Includes bibliographical references (p. 508-531) and index.

1900-29. Poetry and prose. The undertone ; Nana ; Busha's song / Tropica (Mary Adella Wolcott) -- My beautiful home ; O, little green island far over the sea ; Jamaica's coronation ode / Tom Redcam (Thomas MacDermot) -- The fleet of the empire ; My country / J.E.C. McFarlane -- The empire's flag ; A plea / Albinia Hutton -- The spell of the tropics / H.S. Bunbury -- Islets mid silver seas / Astley Clerk -- Pocomania / P.M. Sherlock -- A country idyl / Eva Nicholas -- One / Clara Maude Garrett -- Epitaph / H.D. Carberry -- My native land my home ; A midnight woman to the bobby ; The apple-woman's complaint ; In bondage ; Outcast ; Flame-heart ; I shall return / Claude McKay -- Jane' career / H.G. De Lisser -- Those that be in bondage : a tale of Indian indentures and sunlit western water / A.R.F. Webber -- Triumph / C.L.R. James. 1900-29. Non-fiction works. Ideas of patriotism and national dignity / Leo Oakley -- Miss Jamaica / Harvey Clarke -- Claude McKay / J.E.C. McFarlane -- West Indian poetry 1900-1970 : a study in cultural decolonisation / Edward Baugh -- Women as leaders / Amy J. Garvey. 1930-49. Poetry and prose. Renunciation ; In vain ; If ; Jamaica ; In Jamaica ; Quashie comes to London ; Kinky hair blues ; Cinema eyes ; Nigger / Una Marson -- Holy ; Oh! you build a house / George Campbell -- Jamaica oman ; Bed-time story ; Proverbs ; Tan a yuh yard ; Beeny Bud (Mussirolinkina) / Louise Bennett -- Listen, the wind / Roger Mais -- Ancestor on the auction block / Vera Bell -- Sun is a shapely fire / A.J. Seymour -- The mighty chalkdust. Brain drain -- The mighty sparrow. Dan is the man. 1930-49. Non-fiction works. Discovering literature in Trinidad : the nineteen thirties / C.L.R James -- Through a maze of colour / Albert Gomes -- The beacon editorials. Local fiction ; Local poetry -- The challenge of our time / J.E.C. McFarlane -- The cultural revolution in Jamaica after 1938 / Victor Stafford Reid -- Where the roots lie / Roger Mais -- We want books -- but do we encourage our writers? / Una Marson -- Contradictory (W)omens? : gender consciousness in the poetry of Una Marson / Alison Donnell -- On reading Louise Bennett, seriously / Mervyn Morris -- Images of men and women in 1930s Calypsoes / Gordon Rohlehr. 1950-65. Poetry and prose. University of hunger ; I come from the nigger yard ; I am no soldier / Martin Carter -- Carnival in Martinique / Elma Napier -- Waiting for Aunty to cough / Samuel Selvon -- The day they burnt the books / Jean Rhys -- My fathers before me / Karl Sealey. 1950-65. Non-fiction works. The literary situation in the contemporary Caribbean / Henry Swanzy -- The occasion for speaking / George Lamming -- New wine in new bottles : the critical reception of West Indian writing in Britain in the 1950s and early 1960s / Sarah Lawson Welsh -- the making of a writer : a conversation with George Lamming / Reinhard Sander and Ian Munro -- The outsider's voice : white Creole women novelists in the Caribbean literary tradtion / Evelyn O'Callaghan. 1966-1979. Poetry and prose. Squatter's rites ; Grampa / Dennis Scott -- Residue / Anthony McNeill -- Elsa's version / Christine Craig -- They came in ships / Mahadai Das -- Per Ajie : a tributre to the first immigrant woman / Rajkumari Singh. 1966-1979. Non-fiction works. We must learn to sit down together and discuss a little culture / Sylvia Wynter -- West Indian poetry : some problems of assessment I ; West Indian poetry : some problems of assessment II ; Afterthoughts / Gordon Rohlehr -- Review : use men language / Gerald Moore -- Jazz and the West Indian novel I, II and III ; Timehri / Kamau Brathwaite -- I am a coolie / Rajkumari Singh -- The muse of history / Derek Walcott -- Introduction to Bluefoot traveller / James Berry. 1980-1989. Poetry and prose. Street 66 ; Reggae fi dada / Linton Kwesi Johnson -- Black and white / Mikey Smith -- Lucy's letter ; From Lucy : holiday reflections ; Caribbean proverb poem I ; Caribbean proverb poem 2 / James Berry -- Intercity dub, for Jean / Jane King -- One continent/to another ; Your blessing / Grace Nichols -- On houses ; My late friend ; Guyana lovesong ; For my mother (may I inherit half her strenght) ; I am becoming my mother / Lorna Goodison -- Annie John / Jamaica Kincaid -- A letter to the prime minister / Harry Narain. 1980-1989. Non-fiction works. On not being Milton : nigger talk in England today / David Dabydeen -- Experiments in brokenness : the creative use of Creole in David Dabydeen's Slave song / Sarah Lawson Welsh -- The invisible woman in West Indian fiction / Ramabai Espinet -- Delivering the word : the poetry of Lorna Goodison / Denise Decaires Narain. The 1990s. Poetry and prose. Testament / Jean Binta Breeze -- A modern slave song / Benjamin Zephaniah -- dis poem / Mutabaruka -- The counting house / David Dabydeen -- Mercy / Lawrence Scott. g The 1990s. Non-fiction works. Beyond Miranda's meanings : un/silencing the 'demonic ground' of Caliban's 'woman' / Sylvia Wynter -- Writing oral history : Sistren theatre collective's Lionheart gal / Carolyn Cooper -- Dreaming of daffodils : cultural resistance to the narratives of theory / Alison Donnell -- Challenges of the struggle for sovereignty : changing the world versus writing stories / Merle Hodge -- Can a dub poet be a woman? / Jean Binta Breeze -- By word of mouth : John Vidal gets in tune with dub poet, Benjamin Zephaniah / John Vidal -- The Antilles : fragments of epic memory / Derek Walcott.

An outstanding compilation of over seventy primary and secondary texts of writing from the Caribbean. The editors demonstrate that these singular voices have emerged out of a wealth of literary tradition and not a cultural void.