Welcome to the In All My Dreams Book Club! This year, in collaboration with our friends at Haitianola, we are gathering virtually in New Orleans to read Depestre and celebrate Carnival together. Our meetings will take place on January 14, 21, 28 and February 4, with a culminating event to kick off Mardi Gras weekend on February 11th.

Sign up for the book club here. Discounted copies of the English translation of Hadriana In All My Dreams are available from the publisher here.

Along with the Book Club, starting January 5th, we’ll be using the Haitianola Instagram page to share photographs, videos, text, and art that responds to Depestre’s work and uses it as an invitation to share our own visions and experiences of Carnival. You can share either by posting on Instagram with #HadrianaHaitianola and tagging @Haitianola, or by emailing something you would like posted to haitianola@gmail.com.

This year’s book club is supported by the Barnard College Digital Humanities Center and the Forum for Scholars & Publics at Duke.

For a little background on the project:

The first iteration of the In All My Dreams book club was held from October 2019 to February 2020, in conjunction with the creation of work by contemporary Haitian visual artists Tessa Mars, Mafalda Mondestin, and Nathalie Jolivert, which was exhibited February 21 through March 14, 2020 at the Barnard College Louise McCagg Gallery. The videos, chats, and comments on the site were produced during our four zoom book club meetings, with additional comments posted by students in classes at Barnard College, Duke University, and San Diego State University.

We also also welcome you to take this guided tour of the novel individually, or to organize your own book club meetings using these resources.

The artwork in the boxes above is by Nathalie Jolivert, and is part of her work on this exhibit. This website was built and designed with the invaluable support of the Barnard College Digital Humanities Center and the particular technological skills of Taylor Faires.

The header image is a detail from the cover of the English translation of Hadriana in All My Dreams by Kaiama L. Glover (design by Christian Fuenfhausen, used courtesy of Akashic Books).