Drifting

(Paperback)

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Description

Drifting takes the reader from Haiti to the United States and back in the time before, during and after the catastrophic earthquake of 2010. Ulysse's lyrical writing is filled with the irony that comes with seeking to escape tragedy, tumbling into even more and discovering that a reversal of fortune is sometimes a change for the worse. Each short story centres around a different everyday person - from peasants trying to leave the countryside to an elderly woman seeking the help of a voodoo priest to help fix' her dying husband.'

Reviews

Drifting is a remarkable debut by a phenomenal writer. Much like Sandra Cisneros's The House on Mango Street, this sublime and powerful book allows us to experience the joys and tragedies of ordinary and extraordinary lives, in small neighborhoods and big cities, in the present and the past. Katia D. Ulysse's talent soars higher and higher to expand both our hearts and our universe.
--Edwidge Danticat, author of Claire of the Sea Light

We already know that the Haitian-American community can produce some of our very finest fiction writers. With Drifting, Katia D. Ulysse proves that point once again, evoking the immigrant experience with delicacy, gravity, and pathos. Refreshing and arresting on the first read, this book will be remembered for a long time to come.
--Madison Smartt Bell, author of The Color of Night

In Drifting, Katia Ulysse delves into the complex lives of girls and young women. With boldness and clarity she shows us what she finds: the fears, cruelties, and humiliations of their childhood; disturbing feelings of longing, jealousy, and grief; an intense struggle to make sense of the unfathomable world of adults; and above all a determination to survive. In clear prose, Katia Ulysse tells the tangled truth of life and brings a sensitive eye to bear on complicated, flawed characters in circumstances at once everyday and extraordinary. These stories of displacement, struggle, renewal, and redemption are tough, piercing, and true, and they bear the mark of a gifted writer.
--Michle Voltaire Marcelin

Drifting is a remarkable debut by a phenomenal writer. Much like Sandra Cisneros's The House on Mango Street, this sublime and powerful book allows us to experience the joys and tragedies of ordinary and extraordinary lives, in small neighborhoods and big cities, in the present and the past. Katia D. Ulysse's talent soars higher and higher to expand both our hearts and our universe.
--Edwidge Danticat, author of Claire of the Sea Light

We already know that the Haitian-American community can produce some of our very finest fiction writers. With Drifting, Katia D. Ulysse proves that point once again, evoking the immigrant experience with delicacy, gravity, and pathos. Refreshing and arresting on the first read, this book will be remembered for a long time to come.
--Madison Smartt Bell, author of The Color of Night

In Drifting, Katia Ulysse delves into the complex lives of girls and young women. With boldness and clarity she shows us what she finds: the fears, cruelties, and humiliations of their childhood; disturbing feelings of longing, jealousy, and grief; an intense struggle to make sense of the unfathomable world of adults; and above all a determination to survive. In clear prose, Katia Ulysse tells the tangled truth of life and brings a sensitive eye to bear on complicated, flawed characters in circumstances at once everyday and extraordinary. These stories of displacement, struggle, renewal, and redemption are tough, piercing, and true, and they bear the mark of a gifted writer.
--Michle Voltaire Marcelin

Author Bio

Katia D. Ulysse was born in Haiti, and moved to the United States as a teen. Her writings have been published in numerous literary journals, including the Caribbean Writer, Meridians, Calabash, Peregrine, and Smartish Pace, among others. Her work has also appeared in The Butterfly's Way and Haiti Noir. Her first children's book, Fabiola Can Count, was published in 2013. Ulysse lives in Maryland with her husband and daughter. When she's not reading, writing fiction, gardening, or teaching, she blogs on VoicesfromHaiti.com.