Haiti-born writer Edwidge Danticat win the prestigious MacArthur
Tequila Minsky, Heritagekonpa Magazine
Edwidge Danticat has won the highly prestigious MacArthur Foundation grant, the “genius” award, which means that she will receive $100,000 a year for five years, no strings attached. Recipients come from many disciplines and along with those in the arts, there are scientists, an economist, a photojournalist, a physician, an engineer, a designer, and those walking between the borders of disciplines.
There is an expectation of future accomplishment with this award and the largess of money is to give recipients the economic freedom to continue exercising their creativity.
The program began in 1981 and 805 people have been named since then. Dr. Paul Farmer, anthropologist and physician, who started in clinic in Central Haiti and has done innovative work treating people with HIV/AIDS and TB, received the MacArthur award in 1993.
Edwidge Danticat, now 40, has received critical acclaim for her depictions of Haitian immigrants in works like the novel “The Farming of Bones” and the memoir “Brother, I’m Dying.” Haitian life is always a strong theme in her work. Edwidge balances life as an author, mother and wife.
Edwidge Danticat receives Best of Brooklyn Award Honored at Fourth Annual Brooklyn Book Festival.
This year the Book Festival, with hosts Brooklyn Borough Pres. Marty Markowitz, Brooklyn Literary Council, and Brooklyn Tourism, selected the Haitian community’s own (and Brooklyn and now Miami) Edwidge Danticat to receive the Festival’s “BoBi” award. This award is bestowed on an author who has a broad impact on the field of literature and on the people of Brooklyn. Danticat received her award at a gala on September 12 and joins previous recipients, Walter Mosley (2008) and Paul Auster (2007).
“Brooklyn holds a very special place in my heart, both as a reader and a writer,” the honoree said. “It is a culturally rich and equally generous borough, which has given so much to my family and me, for which we are very grateful. As someone who came to Brooklyn as a young girl and spent most of my formative years here, I’ve never felt more like a daughter of Brooklyn. “
The following day, the celebrated author also participated in a panel at St. Francis College during the Brooklyn Book Festival, conversing with Johnny Temple of Akashic Books and Mitchell Kaplan, co-founder of the Miami Book Fair.
She was asked what were her impressions on first arriving to Brooklyn at the age of 12. “It was like a time machine,” (the difference between Haiti and New York). She spoke of “lots of closed doors in the apartment” and also “everyone knew my parents, the hallway became something like the courtyard (lakou) in Haiti.” That was very familiar and comforting.
She told those in attendance that Maya Angelo’s “I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings,” had had a strong influence on her and that she had read it with a dictionary in her hand, and was terribly moved by the incredible honesty conveyed.
Danticat fielded questions from the audience. Encouragement and inspiration comes in may ways as she recalled her high school history teacher Mr. Casey introducing an anthology of essays on Black history, These reading had a great impact on her.
Edwidge spoke of growing up listening to stories told by her grandmother and aunts, stories from people who didn’t have power in society but had powerful moments of expression through their words.
In discussing the literary and social aspects of her work she said she likes to tell a good story so that even if you’re not involved with the issue, she hopes they’ll like (and get engaged with) the characters.
Other notables among the 220 participating authors in the rich plethora of panels and book signings at the Festival included Pete Hamill, Melvin Van Peebles, Danny Simmons, Dominic Carter, Elizabeth Nunez, Amy Goodman, Naomi Klein, Stacyann Chin, Sonia Sanchez and Noris Church Mailer.
There were, in fact, one hundred panel discussions and readings and young adult and children’s programming held in the three indoor venues and numerous outdoor stages in the environs of Brooklyn Borough Hall and Plaza. The Target area was devoted to readings for 2-9-year-olds and a Youth Stoop was geared to readers ages 10-18.
 The Festival also partnered with St. Francis College, which created a $50,000 literary prize for an author’s fourth book of fiction. Sarajevo-born, now Chicago resident, Aleksander Hemon’s collection of short stories, Love and Obstacles, was selected for this prize.
The literary marketplace snaked along the many walkways of Columbus Park with more than 150 booksellers, publishers and literary organizations also offering many local self-published authors a chance to expose their work to a book-loving public.
Thirty thousand attendees came out on Sunday, a sunny and summery, perfect day for the crowds, in many ways, celebrating the word.
 “Now more than ever before, Brooklyn is Booklyn,” said BP Markowitz. “And whether you’re browsing for books, listening to your favorite author read from his or her work, or attending one of the fascinating panels made up of literati of every stripe, Brooklyn is the place to be for booklovers from around the world.”
** Danticat burst on the literary scene with her debut novel Breath, Eyes, Memory, which was critically acclaimed for its intensity and paved the way for her National Book Award-nominated collection of short stories Krik? Krak!
She earned a degree in French literature at Barnard College and an MFA at Brown University. She is the winner of numerous awards, including the Granta Regional Award for the Best Young American Novelist, a pushcart Prize, a grant from the Lila Wallace-Readers Digest Foundation, the American Book Award for The Farming of the Bones, and most recently was a finalist for the National Book Award for her memoir, Brother I’m Dying.
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