by Haley Carter,Reporter

On Monday January 23, NorthWest Arkansas Community College’s Book Club held a meeting, hosted by Megan Parish, on Microsoft Teams with the author of their most recent read, “What Storm What Thunder” by Myrian J.A. Chancy. “What Storm What Thunder” is a fictional novel based on a true event, which was a powerful earthquake that devastated the country of Haiti in 2010. 

Before the author spoke, participants heard from survivors of the 2010 earthquake in Haiti. “What Storm What Thunder” is a fictional book, but the survivors attending the book club at NWACC’s event shared how they felt like they related to the characters. Chancy said that she interviewed survivors of the earthquake when writing her novel, which is how she designed each character’s dialogue. Chancy said, “people who survived the earthquake would come up to me and talk to me, they were calling upon me as a writer.” One of Chancy’s main objectives when writing this novel, which she said was not planned at first, was to give people an idea of what the experience was for the survivors of the 2010 Haitian earthquake. Chancy also said, “my main goal for writing this novel was through an attempt to lay to rest those who have not been laid to rest from the earthquake.”

Chancy said that she wrote nonfiction before she started to write fictional novels such as “What Storm, What Thunder.” Chancy shared that she also works in higher education English. Even though Chancy works in higher education English, she said that her first language is French. Chancy said that in her book a few French words can be seen within the text. 

When asked by one of the meeting participants if her book would be released in her first language, Chancy said, “What Storm What Thunder” will be available in Quebec Canada in May 2023.”