In The Tropics Bite Back, literary scholar Valérie Loichot highlights Maryse Condé’s urging of Caribbean writers to “bite back” (mordre en retour) at their respective colonial powers. One method, which Condé calls ‘literary cannibalism,’ has been employed by authors throughout the African diaspora. Examples include Zora Neale Hurston’s revisiting of Shakespeare’s Hamlet in her short story “Spunk”, Condé’s own Windward Heights, a revision of Charlotte Brönte’s Victorian classic, and Alice Randall’s The Wind Done Gone. This panel aims to examine the factors that compel Black Atlantic writers to ‘cannibalize’ texts. Why are they drawn to certain texts/time periods/geographical settings? How does the insertion of intersectional bodies and voices trouble or extend the representation of utopia/dystopia initially presented? This CFP invites papers that probe the ways utopia and dystopia are engaged in texts cannibalized by Black Atlantic authors. By June 15th, please submit a 250-word abstract, brief bio, and A/V requirements to Nicole M. Morris Johnson (Emory University), at nicole.morris@emory.edu