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Dear Friends & Readers:
Thank you for finding your way to my website. You’ll find here pages linking you to my recent and past book publications.
What I’m happiest about today is that my novel on the 2010 Haiti earthquake, What Storm, What Thunder, appeared with Tin House in the US on October 5, 2021 (in Canada with HarperCollins on September 13, 2021). Above, you’ll find the cover of the new paperback (Tin House, August 2022), available now everywhere books are sold! It’s been gratifying to see the novel soar after so many years of working on it! It received the following starred reviews:
“Extraordinary….lyrical….dazzling….Each of the voices entrances, thanks to Chancy’s beautiful prose and rich themes. This is not to be missed.” – Publishers’ Weekly, Starred Review *
“Unforgettable….a devastating, personal, and vital account.” – Kirkus, Starred Review *
“A soaring, heartbreaking symphony.” – Library Journal, Starred Review *
*****
WS, WT was awarded a 2022 American Book Award by the Before Columbus Foundation. It was also shortlisted for the Caliba Golden Poppy Award, Aspen Words Literary Prize, and longlisted for the OCM Bocas Prize and Brooklyn Public Library Book Prize.
It was named a “Best Book of 2021” by NPR, Kirkus, the Chicago Public Library, the New York Public Library, Library Journal, Boston Globe, Amazon Books & Canada’s Globe & Mail.
It was an Indie Next pick as well as an Amazon Editor’s Pick for the month of October; Amazon Books Editors also named it one of their top 20 books of 2021, coming in at #12. Some book subscription boxes, “Pouring Over Books” in the US and “Decentered Lit” in the Caribbean, also made it one of their fall book picks, as did a number of book clubs, into Spring 2022. Indie book stores also picked the novel as part of their “1st edition” book clubs!
WS, WT was named a “best book of October” by Alta, Apple Books, Amazon, Apartment Therapy, People Magazine, and Bustle. Leading up to publication, it was named a “most-anticipated” or “best book” of Fall 2021 by:
Time Magazine, Bomb, Library Journal, Shereads, Vulture, Alma., Good Housekeeping, Buzz Feed/Buzz Feed Books, PureWow, Boston.com, Thrillist, LitHub, AARP, The Washington Post, Chicago Tribune, Dandelion Chandelier, The Millions, The Globe & Mail, & Bookish.
Whew! It’s been a whirlwind, for which I am thankful.
In addition to being dedicated to the 250,000 + who perished in the 2010 earthquake, the novel is also dedicated to my mother, Adeline Lamour Chancy, who passed away January 5, 2019, after a two and a half year battle following post-cancer surgeries in 2016. She was an advocate for this novel from the first and also served as my Kreyol consultant. I have known no finer, no stronger, more inspiring person and I miss her dearly every day.
New Books:
This Spring, the French translation of WS, WT will appear with “Les Martiales,” an imprint of les éditions remue-ménages, out of Montréal, under the title: Voix, Éclairs, Tonnerres. Please look for some exciting reveals about this in the coming weeks!
Fall 2023, I have two books coming out:
A 20th anniversary re-edition of my first novel, Spirit of Haiti, with SUNY, November 2023.
My collection of post-earthquake essays: Harvesting Haiti: Reflections on Unnatural Disasters with the University of Texas Press, October 2023. You can pre-order here: https://utpress.utexas.edu/9781477327814/
25% off your purchase and free shipping with code UTXM25 on www.utexaspress.com.
I will post more about these books on dedicated pages for each book soon!
Finally, two translations of my previous novel, The Loneliness of Angels, appeared: a Danish translation in Spring 2019, with the Danish literary press, Rebel With A Cause, and a Spanish translation with the Colombian literary press, LaSirèn, Fall 2020. I am grateful for the editors and translators at both presses for the honor of their time and effort in producing these translations and inviting a wider public to my work. In spring 2020, my 4th academic monograph, Autochthonomies: Transnationalism, Testimony and Transmission in the African Diaspora, which received a Guggenheim Fellowship in 2014, was published by the University of Illinois University Press.
Please follow me on Instagram for any and all announcements as they come about: http://www.instagram.com/myriamjachancy
You can also find interviews, excerpts and other items related to WS, WT here:
Thanks for the visit!
Photo Credit: ©N. Affonso, 2023.
Myriam J. A. Chancy
Los Angeles, CA
April 10, 2023.
“Where love is, there is transformation. Without love, revolution has no meaning, for then revolution is merely destruction, decay, a greater and greater ever-mounting misery. Where there is love, there is revolution, because love is transformation from moment to moment.”
– Krishnamurti, The First & Last Freedoms