Edwidge Danticat

Edwidge Danticat was born in Haiti in 1969, and her father, André, emigrated to the United States two years after her birth. Two years later, Danticat’s mother, Rose, joined André in the U.S., leaving Danticat and her brother to be raised by an aunt and uncle. In 1981, Danticat reunited with her family in Brooklyn, New York and settled into a predominantly Haitian American neighborhood. Danticat had difficulty adjusting to a new country, and used writing to express her disorientation, unhappiness, and sense of alienationher teenage stories were published in New Youth Connections, a New York-based magazine. Although she had plans to become a nurse, Danticat enrolled at Barnard College and eventually earned a bachelor’s degree in French literature. She then earned a Master of Fine Arts from Brown University; her master’s thesis became the foundation for her novel Breath, Eyes, Memory (1994), which was nationally recognized after television host Oprah selected it for her Book Club. A year later, Danticat published Krik? Krak!, a collection of short stories. The collection was a finalist for the National Book Award. She wrote her second novel, The Farming of Bones, in 1998, followed by The Dew Breaker in 2004. In 2007, she released her memoir, Brother, I’m Dying, which was nominated for the National Book Award and won the National Book Critics Circle Award.