MOUTHS DON’T SPEAK (Akashic Books, 2018)
No one was prepared for the massive earthquake that struck Haiti in 2010, taking over a quarter-million lives, and leaving millions of others homeless. Three thousand miles away, Jacqueline Florestant mourns the presumed death of her parents, while her husband, a former US Marine and combat veteran, cares for their three-year-old daughter as he fights his own battles with acute PTSD.
Horrified and guilt-ridden, Jacqueline returns to Haiti in search of the proverbial “closure.” Unfortunately, the Haiti she left as a child twenty-five years earlier has disappeared. Her quest turns into a tornado of deception, desperation, and more death. So Jacqueline holds tightly to her daughter—the only one who must not die.
Mouths Don’t Speak is The Rumpus’s November, 2017 Book Club selection, and included on The Rumpus‘s list of anticipated forthcoming releases.
“A captivating portrait of a woman plagued with worry about family and homeland, this beautifully written novel recalls Toni Morrison’s Paradise.”
—Library Journal
“Katia D. Ulysse’s relentless prose delves into the class divide made blatant in the wake of the earthquake while probing the boundaries of the struggles of being a multinational family in a time of crisis.”
—World Literature Today, included in Nota Benes, November 2017
“Mouths Don’t Speak is an intimate look at the complexities of family separation and bonds, wisdom passed from one generation to the next, and haunting trauma. The 2010 earthquake that ravaged Haiti is seen through different lenses both on the island and across the water in the United States. In the fallout, Katia D. Ulysse weaves a beguiling tale of reverie and colonial imprint, new lives created out of painful pasts, and what it really means to call a place home.”—Morowa Yejidé, author of Time of the Locust
“Ulysse punctuates . . . descriptions of the lush Florestant plantation with insightful observations about strained family dynamics. The ties that bind can also constrict us.”
—Booklist
“Katia D. Ulysse is a writer of great power and passion, now delivering her most potent work to date. Mouths Don’t Speak is a story of annihilation and redemption—of a more harrowing journey back from the abyss than anyone who has not read it could possibly imagine. There are those who believe that a book can be a reposwa, in which a spirit may dwell, as in a grotto, tree, or spring. If that is true, then the spirit living in this book must be a very great one.
—Madison Smartt Bell, author of Behind the Moon
“With the force of an earthquake and with unrelenting prose, Katia D. Ulysse explores the pain of long-buried secrets, shakes them loose from their foundations, and deftly probes the lives of the families crippled by their aftermath.”
—Amina Gautier, author of The Loss of All Lost Things
“This beautiful book is for anyone who carries the pain of loss, the heartbreak of guilt, the tremor of horrors lived, and the knowledge that we all love in flawed ways. Consider it required reading for humans, and be brought back to life.”
—Anjanette Delgado, author of The Clairvoyant of Calle Ocho
“Gripping and heartbreaking, Mouths Don’t Speak is an intricate tapestry of familial betrayals, misunderstandings, forgiveness, and love; a testament to the power of new beginnings even after unspeakable tragedies. The pages had me holding my breath!”
—Lauren Francis-Sharma, author of ’Til the Well Runs Dry
DRIFTING (Akashic Books, 2014)
“Drifting is a remarkable debut by a phenomenal writer. Much like Sandra Cisneros’s The House on Mango Street, this sublime and powerful book allows us to experience the joys and tragedies of ordinary and extraordinary lives, in small neighborhoods and big cities, in the present and the past. Katia D. Ulysse’s talent soars higher and higher to expand both our hearts and our universe.”
—Edwidge Danticat, author of Claire of the Sea Light
“We already know that the Haitian-American community can produce some of our very finest fiction writers. With Drifting, Katia D. Ulysse proves that point once again, evoking the immigrant experience with delicacy, gravity, and pathos. Refreshing and arresting on the first read, this book will be remembered for a long time to come.” —Madison Smartt Bell, author of The Color of Night
“Humanity is lost and found in these stories . . . Ulysse has created a fascinating world of class and cultural distinctions; her stories are engaging.”
—Kirkus Reviews
“An arresting account of the contemporary Haitian-American experience.”
—Publishers Weekly
“Humanity is lost and found in these stories . . . Ulysse has created a fascinating world of class and cultural distinctions; her stories are engaging.”
—Kirkus Reviews
“Assimilating qualities of Danticat and Alvarez, Ulysse paints a variegated literary tableau, more sociological than psychological or historical, that translates into fiction the reality, as well as the fragility and vivacity, of life for young Haitian American women of few means.”
—World Literature Today
A superb novel in the form of interconnected short stories that follow Haitian families as they move between time and place, before and after the devastating earthquake of 2010.”
—Teaching Tolerance Magazine, Summer 2015 Staff Pick
“Drifting transcends escapism, materialism, and gaudy promises. Ulysse’s incisively details her thesis in flashes—short, brisk sentences. This is no easy task, but she pulls it off with flawless ease, sealing her claim to pure artistry. Traversing the Atlantic multiple times, she captures the spirit and letter of the diasporic experience . . . Highly recommended.”
—Jamaica Gleaner
“Powerful, piercing and unforgiving . . . Ulysse’s prosaic brilliance is unmistakable.”
—Kaieteur News (Guyana)
“Drifting is an intoxicating account of various short stories by Haitian novelist and literary genius Katia D. Ulysse . . . highly recommended.”
—Black Star News
“In Drifting, Katia Ulysse delves into the complex lives of girls and young women. With boldness and clarity she shows us what she finds: the fears, cruelties, and humiliations of their childhood; disturbing feelings of longing, jealousy, and grief; an intense struggle to make sense of the unfathomable world of adults; and above all a determination to survive. In clear prose, Katia Ulysse tells the tangled truth of life and brings a sensitive eye to bear on complicated, flawed characters in circumstances at once everyday and extraordinary. These themes of displacement, struggle, renewal, and redemption are tough, piercing, and true, and they bear the mark of a gifted writer.”
—Michèle Voltaire Marcelin
(OneMooreBook, 2016)
Katia enjoys writing books for children. Fabiola, a six-year-old stay-with child, is an indentured worker. Modern-day slavery is a problem that affects every corner of our world. The Fabiola books shed light on the situation, in a benign way.
The sequel to Fabiola Can Count, Fabiola Goes to School, tells the story of a stay-with child whose dream comes true. Fabiola is a fictional character. She is very fortunate. But her story does not have to be the stuff of fiction. Every child deserves the opportunity to receive an education.
(OneMooreBook, 2016)
Katia D. Ulysse’s first language is Kreyòl Ayisyen, Haitian Creole. Writing in her mother tongue comes naturally. The Fabiola books are in both English and Kreyòl Ayisyen. Fabiola Ale Lekòl is the Haitian Creole version of Fabiola Goes to School.
(OneMooreBook, 2012)
Katia wrote Fabiola Konn Konte in Miami, her grandmother’s favorite city. Her grandmother/Godmother would have been thrilled to read the Fabiola books, but she had a date with the ancestors. She joined them in the spring of 2012. One day, Katia plans to write a book about her grandmother’s ninety years of life.
