The short story has been integral to the development of Caribbean literature, and continues to offer possibilities for invention and reinvigoration. As the most comprehensive study of its kind, this important and timely volume explores the significance of the short story form to Caribbean cultural production across the twentieth and twenty-first centuries. The twenty original essays collected here offer a unique set of inquiries and insights into the historical, cultural and stylistic characteristics of Caribbean short story writing.

The book draws together diverse critical perspectives from established and emerging scholars, including Shirley Chew, Alison Donnell, James Procter, Raymond Ramcharitar and Elaine Savory. Essays cover the publishing histories of specific islands; intersections of the local, global and diasporic; treatments of race and gender; language, orality and genre; and cultural contexts from tourism to calypso to cricket.

Mark McWatt is the recently retired Professor of West Indian literature at UWI, Cave Hill. He is joint editor of the Oxford Book of Caribbean Verse(2005).

The Editors
Dr Lucy Evans is Lecturer in Postcolonial Literature at the University of Leicester. She has published a number of articles on Caribbean and black British writing, and is currently completing a monograph entitled Communities in Contemporary Caribbean Short Stories.
Emma Smith has a PhD in narrative theory and contemporary fiction from the University of Leeds. She has lectured in post/colonial literature and history at Leeds and Leeds Metropolitan universities and currently works on the editorial team at Peepal Tree.