Radical Normalisation

A powerful voice from the Caribbean, exploring identity, trauma, and resilience.

Celia A Sorhaindo's Radical Normalisation writes back from the margins, bringing readers to her Dominican home. This engrossing debut adjusts perspectives on universal questions about poetry as a resource and value in the present. Sorhaindo's wit and linguistic inventiveness shine in her reflections on art, her dramatization of Jean Rhys's voice, and her reckoning with the natural world.

These poems respond to the destruction visited on Dominica, most recently by Hurricane Maria, recording its changes and exploring themes of identity, memory, and social commentary. This collection is for readers of contemporary poetry, those interested in Caribbean literature, and individuals seeking reflections on identity, trauma, and resilience.

Celia A Sorhaindo was born in the Commonwealth of Dominica. She migrated with her family to England in 1976, when she was eight years old, returning home in 2005. Her poems have been published in Verse Daily, Illuminations International Magazine, Rattle, Mslexia, Wasafiri, Anomaly, Magma Poetry, Lolwe, New Daughters of Africa Anthology, and Caribbean journals PREE, The Caribbean Writer, BIM, Moko Magazine, and Susumba's Book Bag. Her first poetry chapbook, Guabancex, longlisted for the 2021 OCM Bocas Prize for Caribbean Literature, was published in February 2020, also by Papillote Press.