A book of poetry by Associate Professor of Romance Languages and Literatures Hanétha Vété-Congolo-Leibnitz has been shortlisted for the 2015 Small Axe Literary Competition. (Vété-Congolo-Leibnitz is the name she uses for her creative publications in English.)

Womb of a Woman, which is currently under submission, contains poems Vété-Congolo-Leibnitz wrote in English. She also publishes works in French; her poetry book Mon parler de Guinée came out this September.

The Small Axe Salon is a forum for innovative critical and creative explorations of Caribbean reality, according to Columbia University’s Department of Anthropology, which oversees the Small Axe Project. The Small Axe literary competition awards prizes each year in the categories of poetry and fiction, focusing on emerging writers whose work centers on regional and diasporic Caribbean themes.

The following is an excerpt of Vété-Congolo-Leibnitz’s poem, “Womb of a Woman.”