Edwidge Danticat interview

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Edwidge Danticat interview

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  • August 26, 2013 (Creation)

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Edwidge Danticat was born in Port-au-Prince, Haiti in 1969 and moved to Brooklyn when she was twelve years of age to join her parents. Two years after her arrival in the USA, she published her first writing in English, "A Haitian-American Christmas: Crémace and Creole Theatre," in New Youth Connections, a citywide magazine written by teenagers. She attended Barnard College where she received her BA in French literature. In 1993, she went on to complete her Master of Fine Arts degree in Creative Writing at Brown University. In 1994, her first novel, Breath, Eyes, Memory (Soho Press), was published. At the age of twenty-six, in 1995, she published Krik? Krak!, which was a finalist for the National Book Award and became an Oprah Book Club selection. Drawing on her experiences as a Haitian-American she writes of one of the most under-represented cultures in American literature using a style which is both poetic and passionate. Having also received the 1995 Pushcart Short Story Prize and fiction awards from the Caribbean Writer, Seventeen, and Essence magazines, she is now widely considered to be one of the most talented young authors in the United States. Danticat is the author of several other books and athologies, including Dew Breaker (2004), Behind the Mountains (2002), After the Dance: A walk through Carnival in Jacmel (2002), The Butterfly's Way: Voices from the Haitian Dyaspora (edited by Danticat, 2001), The Beacon Best of 2000: Great Writing by Women and Men of All Colors and Cultures (edited by Danticat 2000) and Farming of Bones (1998). Her latest work of fiction, Claire of the Sea Light, will be released in Hardcover on Tuesday, August 27, 2013. She has been the recipient of many prestigious awards, such as: the Fiction Award: The Caribbean Writer, the Woman of Achievement Award, the Barnard College American Book Award for the Farming of Bones, the Story Prize for Dew Breaker, a National Book Award nomination for Brother, I'm Dying, and the National Book Critics Circle Award for Brother, I'm Dying. Interviewer: Lucrèce Louisdhon-Louinis Miami, FL

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