Edwidge Danticat
b. 1969

When you write, it's like braiding your hair. Taking a handful of coarse unruly strands and attempting to bring them to unity ... Some of the braids are long, others are short. Some are thick, others are thin. Some are heavy. Others are light.
- Krik? Krak!

---

Biography / Criticism

Edwidge Danticat has been writing ever since she was a small girl of nine. While her parents thought that writing would never be more than a hobby for her and urged her to pursue another career, Danticat proved them wrong. At the age of twenty-six, in 1995, she became a finalist for the National Book Award for Krik? Krak! Danticat, drawing on her experiences as a Haitian-American, writes of one of the most underrepresented 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 Carribean Writer, Seventeen, and Essence magazines, she is now widely considered to be one of the most talented young authors in the United States.

Danticat was born in Port-au-Prince, Haiti, in 1969. Because her parents immigrated to New York when she was very young, Danticat was raised by an aunt whom she loved dearly. It was during these early years that Danticat was influenced by the Haitian practice of story-telling which developed because much of the population was not literate at the time. Danticat says that the memories of Haiti are still extremely vivid in her mind, and that her love of Haiti and things Haitian deeply influences her writing.

At the age of twelve, Danticat joined her parents in Brooklyn. During her high school years, Danticat rarely spoke loudly, if at all, because she was shy. Although at first she was teased at school because of her accent, Danticat has always been proud of her origin. During difficult times, she found support from her family and the Haitian community in Brooklyn. Haitian Creole eventually proved to be an asset in her writing of fiction, as it adds a freshness to her use of the English language.

When Edwidge Danticat received a BA in French literature from Barnard College, she fulfilled her parents' desire that she be successful in spite of, or because, she is an immigrant. Danticat's education, however, did not stop there. She went on to complete her Master of Fine Arts degree at Brown University, where, as her thesis, she wrote Breath, Eyes, Memory (Soho Press, 1994). This novel speaks of four generations of Haitian women who must overcome their poverty and powerlessness. Danticat also explores some disturbing familial traditions--most importantly the rural practice of "testing" a daughter to confirm that she is still a virgin. According to Danticat, some middle-class Haitian-American women who consider themselves liberated voiced much opposition to the novel. Many were ashamed of "testing" or shocked to learn that it even exists. Danticat, however, underlines the fact that she does not consider herself to be the representative of all Haitian Americans.

In 1995, Krik? Krak! (Soho Press), a collection of short stories about Haiti and Haitian Americans before democracy, was published as Danticat's second book. In an interview for NPR, Danticat said this of her book: "I wanted to raise the voice of a lot of the people that I knew growing up, and this was, for the most part, . . . poor people who had extraordinary dreams but also very amazing obstacles." These stories receive their title from the Haitian tradition of the storyteller calling out "Krik?" and willing listeners gathering around and answering "Krak." Danticat has finally, and beautifully, written down the Haitian tradition.

Selected Bibliography

Works by the Author

• 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)
• Farming of Bones (1998)
• Krik? Krak! (1995)
• Breath, Eyes, Memory (1994)

