Exploring the effectiveness of the use of anthologies as a discursive and theoretical platform for celebrating and registering the emergence of Caribbean feminist work, this essay surveys these publications and maps the emergence of Caribbean feminist criticism as a mode of theoretical challenge that enacted a transformative critical praxis that not only centred women’s lived experiences, but also fostered transnational alliances, dialogues and partnerships among women. In reading these texts, the essay notes how a politics of inclusion proved necessary for reclaiming and reconceptualizing Caribbean female histories and reading narratives of gendered lives, alongside an expanded focus on racialized transnational subjects that complicated a black–white paradigm. The essay argues that anthologies disrupt the centrality and singularity of authorship, authority and knowledge production.