Visualizing Caribbean Literature (VCL) is an interactive database of more than 3,000 literary works about the Caribbean experience or by writers identifying as Caribbean people. The database includes authors and titles that represents the diversity of the body of work that is Caribbean literature in language, genre, author country of origin and publication location and institution. The project also represents works in translation from the authors included in the visualizations. VCL is a student project, a capstone production of the Research, Technology and Community (RTC) Internship at Create Caribbean Research Institute.

Writing in and about the Caribbean has been documented across anthologies, bibliographies and critical analyses. In the spaces where Caribbean literary studies and digital humanities meet, there has already been rich exploration of Caribbean literary history.

Visualizing Caribbean Literature builds on existing work in Caribbean digital literary studies, including In the Same Boats, Caribbean Literary Heritage and the 2020 effort of The Caribbean Digital VII to create a database of Caribbean digital scholarship, collectively annotate the works of Aimé Césaire and produce a generative collection of keywords that inform the constellation of Caribbean Studies.

Visualizing Caribbean Literature aims to contribute to and open the way for further critical engagement with Caribbean literary history, including teaching of literature in primary and secondary contexts. Moreover, in visualizing the breadth and depth of Caribbean literary production, the project invites the engagement of readers and the broader conversation around literary reception as a key component of its contribution to Caribbean Studies and digital humanities.

VCL is the product of a year-long labor of students in the RTC Internship program. These junior undergraduate students, guided by Dr. Schuyler Esprit, course instructor for Digital Humanities Research and the Founder and Director of CCRI, they have done their best research with tools including WorldCat, Internet Archive, institutional library catalogs and databases, Zotero and other collaborative research tools. But this database is not exhaustive or foolproof. We therefore welcome reviewers who are scholars or experts on authors, eras or areas within Caribbean literary studies to review content and provide feedback to improve the quality of the database and to extend its impact to users in all capacities. Register at the Call for Reviewers link to register.