Dionne Irving Bremyers's recent collection of short stories, The Islands, which follows the diasporic lives of Jamaican women as they attempt to escape the ghosts of colonialism, was long-listed for the Pen/Faulkner Award in Fiction, the most prestigious peer-juried literary prize in America. Ten books have been selected, from which five will be short-listed in March, with the final winner ("first among equals") to be announced in April.