Works about the Author

• "Haitian-American Author Writes Stories of Homeland." All Things Considered. NPR. 12 July 1995.
• Alexandre, Sandy and Ravi Y. Howard. My Turn in the Fire: A Conversation with Edwidge Danticat. Transition: An International Review 12.3 (93) (2002): 110-28.
• Braziel, Jana Evans. Daffodils, Rhizomes, Migrations: Narrative Coming of Age in the Diasporic Writings of Edwidge Danticat and Jamaica Kincaid. Meridians: Feminism, Race, Transnationalism 3.2 (2003): 110-31.
• Cornejo, Josefina. La afirmación de la sexualidad femenina: Memoria y exilio en Breath, Eyes, Memory. Exilios femeninos; Instituto Andaluz de la Mujer. Ed. PIlar Cuder-Domínguez. Huelva, Spain: Universidad de Huelva, 2000. 355-64. (Spanish)
• Francis, Donette A. 'Silences Too Horrific to Disturb': Writing Sexual Histories in Edwidge Danticat's Breath, Eyes, Memory. Research in African Literatures 35, no. 2 (2004 Summer): 75-90.
• Gyssels, Kathleen. 'Schild en vriend' in de Dominicaanse republiek: Edwidge Danticat over het bloedbad van Massacre. Streven 67.6 (2000 June): 518-25. (Dutch)
• ---. Haitians in the City: Two Modern Day Trickster Tales. Jouvert: A Journal of Postcolonial Studies 7.1 (2002 Autumn): 34 paragraphs. Link.
• Horn, Jessica. Edwidge Danticat: An Intimate Reader. Meridians: Feminism, Race, Transnationalism 1.2 (2001 Spring): 19-25.
• Ingberg, Pablo. Edwidge Danticat: La fiebre de contra. Suplemento Cultura La Nación (Buenos Aires) (2000 Feb 27): 8. (Spanish)
• Jurney, Florence Ramond. Exile and Relation to the Mother/Land in Edwidge Danticat's Breath Eyes Memory and The Farming of Bones. Revista/Review Interamericana 31.1-4 (2001 Jan-Dec).
• Larrier, Renée. 'Girl by the Shore': Gender and Testimony in Edwidge Danticat's The Farming of Bones. Journal of Haitian Studies 7.2 (2001 Fall): 50-60.
• Lyons, Bonnie. An Interview with Edwidge Danticat. Contemporary Literature 44, no. 2 (2003 Summer): 183-98.
• N'Zengou-Tayo, Marie-José. Children in Haitian Popular Migration as Seen by Maryse Condé and Edwidge Danticat. Winds of Change: The Transforming Voices of Caribbean Women Writers and Scholars. Ed. Adele S. Newson and Linda Strong-Leek. New York: Peter Lang, 1998. 93-100.
• N'Zengou-Tayo, Marie-José and Elizabeth Wilson. Translators on a Tight Rope: The Challenges of Translating Edwidge Danticat's Breath, Eyes, Memory and Patrick Chamoiseau's Texaco. TTR: Traduction, Terminologie, Rédaction: Etudes sur le Texte et Ses Transformations 13.2 (2000): 75-105.
• Poon, Angelia. Re-Writing the Male Text: Mapping Cultural Spaces in Edwidge Danticat's Krik? Krak! and Jamaica Kincaid's A Small Place. Jouvert: A Journal of Postcolonial Studies 4.2 (2000 Winter): p. 30 paragraphs. Link
• Saint-Éloi, Rodney. L'Ecriture Bizango: Edwidge Danticat, le go-between. Notre Librairie: Revue des Litératures du Sud 143 (2001 Jan-Mar): 58-61. (French)
• Shakleton, Mark. Haitian Transnationalism: Edwidge Danticat's 'Caroline's Wedding': A Case Study of Literary Anthropology. Suomen Antropologi/Antropologi i Finland/The Journal of the Finnish Anthropological Society 28.2 (2003 May): 15-23.
• Shea, Renee H. "The Dangerous Job of Edwidge Danticat: An Interview." Callalloo: A Journal of African American and African Arts and Letters 19.2 (Spring 1996): 382-89.
• Shemak, April. Re-Membering Hispaniola: Edwidge Danticat's The Farming of Bones. MFS: Modern Fiction Studies 48.1 (2002 Spring): 83-112.
• Strehle, Susan. History and the End of Romance: Danticat's The Farming of Bones. Doubled Plots: Romance and History. Ed. Susan Strehle and Mary Paniccia Carden. Jackson, MS: UP of Mississippi, 2003. 24-44.
• Wachtel, Eleanor. A Conversation with Edwidge Danticat. Brick 65-66, (2000 Fall): 106-19.

Works in Languages other than English

• French
  • La récolte douce des larmes: roman. Trans. Jacques Chabert. Paris: Éditions 1018: Éditions Grasset et Fasquelle, 2001 (1998).
  • Le cri de l'oiseau rouge. Trans. Nicole Tisserand. Paris: Editions Pygmalion/Gerard Watelet, 1997.
  • Krik? Krak!: récits. Trans. Nicole Tisserand. Paris: Pocket, 1998. (Originally published: Paris: Éditions Pygmalion/Gérard Watelet, 1996.)
• Hebrew
  • Neshimah, `enayim, zikaron. Trans. `Adi Yotam. Israel: Kineret, 2000.
• Spanish
  • Cosecha de Huesos. Trans. Marcelo Cohen. Buenos Aries, Argentina: Grupo Editorial Norma, 1999.
  • Krik? Krak! Trans. Ramón González Férriz. Barcelona : Lumen, 1999.
  • Palabra, Ojos, Memoria. Trans. Damián Alou. Barcelona: Ediciones del Bronce, 1998.

Related Links

Review of Krik? Krak! Link

Random House Reader's Guide to Breath, Eyes, Memory. Link

Dreaming In Haitian. Two Articles on Edwidge Danticat by Chitra Divakaruni (LA Weekly), 1998. Link

Tracy Aitcheson and Heather Baxter-Ewing's student page on Edwidge Danticat. Link
Includes a biography of Danticat, criticism and interpretation of her work by Pascal Dupuy, as well as German translations of the bio and of excerpts from Danticat's texts.

This page was researched and submitted by Neda Atanasoski on 2/23/98 and edited and updated by Lauren Curtright on 11/5/04.