Sonia launched her first full-length collection of poetry, Infidelities, at the National Art Gallery of The Bahamas on August 10th, 2017.

It was longlisted for the 2018 OCM Bocas Prize for Caribbean Literature.

Drawing upon the salacious story of the female pirate Anne Bonny as a starting point, Sonia interrogates the mythology of this figure, dismantling the male gaze that shaped her for centuries and illuminating the place of female desire in history. Through the lens of this tale, Sonia spins a second narrative that calls into question the boundaries that hold our bodies, nationalities, and loyalties in place. As the two voices intersect and diverge, they build a plank to the edge of these boundaries, and ask the reader to jump.

Joining Sonia was Letitia Marie Pratt, who shared poems from her chapbook, Pulling the Wings from out My Back. Published by Poinciana Paper Press, this poetic story follows a young woman’s transformative journey through violent trauma to emerge as a powerful Hag Woman. Inspired by the folk stories of the Hag Woman who steps out of her skin at night to terrorize a small town or village, Pratt gives this villain a voice and a backstory of her own as she endures the cruelty of a romantic relationship rooted in the abusive power structures of cultural misogynoir. But with guidance from her grandmother and the support of the divine feminine, the narrator finds self-love and acceptance within her own powerful song and spirituality.

Watch Sonia and Letitia read their work at the launch a the National Art Gallery of The Bahamas (special thanks to Jackson Petit for recording the event):