Contact with books pushed me toward writing. In books I found a special space of the imagination, and I wanted to create my own...When I write, I fee… - Évelyne Trouillot

I cannot resist going back to poetry as the main inspiration, and will cite some poets’ names: René Philoctète, Mahmoud Darwish, Louis Aragon, Pablo Neruda. When I want to remember what poetry means, I always go back to them always as an anchor and as an impetus to write, to create.

Sadly, it’s easy for publishers to fall into the trap of publishing texts that spread hastily formed impressions of a country and its people and unquestioningly recirculate damaging stereotypes. In that regard, books that abound in superficial references to vodou and pile up images of violence and deprivation seem to attract some editors, conveniently reinforcing their narrow perception of the Haitian reality. It takes a conscious commitment to diversify the array of translated books and to include non-Anglophone Black authors without trying to confine them to pigeonholes.

We Haitian citizens know the damages already caused by foreign forces in the country. Many questions need to be asked: Where did the guns and bullets that have reached Haiti come from? The country does not manufacture guns or bullets. Why do international bodies, and other foreign countries continue to support the de facto government while it refuses to prevent the violence from bandits?