Comparative Literature Theory Seminar

December 10: Guest Speaker: Myriam Chancy, Professor of English, Department of English and Comparative Literature, University of Cincinnati

Myriam J. A. Chancy, Ph. D., is a Haitian-Canadian writer born in Port-au-Prince, Haiti (Ph. D., Iowa). Her first novel, Spirit of Haiti (London : Mango Publications, 2003), was a finalist in the Best First Book Category, Canada/Caribbean region, of the Commonwealth Prize 2004. She is also the author of two books of literary criticism, Framing Silence : Revolutionary Novels by Haitian Women (Rutgers UP, 1997) and Searching for Safe Spaces : Afro-Caribbean Women Writers in Exile (Temple UP, 1997) as well as a second novel, The Scorpion’s Claw (Peepal Tree Press, 2005). Searching for Safe Spaces was awarded an Outstanding Academic Book Award 1998 by Choice, the journal of the American Library Association while her work as the Editor-in-Chief of the Ford funded academic/arts journal, Meridians : feminism, race, transnationalism (2002-2004) was recognized with the Phoenix Award for Editorial Achievement by the CLEJ (2004). Her third academic book, From Sugar to Revolution: Women’s Visions of Haiti, Cuba and the Dominican Republic is forthcoming from Wilfred Laurier UP and her third novel, The Loneliness of Angels (Peepal Tree Press) will be released February 2010. She is currently at work on a book length academic work entitled, Floating Islands: Racial Identity Formation in a Transnational Age, as well as a young adult novel focusing on repressed Haiti-Louisiana ties, entitled The Escape Artist.

Dr. Chancy is Professor of English at the University of Cincinnati where she teaches courses in African Diaspora Studies, Caribbean Lit, Postcolonial Literature & Theory, Feminist Theory & Women’s Studies, and Creative Writing (Fiction).  She currently sits on the editorial advisory board of PMLA, the journal of the Modern Language Association.