"Luscious, abundant and rich--those are apt words for "Thiefing Sugar," this captivating and lyrical exploration of what it meant in the twentieth century to be a Caribbean woman who loves women. Based on a well-chosen corpus of texts and lucid, in-depth analyses, the book is altogether a feast for the senses, a gift to us all!"--Gloria Wekker, Utrecht University, Netherlands

Acknowledgments ix
Introduction: The Spring of Her Look 1
1. "Rose is my mama, stanfaste is my papa": Hybrid Landscapes and Sexualities in Surinamese Women's Oral Poetry 29
2. Darkening the Lily: The Erotics of Self-Making in Eliot Bliss's Luminous Isle 68
3. Blue Countries, Dark Beauty: Opaque Desires in the Poetry of Ida Faubert 102
4. At the River of Washerwomen: Work, Water, and Sexual Fluidity in Mayotte Capécia's I Am a Martinican Woman 136
5. Transforming Sugar, Transitioning Revolution: Male Womanhood and Lesbian Eroticism in Michelle Cliff's No Telephone to Heaven 169
6. Breaking Hard against Things: Crossing between Sexual and Revolutionary Politics in Dionne Brand's No Language in Neutral 201
Notes 233
Bibliography 257
Index 269