Meet Andrew Rowen

Andrew Rowen has researched the history of the encounters between Europeans and the Caribbean’s Taíno peoples for over a dozen years, and his novels distinctively retell that history from a bicultural perspective, based on primary sources, anthropological studies, and visits to sites where Columbus and Taíno chieftains lived, met, and fought. Encounters Unforeseen: 1492 Retold (2017) portrays the life stories of the chieftains and Columbus from youth through their first contacts in 1492 and was praised for historical accuracy. Columbus and Caonabó: 1493–1498 Retold (2021) relates the bitter war between Columbus and Chief Caonabó during the period of Columbus’s second voyage and was praised for scholarship. Isabel, Anacaona & Columbus’s Demise: 1498–1502 Retold (November 2025) depicts the dawn of Queen Isabel’s colonization of the Caribbean, Chief Anacaona’s resistance, and Columbus’s downfall and has been similarly acclaimed.

Andrew is a graduate of U.C. Berkeley and Harvard Law School and has long been interested in the roots of religious intolerance.