From the other side of the island comes Edwidge Danticat (pronounced "Dan-ti-cah"), another young writer who has been dubbed (and who resents being dubbed) the voice of her country (Haiti) and generation (early 30's, like Diaz). In 1996 she was named one of Granta's best American novelists, and in 1995 her short story collection Krik? Krak! was nominated for the National Book Award. Danticat's writing is as spare as Junot Diaz's, and a little more lyrical. And she gives a no less moving portrait of life in her new and old countries, which is always hard and beautiful, devastating and uplifting, all at the same time.
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When Haitians tell a story, they say "Krik?" and the eager listeners answer "Krak!" In Krik? Krak! In her second novel, Edwidge Danticat establishes herself as the latest heir to that narrative tradition with nine stories that encompass both the cruelties and the high ideals of Haitian life. They tell of women who continue loving behind prison walls and in the face of unfathomable loss; of a people who resist the brutality of their rulers through the powers of imagination. The result is a collection that outrages, saddens, and transports the reader with its sheer beauty.
Since the publication of her debut work
Breath, Eyes, Memory in 1994, Edwidge Danticat has won praise as one of
America's brightest, most graceful and vibrant young writers. In this novel, and in her National Book Award-nominated collection of stories,
Krik? Krak!, Danticat evokes the powerful imagination and rich narrative tradition of her native Haiti, and in the process records the suffering, triumphs, and wisdom of its people. Author Paule Marshall has said of Danticat, "A silenced Haiti has once again found its literary voice."
Born in Haiti in 1969, Danticat, like the protagonist of her novel Breath, Eyes, Memory, at the age of twelve left her
birthplace for New York to reunite with her parents. She earned a degree in French Literature from Barnard College, where she won the 1995 Woman of Achievement Award, and later an MFA from Brown University. More recently, she has received an ongoing grant from the Lila Wallace-Reader's Digest Foundation.
Critical acclaim and awards for her first novel included a Granta Regional Award for the Best Young American Novelists, a Pushcart Prize and fiction awards from Essence and Seventeen magazines. She was chosen by Harper's Bazaar as one of 20 people in their twenties who will make a difference, and was featured in a New York Times Magazine article that named "30 Under 30" creative people to watch. This winter, Jane magazine named her one of the "15 Gutsiest Women of the Year."
Danticat's second novel, The Farming of Bones, based upon the 1937 massacre of Haitians at the border of the
Dominican Republic, will be published in September 1998 by Soho Press.
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