“Book of the Dead” by Lasana M. Sekou and “Rhetoric of Resistance, Labor of Love: The Ecopoetics of Nationhood in the Poetry and Prose of Lasana M. Sekou” by Dannabang Kuwabong.
PHILIPSBURG--The poetry and writing of St. Maarten author Lasana M. Sekou has featured in several recent academic publications, with researchers examining the island’s cultural identity, environmental landscape and literary responses to natural disasters.
One of the latest studies is “Blue bordertexturing: (un)knowing Caribbean wet borderlands”, by German author and researcher Tobias Schank of Saarland University. Published in October 2026 in the peer-reviewed journal “Environment and Planning E: Nature and Space”, the paper examines poetry by Sekou alongside the prose of author Tiphanie Yanique.
Schank’s research explores the Caribbean as a network of interconnected “wet borderlands”, considering the sea and its human and non-human agents as part of the region’s shared environment and cultural experience.
Among the works examined is Sekou’s 2016 poetry collection “Book of the Dead”, published by House of Nehesi Publishers (HNP). The paper draws on poems including “daylight come, oui”, “Poem for the dead” and “sweet lil’ s’maatin”, alongside passages from Yanique’s novel “Land of Love and Drowning”.
HNP President Jacqueline Sample said she found it particularly notable that Schank drew on Sekou’s work when discussing emerging approaches to decolonial thought, despite the collection having been published a decade earlier.
Another academic publication examining Sekou’s work is “Rhetoric of Resistance, Labor of Love: The Ecopoetics of Nationhood in the Poetry and Prose of Lasana M. Sekou”, written by Dannabang Kuwabong.
The five-chapter book examines St. Maarten’s history, people, culture and landscape, including the Great Salt Pond. Sekou has long described the pond as a neglected and polluted wetland, while also identifying it as an important part of the island’s historical
and cultural identity.
The book was reviewed earlier this year by Yvette M. Alex-Assensoh, a professor of political science and adjunct law professor at the University of Oregon. Her review essay appeared in African and Asian Studies, a peer-reviewed journal published by Brill.
Alex-Assensoh described Kuwabong’s study as a useful and sophisticated examination of Sekou’s writing, highlighting its treatment of environmental relationships, egalitarianism and the poet’s personification of the Great Salt Pond. She also concluded that the book would be suitable for classroom use at college and university level.
Sekou’s work has also informed research into Caribbean literature and the aftermath of hurricanes. A recent conversation between the author and Christina Kullberg contributed to the introduction of her article, “Listening and responding to hurricanes: Ana Portnoy Brimmer and Caribbean immersive poetics”, published in “Textual Practice” in August 2026.
Kullberg, whose academic fields include Caribbean literature, travel writing, translation studies and world literature, examines how Caribbean literature has engaged with hurricanes since Hurricanes Irma and Maria.
Her article considers literary responses to the destruction caused by natural disasters, including how writers address the physical impact of hurricanes and the lasting effects of storms.
Sample noted that Kullberg’s references also include Caribbean writers and scholars such as Édouard Glissant, Kamau Brathwaite, Frankétienne, Celia Sorhaindo and Richard Georges, as well as disaster-related publications by HNP authors Fabian Adekunle Badejo, Yvonne Weekes and Wendy McMahon.
The three publications illustrate the continued engagement of academic researchers with Sekou’s writing, examining its connections to Caribbean identity, environmental concerns and the region’s literary response to historical and contemporary events.
