HAITIAN-AMERICAN AWARD-WINNNING AUTHOR EDWIDGE DANTICAT

Wednesday, January 22, 2013, 3 pm ET, The Halli Casser-Jayne Show, Talk Radio for Fine Minds offers an intimate conversation with award-winning Haitian-American author and activist Edwidge Danticat. Edwidge Danticat has written numerous books, including Brother, I’m Dying, a National Book Critics Circle Award winner and National book Award finalist; Breath, Eyes, Memory, an Oprah Book Club Selection; Krik? Krak! a National Book Award finalist; The Farming of Bones an American Book Award winner; and The Dew Breakers, a Pen/Faukner Award finalist and winner of the inaugural Story Prize. The recipient of a MacArthur fellowship, Danticat has been published in The New Yorker, the New York Times and elsewhere. Her recent novel, Claire of the Sea Light is mellifluous and in every way a hypnotic lyric for the land Edwidge Danticat once called home.

Born in Port-au-Prince, Haiti, when she was two years old, her father immigrated to New York, to be followed two years later by her mother. Edwidge and her younger brother remained in Haiti. Her early education was in French although she spoke Kreyòl at home. At the age of 12, she moved to Brooklyn, New York, to join her parents in a heavily Haitian American neighborhood. But the transition to American life did not come easily and she turned to literature for solace. Today Edwidge Dantiat is a strong advocate for issues affecting Haitians abroad and at home. She has worked with filmmakers Patricia Benoit and Jonathan Demme, on projects on Haitian art and documentaries about Haïti.