The inspiration for Robert Antoni’s writing is his long family history in Trinidad and Tobago, and his upbringing in the Bahamas. His fictional world is the British West Indies—the region’s characters, atmosphere, history, folklore, and above all its vernacular languages; it is informed by a pan- Caribbean consciousness of race, gender, religion, and class. Antoni is the author of the landmark West Indian novel, Divina Trace, for which he received the Commonwealth Prize for Best First Book, and a grant from the National Endowment of the Arts. His other books include Blessed is the Fruit, My Grandmother’s Erotic Folktales, and Carnival, short-listed for the Commonwealth Writers Prize in the Best Book Category. For his recent novel, As Flies to Whatless Boys, he was named a Guggenheim Fellow. Antoni’s books have been translated into Spanish, French, Finnish, and Chinese. His short fiction was selected as an Editor’s Choice, included in The Oxford Book of Caribbean Short Stories, and chosen for the Aga Kahn Prize by the Paris Review. Antoni recently received the NALIS Lifetime Literary Award from the Trinidad and Tobago National Library. He holds an MA from the Writing Seminars at Johns Hopkins University, and a PhD from the Writers Workshop at the University of Iowa. He lives in Manhattan and teaches in the graduate writing program at The New School University.