Chancy, Myriam J. A.

Myriam J. A. Chancy is a Guggenheim fellow, HBA chair of the humanities at Scripps College, and the author of What Storm, What Thunder: A Novel (Harper Collins Canada/Tin House Books). Her past novels include The Loneliness of Angels (Peepal Tree, 2010), winner of the 2010 Guyana Prize in Literature Caribbean Award for best fiction; The Scorpion’s Claw (Peepal Tree Press, 2005); and Spirit of Haiti (Mango, 2003), shortlisted in the best first book category, Canada/Caribbean region of the Commonwealth Prize, 2004. She has also authored several academic books, including Framing Silence: Revolutionary Novels by Haitian Women (Rutgers, 1997). She served as an editorial advisory board member for PMLA from 2010-12, as a humanities advisor for the Fetzer Institute from 2011-13, and as a 2018 advisor for the John S. Guggenheim Memorial Foundation. What Storm, What Thunder – named a best book by Time, The Washington Post, the Chicago Tribune, LitHub, and Harper’s Bazaar, among other accolades – recounts the aftermath of the devastating 2010 earthquake from which Haiti still hasn’t recovered. Opening at the end of a long, sweltering day, the earthquake shakes Port-au-Prince, leaving desolation wreaked by both nature and humankind in its wake. In telling the stories of the people affected, Chancy delivers both a haunting record of heartbreaking trauma and a testimony to the tenacity of the human spirit. Publishers Weekly, called it “extraordinary … lyrical … dazzling. … Each of the voices entrances, thanks to Chancy’s beautiful prose and rich themes. This is not to be missed.”