Caribbean-American Writers Nicole Sealey and Tiphanie Yanique (one of Boston Globe’s 16 Cultural Figures to Watch) celebrate the release of Tiphanie Yanique’s first book, How to Escape a Leper Colony. Following the reading, Yanique and Sealey will have a conversation about the writing process, finding inspiration and what they’ve learned as fellows, teachers and writers.

Tiphanie Yanique is from St. Thomas, Virgin Islands. She is an assistant professor of creative writing and Caribbean literature at Drew University. Her writing has won a Pushcart Prize and a Boston Review Fiction Prize, and has been published in Callaloo, American Short Fiction, the London Magazine, and other publications. She lives between Brooklyn and St. Thomas. www.tiphanieyanique.com

Nicole Sealey, born in St. Thomas, Virgin Islands. and raised in Central Florida, is a Cave Canem fellow whose poems have appeared in or are forthcoming in a number of journals including Callaloo, The Drunken Boat, Sou’wester and Torch. She holds a Master of Liberal Arts from the University of South Florida. Additionally, she is the Readings/Workshops (East) and Writers Exchange Program Manager at Poets & Writers, Inc. as well as a future writer-in-residence at Hedgebrook.