sx salon 49 celebrates the work of Jamaican poet, fiction-writer, essayist, and memoirist Lorna Goodison in a special discussion section guest-edited by Kelly Baker Josephs. Goodison’s extensive and diverse oeuvre has elevated her to the foremost ranks of Caribbean writers, and her work has been widely and rightfully acclaimed. I will leave it to Josephs’s excellent introduction to limn the dimensions of Goodison’s influence and describe the pieces gathered here to laud it, but I take this opportunity to express my delight at being able to present this tribute to a remarkable writer and mainstay of Caribbean literature.

In addition, in this issue Shannon Chen See reviews Yashika Graham’s debut poetry collection, Some of Us Can Go Back Home. And we present new Caribbean poetry and prose by Pamela Mordecai, Simone Leid, Kirese Narinesingh, and Kenan Wilson Phillip.

I close with two notes in memoriam. Anthony Macfarlane was a retired medical doctor, amateur historian, and eminent collector of rare books; in “Artifacts of a Friendship” (sx salon 42) we featured excerpts from his conversation with Ronald Cummings about his long friendship with Cliff Lashley. Dr. Macfarlane passed away on 11 May 2025. Hazel Simmons-McDonald, who passed away on 8 June 2025, was Professor Emerita at the University of the West Indies Cave Hill campus and recipient of the Order of the British Empire (OBE) and the St. Lucia Cross (SLC) for her distinguished work in the field of applied linguistics; she was also a poet and fiction writer whose work was widely anthologized. Our condolences go out to the families and friends of Dr. Macfarlane and Professor Simmons-McDonald.

Enjoy, stay well, and let us know what you think: rlm@smallaxe.net.

Rachel L. Mordecai

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Table of Contents

Reviews

“Reckoning with ‘Home’”—Shannon Chen See
Review of Yashika Graham, Some of Us Can Go Back Home (Kingston: Blue Banyan Books, 2024)

Discussion

“Lorna Goodison’s Gifts”—Kelly Baker Josephs

“‘Into the City of Deep Downpression’: Lorna Goodison’s Tradaptation of Dante’s Inferno”—Elizabeth Coggeshall

“Ancient Blessings: Maternal Reclamations in Lorna Goodison’s I Am Becoming My Mother”—Essah Cozett Díaz

“Miss Lorna an Me: A Reflection on Word Soul: The Lorna Goodison Edition”—Fabian M. Thomas

“‘What You Love Will Save You’: Lorna Goodison Reflects on Her Tenure as Jamaica’s Poet Laureate”—Kellie Magnus

“Poet Mother (for Lorna Goodison)”; “In My Mother’s Backyard”; “Ma Forde”; “Maternal Geographies”; “I Take After She”—Amílcar Peter Sanatan

“Twelve: For Lorna Goodison”—John Robert Lee

Poetry & Prose

Poems—Pamela Mordecai

Poems—Simone Leid

“Neighborhood Watch”—short story—Kirese Narinesingh

Poems—Kenan Wilson Phillip