Melodies, Recipes, and Complexities 

Black Cake, Turtle Soup, and Other Dilemmas 
Gloria Blizzard 
Dundurn Press 
June 2024
$24.99 

Turtle soup turned Gloria Blizzard into a five-year-old vegetarian. Just for a while, a week or two. The aroma of Trinidadian dishes made with beef, chicken and other meat ended that lifestyle. Though horrified about turtle soup’s origins, she missed it. She couldn’t live with butter-infused rice while watching her brothers devour meat. This stance is one of the earliest strands of her braid — the life decisions, symbolic items and stories that make up her identity. 

In Black Cake, Turtle Soup, and Other Dilemmas, Blizzard explores what it means to be a mother, an artist, and a Black woman with multiple heritages. Each essay in the collection has a central element like turtle soup, moving trains and a yellow dress, all woven into her braid. Through it all, she wonders who she is, where her home is, and where she belongs. 

Blizzard was born in Canada to Trinidadian parents and was constantly moving. She takes readers on a journey through the Americas — her homes in Toronto, adventures in Brazil, and the life-defining whereabouts in between. While the essay collection is her debut book, her work has appeared in publications such as THIS Magazine, World Literature Today and The Globe and Mail. 

Blizzard’s music background seeps into her writing — the essays are lyrical and vivid in expression. Each is deeply authentic, thought-provoking and vulnerable. After years of years of education to prepare herself for the professional world, she shares: “I found myself languishing in low-level jobs, watching young white women parachuted over me into positions and opportunities that I wanted.” Despite questioning her identity throughout the book, her confidence grows. The timeline jumps between her childhood, formative womanhood years, and the days of her ancestors. In the essay “Trifecta,” Blizzard provides a balanced perspective by weaving in research. For example, she shares the history of Black slaves in Nova Scotia and how they built infrastructures that stand in Canada today, like the University of King’s College. Along with stories, she shares advice about creativity, expression and personhood. Family also plays a significant role in these lessons, and many come from observations about her parents’ dynamics. 

Black Cake, Turtle Soup, and Other Dilemmas is for Black women — and anyone — questioning their complexities, histories and sense of belonging. The world, even now, tends to put Black women in a box. Blizzard shares how a man in the music industry commented on how she acts like a snob because she spoke like a white person. “I talk like a Canadian,” she responded. Blizzard’s reflections in her essays combat stereotypes. She exists beyond the fixed perspective of how a Black woman should be, and takes pride in how she is braided.