You Were Watching from the Sand (Pasadena CA: Red Hen, 2023, paper US$16.95), the debut short story collection by Haitian-born, South Florida-raised Harvard graduate Juliana Lamy, vividly portrays adolescent life and dreams in Miami’s Haitian community. Gritty, bizarre, and poetic, the stories speak from each narrator’s often-unexpected viewpoint, bringing to life what are usually grim, challenging personal situations. In one, boys steal from rich whitefolks’ homes. In another, after a girl molds a clay figure, “they” comes alive and becomes her close friend. And in another a boy is kidnapped for ransom by other Haitians … Throughout, we see a talented young writer beginning to strut her stuff and promising more to come.