Mar 11 2010
UH proposal persuades writer to move
[Robert Higgs, 'The Daily Cougar.com', March 9th 2010]:
For Tiphanie Yanique, who studied and taught creative writing as a Master’s of Fine Art candidate at UH from 2003-2005, last week represented both the culmination of a life-long ambition and an important first step on her journey as a young author.
With the March 2 release of her first book, a collection of short stories titled How to Escape from a Leper Colony, Yanique has made good on a desire born in childhood to bring Caribbean literature to both the world and her fellow Virgin Islanders.
“Being from the Virgin Islands in particular, I grew up not even knowing there was such a thing as Caribbean literature, which seems impossible because the Caribbean has impacted global literature tremendously,” Yanique said. “I think this is particularly because we’re an American territory, and we don’t necessarily have as much access to what is going on creatively in the region.