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Poems using the Haitian (original) zombie as a metaphor for the condition and treatment of Black bodies in contemporary North America.
About the author
Junie Désil is of Haitian ancestry. Her work has appeared in Room Magazine, PRISM International, the Capilano Review, and CV2. Her first book, eat salt | gaze at the ocean (Talonbooks, 2020), received wide acclaim.
Summary
eat salt | gaze at the ocean explores the themes of Black sovereignty, Haitian sovereignty, and Black lives, using the Haitian (original) zombie as a metaphor for the condition and treatment of Black bodies. Interspersed with information about zombies, Haiti, and policies is the author’s personal narrative of growing up Black and Haitian of immigrant parents on stolen land. The collection is divided into two sections: the first half focusses on zombies, while the second focusses on the ocean/water and the violent crossing experienced by enslaved folks. The book’s title refers to the “cure” for reversing the process of becoming a zombie.
Additional text
“By removing punctuation, historical signature of her publisher, the poet invites her readers to inhabit ... her very skin as she gets naked and vulnerable in poems that tell not only her story but the story of millions before her ... Racism is ALIVE. It is time to sink or swim for survival, and this collection is swimming lessons on dry land as we absorb them during lockdown.”
—Linda Rogers, the Ormsby Review
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