Annie John (1983) is an episodic novel in eight parts by Jamaica Kincaid. Annie John, a young girl living on the island of Antigua in the Caribbean, endures a painful adolescence in which she both adores and hates her mother. As she matures she struggles to come to terms with her parents, her faith, her culture, and her sexuality.

At the Bottom of the River (1983) is Kincaid's first collection of short stories, and the collection in which "Girl" appears. Like "Girl," many of the ten stories about growing up in the Caribbean are told in dreamy, stream-of-consciousness prose.

Krik? Krak! (1996), by Edwidge Danticat, is a collection of nine short stories about women in Haiti. The stories are sad and beautiful, and the volume was a National Book Award finalist.

The Penguin Book of Caribbean Short Stories (1997) collects forty short stories ranging...