In "Castaway "Yvette Christianse presents an epic yet fragmented poetic story set off the coast of Africa on the island of St. Helena: Napoleon Bonaparte's final place of exile, a port of call for the slave trade, and birthplace of the poet's grandmother. Amid echoes of racialized identity and issues of displacement, the poems in "Castaway" speak with a multiplicity of voices--from Fernao Lopez (the island's first exile) and Napoleon to that of a contemporary black woman. "Castaway" is simultaneously a song of discovery, an anthem of conquest, and a tortured lamentation of exiles and...

Presents an epic yet fragmented poetic story set off the coast of Africa on the island of St Helena: Napoleon Bonaparte's final place of exile, a port of call for the slave trade, and birthplace of the poet's grandmother.