Fire Sword and the Crime of Womanhood
What if piracy wasn’t lawless—but legal?
What if the most dangerous thing a woman could do in the 1600s was choose?In this release-week episode of Write of Passage, Vanessa Riley celebrates the launch of her 29th novel, Fire Sword and Sea—a muscular, immersive historical epic about Caribbean women pirates, integrated crews, secret empires, and the global powers history books left out.Meet Jacquotte Delahaye, Bahati, Lizzôa, Sarah Sayon, and a crew of women who resisted forced marriages, brutal labor, respectability politics, and silence itself. Set in a world where Spain and the Muslim Mughal Empire held the gold—and piracy was sanctioned—this novel reveals how women survived, strategized, and chose freedom when the cost was everything.Vanessa reflects on the two-and-a-half-year journey to publication, the battles behind the scenes, the power of libraries and independent bookstores, and why stories of resistance matter now more than ever.Fire Sword and Sea is available January 13, 2026—everywhere books are sold.
Ask for it at your library. Join the tour. Read their truth.
Keywords:
Fire Sword and Sea, Vanessa Riley, Caribbean women pirates, Black pirates, historical fiction podcast, women and resistance, piracy history, 1600s Caribbean, Mughal Empire history, Spain gold empire, integrated pirate crews, feminist historical fiction, Write of Passage podcast, book release week, censorship in publishing, women choosing freedom, libraries and resistance, Black women in history