Edwidge Danticat is an author, creator and participant in multiple forms of storytelling.
The New York Times has remarked on Danticat's ability to create a "moving portrait and a vivid illustration" as an "accomplished novelist and memoirist".
The New Yorker has featured Danticat's short stories and essays on multiple occasions, and regularly reviews and critiques her work. Her writing is much anthologized, including in 2019's
New Daughters of Africa (edited by
Margaret Busby). Danticat's creative branching out has included
filmmaking,
short stories, and most recently
children's literature. ''Mama's Nightingale'' was written to share the story of Haitian immigrants and family separation. The book combines Danticat's storytelling abilities and work by accomplished artist Leslie Staub. Published in 2015 by
Penguin Random House, the children's book tells "a touching tale of parent-child separation and immigration...with stirring illustrations...and shows how every child has the power to make a difference." A review in
The New York Times said that ''Mama's Nightingale'' "will inspire not just empathy for the struggles of childhood immigration, but admiration" of Danticat and Staub, too. In other creative pursuits, Danticat has worked on two films,
Poto Mitan and
Girl Rising. The latter received a large amount of press, largely due to the star power involved with the film (including
Anne Hathaway,
Chloë Grace Moretz,
Liam Neeson,
Meryl Streep,
Alicia Keys and
Kerry Washington). In the film, Danticat was tasked with narrating the story of Wadley from
Haiti.
Girl Rising was defined by
The Washington Post as "a lengthy, highly effective PSA designed to kickstart a commitment to getting proper education for all young women, all over the globe". In
Create Dangerously: The Immigrant Artist at Work, Danticat tells her own story as a part of the
Haitian diaspora.
Create Dangerously was inspired by author
Albert Camus's lecture "Create Dangerously" and his experience as an author and creator who defined his art as "a revolt against everything fleeting and unfinished in the world". In
Create Dangerously, Danticat is admired for "writing about tragedies and vanished cultures" and how "she accepts that by some accident she exists and has the power to create, so she does." NPR positively reviewed
Create Dangerously and the journey through "looming loss [which] makes every detail and person to whom we are introduced more luminous and precious." It was chosen by
University of Kansas as the 2018–19 Common Book, which is distributed to all first-year students at the university. Danticat published her first novel at the age of 25 in 1994, since when she has been acclaimed by critics and audience readers alike. Among her best-known books are
Breath, Eyes, Memory (1994),
Krik? Krak! (1996),
The Dew Breaker (2004), ''
Brother, I'm Dying'' (2007) and (1994). Each of these works has won awards, including the National Book Award, The Story Prize, and the National Books Critic Circle Award. Danticat usually writes about the different lives of people living in Haiti and the United States, using her own life as inspiration for her novels, typically highlighting themes of violence, class, economic troubles, gender disparities, and family.
The Dew Breaker is a collection of short stories that can either be read together or separately, and detail the intermingled lives of different people in Haiti and New York. Writing in
The New York Times,
Michiko Kakutani said: "Each tale in 'Dew Breaker' can stand on its own beautifully made story, but they come together as jigsaw-puzzle pieces to create a picture of this man's terrible history and his and his victims' afterlife." It was rated four out of five stars by
Goodreads. ''Brother, I'm Dying'' is an autobiographical novel that tells her story of being in Haiti and moving to the United States, falling in love, and having a child. This is one of Danticat's best-rated books and was named Top-10 African American Non-fiction Books by
Booklist in 2008. For
Jess Row of
The New York Times, it is "giving us a memoir whose cleareyed prose and unflinching adherence to the facts conceal an astringent undercurrent of melancholy, a mixture of homesickness and homelessness".
Krik? Krak! is a collection of short stories of women in Haiti, their trials and tribulations, which
The Washington Post Book World called: "virtually flawless. If the news from Haiti is too painful to read, read this book instead and understand the place more deeply than you ever thought possible." Finally,
Breath, Eyes, Memory was Danticat's first novel. It tells the story of a girl, a child of rape, as she moves from Haiti to New York City and discovering the traumatic experience her mother endured, and many other women did. This book was chosen for
Oprah's Book Club in 1998 and also received four out of five stars on Goodreads. Oprah said it had "vibrant imagery and narrative grace that bear witness to her people's suffering and courage." == Awards and honors ==