Quote by Earl Lovelace: “We are more than what was done to us.”

This powerful statement asserts human resilience and agency. It means that despite past injustices, traumas, or colonial oppression, our identity is not solely defined by our suffering. We possess the inherent capacity to transcend our history and actively shape our future, exceeding external definitions.

Awarded the Commonwealth Writers' Prize, *Salt* explored the lasting impacts of slavery and colonialism on a family's identity across generations in Trinidad, ultimately emphasizing spiritual liberation and self-definition.

Trinidadian novelist and playwright whose work celebrates the cultural and spiritual life of ordinary Trinidadians. His 1979 novel The Dragon Can't Dance remains one of the finest portraits of Carnival as a site of community, resistance, and identity in Caribbean literature.