A bold, witty, and magical cross–generational Caribbean story about migration, superstition, and a refugee’s search for her family.
IBIS
by Justin Haynes
Abrams, February 2025
There is bad luck in New Felicity. The people of the small coastal village have taken in Milagros, an 11–year–old Venezuelan refugee, just as Trinidad’s government has begun cracking down on undocumented migrants—and now an American journalist has come to town asking questions. New Felicity’s superstitious fishermen fear the worst, certain they’ve brought bad luck on the village by killing a local witch who had herself murdered two villagers the year before. The town has been plagued since her death by alarming visits from her supernatural mother, as well as by a mysterious profusion of scarlet ibis birds. Now, skittish that the reporter’s story will bring down the wrath of the ministry of national security, the fishermen take things into their own hands. From there, we go backward and forward in time—from the town’s early days, when it was the site of a sugar plantation, to Milagros’s adulthood as she searches for her mother across the Americas. In between, through the voices of a chorus of narrators, we glimpse moments from various villagers’ lives, each one setting into motion events that will reverberate outwards across the novel and shape Milagros’s fate.
With kinetic, absorbing language and a powerful sense of voice, Ibis meditates on the bond between mothers and daughters, both highlighting the migrant crisis that troubles the contemporary world and offering a moving exploration of how to square where we come from with who we become.
Justin Haynes is a novelist and short story writer from Brooklyn by way of Trinidad and Tobago. Having earned his MFA from the University of Notre Dame and PhD from Vanderbilt, Justin has been awarded various fiction residencies and fellowships, most recently the Nicholas Jenkins Barnett fiction fellowship from Emory University and the Tin House Workshop. His writing has been published in a variety of literary magazines and journals, including Caribbean Quarterly, the Hawai’i Review, and Pree. Justin lives in in Atlanta and teaches English at Oglethorpe University.
Jess Damuck’s feel–good recipes make eating healthy an easy habit to make and keep. Being a health nut is delicious, rewarding, and supremely satisfying, without any feeling of deprivation. It’s all about perfecting the basics and then getting creative to play up natural flavors while listening to your cravings. Building on the fresh, colorful, and flavor–blasting seasonal menus Damuck lives by, HEALTH NUT is playful, accessible, and irresistible. With recipes special enough to serve at dinner parties but doable enough to make on the weeknights, this cookbook will include:
With a family background in ice–cream making and a degree in food science, the flavor chemist behind LA–based Wanderlust Creamery, Adrienne Borlongan, turned her interest in recipe development and travel into a successful ice cream business. She and her husband, JP Lopez, started Wanderlust in 2017, and they now have seven stores that feature a rotating selection of around 400 different seasonal/regional flavors throughout the year. From reinvented classics with Asian flair like macadamia kona latte to bestselling Wanderlust flavors like oolong pineapple cake to « rice creams » like sticky rice mango and more, fans just can’t seem to get enough of their unique concoctions. And with THE WANDERLUST CREAMERY PRESENTS: THE WORLD OF ICE CREAM, ice cream enthusiasts will be able to learn the basics of ice–cream making and the science behind creating balanced flavor profiles. Featuring 80 deeply researched and developed ice cream flavors, this ultimate ice cream guide is full of recipes that celebrate the flavors, ingredients, and cultures from around the world. Making mouthwatering, one–of–a–kind global flavors from the comfort of your own home—no matter your skill level—has never been easier.
For centuries, women were denied equal access to money and the freedom and power that came with it. They were restricted from owning property or transacting in real estate. Even well into the 20th century, women could not take out their own loans or own bank accounts without their husband’s permission. They could be fired for getting married or pregnant, and if they still had a job, they could be kept from certain roles, restricted from working longer hours, and paid less than men for equal work.