t remember the name of the program* right now but it included Camille Adams, who was speaking about her memoir, How to Be Unmothered: A Trinidadian Memoir. I love mother-daughter stories, whether the relationship is good or bad.
*Ed. Note: Roots & Reckonings: Family, Memory & Caribbean Identity; this program is available for on-demand viewing as part of Little Haiti Book Festival 2026 online.
I was going to ask you what three authors you’d pick for your fantasy book club, but since you’ve already been able to connect with some of your faves through your actual book club, I’ll ask you this, instead: What’s the best book-to-screen adaptation you’ve seen?
I’m not a movie or television person – the only time I turn on the TV is when there’s a Grand Slam tennis match on – so I can’t think of one, but I just came back from a trip to French Guiana and visited the penal colony there, where Henri Charrière, the real-life person who wrote the book Papillon, was imprisoned before he escaped. I visited the cell he was in, the penal colony was decommissioned in the 1940s, I think, and oh, my god, the place still smells of death. So while I’ve never seen the movie, now I’m intrigued and would like to read the book – I just picked up a copy at Books & Books – and see the movie, the one starring Steve McQueen that came out in the ’70s.
Interview by Elisa Chemayne Agostinho; responses have been edited for space and clarity.