Sonia’s writing practice disrupts and investigates existing narratives (such as historical accounts, folktales, mythologies, canonical books, etc) to question their inherent power structures and expose alternative marginalized voices. Experimental process of generation, such as erasure, found text, mistranslation, technological intervention, or other restrictive methods, are especially exciting opportunities to create direct responses to existing narratives by using its own language against itself.

POETRY

Sonia’s poetry has received the 2011 Small Axe Literary Award in Poetry and was also shortlisted for the 2020 Montreal International Poetry Prize.

Sonia’s poetry has appeared in various published journals including Stand Magazine, Small Axe, WomanSpeak: A Journal of Writing & Art by Caribbean Women, Poui, and The Caribbean Writer, and is also included in the bilingual poetry anthology of thirty-three contemporary Caribbean women poets The Sea Needs No Ornament/El Mar No Necesita Ornamento (2020, Peepal Tree Press) as well as the forthcoming Writing for Our Lives Anthology (Peekash Press, 2024/2025), illuminating the urgency of the climate crisis for people and communities in Caribbean states.

Her poetry can also be read online at PREE, Moko Magazine and at tongues of the ocean.

Sonia’s work has been read by other people in collaborative performances. In 2018, she read A True & Exact History with ten others at The National Art Gallery of The Bahamas, a script which has also been performed in Iowa City. Her poem, “Now That I Change” was read by John Cox to accompany her chapbook in the exhibition “Pattern” at The Current: Baha Mar Gallery & Art Center.

Watch Sonia read and discuss her poetry with Shivanee Ramlochan in an episode of Bios & Bookmarks, an online reading series with Caribbean authors, facilitated by the NGC Bocas Lit Fest.

Watch Sonia read some of her poetry about Hurricane Dorian with visual assemblages (“obliterated erasures”) in a special online international poetry reading moderated by Bahamian artist Jeffrey Meris as part of the programming for his exhibition “Still Standing” at White Columns (beginning at 15:27).

Hear Sonia read some of her poetry on BBC Radio 4, “Writing a New Caribbean: Under the Surface”

Hear Sonia read The Tryal here as an accompaniment to her chapbook Offerings Material and installation Making Waves which was on display at Doongalik Studios during the 2014 Transforming Spaces Art Tour.

Hear Sonia read poems from her first full-length collection of poetry, Infidelities, during the official book launch in August 2017 at the National Art Gallery of The Bahamas.

SELECTED ESSAYS, ARTICLES, INTERVIEWS & BLOG POSTS

Sonia’s articles about the art and culture scene in The Bahamas can be found in the online archives of The Nassau Guardian, where she worked as the Arts & Culture editor, or in the online archives of The Caribbean Beat Magazine.

Read “What We Talk About When We Talk About Paradise”, as part of the exhibition catalogue for Buildings Are People Too by Current Books.

Read Sonia’s thoughts on the chapbook form in “Chapbook Alchemy: No Dear/Small Anchor”, an interview with Jen Hyde, Emily Brandt, and Alex Cuff in The Brooklyn Rail

Follow Sonia’s reflections on the Fresh Milk Blog as she underwent a writing residency at the Fresh Milk artists platform in Barbados in March 2016.

Follow Sonia’s reflections on the University of Iowa Digital Scholarship & Publishing Studio’s blog as she uses her 2017 Summer Fellowship to jump-start a forthcoming podcast for Caribbean literature.