Writing on Water

by Maggie Harris

Maggie Harris’ short-story collection Writing on Water is told through voices from the Caribbean where she was born and Britain where she has lived as an adult, and through them, the wider world. These are stories of migration, belonging and survival, of children and families brought together or torn apart. This is a varied collection containing stories such as 'Sending for Chantal', a story of Caribbean migration about a child who hasn't seen her mother since she was 4 and is now in her 30s, which was the Regional Winner of The Commonwealth Short Story Prize in 2014. Maggie, who lives in West Wales, writes poetry and prose and also won the poetry section of the Guyana Prize for Literature 2014.

Genres: Short Stories

136 pages, Paperback

Published August 1, 2017

Reviews

[Crazytourists_books · Rating 3 out of 5]

As usual, some of the stories were more interesting than others.
The writing style was simple and different from story to story, and that gave the collection character.
(2.5 stars)

[Shivanee Ramlochan · Rating 4 out of 5]

Many of these stories win and enthrall me in their portraiture of the domestic, dangerous richness of exploring women's lives, much like Sharon Millar's exquisitely-crucibled The Whale house and other stories. Harris' feminisms on the page are vital, even or especially at their most disturbing: interlacing Caribbean and British women's stories, steeping them in stark realism then peppering them with touches and traces of the folkloric: here is where Harris excels.

[Elizabeth M. Castillo · Rating 5 out of 5]

Wonderful, lush, fragrant collection. Stories from the caribbean to London to the US and back again. Immigrant identities, insular folklore, characters for readers to care about. Would make a great collection to study in school or uni.

[Amory · Rating 1 out of 5]

Would have been better if it were written on water.