These poems—varying from narrative to imagist to lyrical—reflect the "sodade" of Cape Verdean culture that is shaped by separation and longing—longing for the home that has been left behind and for loved ones who have departed. Cape Verdean communities extend beyond national boundaries and are paradoxically independent of place, even when inspired by it. Return Flights marks a turning point for Cape Verdean American culture, one in which a partially forgotten past becomes a starting point for possible futures, both of new transoceanic contacts and of new reinventions of culture.

JARITA DAVIS is a poet and fiction writer with a BA from Brown University and an MA and a PhD from the University of Louisiana, Lafayette. Her work has appeared in the Southwestern Review, Cave Canem Anthologies, Crab Orchard Review, Plainsongs, Tuesday: An Art Project, Verdad Magazine, and the Cape Cod Poetry Review. She lives and writes in West Falmouth, Massachusetts.