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6774: Haitian writer to speak at Yale (fwd)
From: radman <resist@best.com>
January 25, 2001
_________________________________________________________
YALE UNIVERSITY: Haitian writer to speak at Yale
New Haven, Conn.
Acclaimed writer and advocate for the Haitian-American community Edwidge
Danticat will visit the Yale campus and give a reading from her works on
February 6 and 7.
Born in Port au Prince, Haiti, in 1969, Danticat came to the United States in
1981. Two years later she began publishing her writing in a citywide newspaper
for New York City teenagers. After receiving a bachelor's degree from Barnard
and a Master of Fine Arts from Brown University, Danticat published her first
novel in 1994. That novel, "Breath, Eyes, Memory," established her as a major
new voice of the Haitian diaspora.
Her 1995 collection of short stories, "Krik? Krak!," was a finalist for the
American Book Award, and in 1998 she published another highly commended work,
"The Farming of Bones." Most recently her writing has been featured in "Step
into a World: A Global Anthology of the New Black Literature" and "The
Butterfly's Way: Voices From the Haitian Dyaspora in the United States," which
she also edited.
In addition to being a celebrated writer, whose work has become a staple of
graduate and undergraduate curricula, Danticat is a tireless spokesperson,
organizer and member of numerous Haitian and Haitian diaspora cultural and
social-justice organizations.
Danticat's visit to Yale is co-sponsored by the Yale Americanist Colloquium,
the English Department, the Beinecke Rare Book and Manuscript Library, the
African-American Cultural Center and the Klub Kreyol, as well as Calhoun
College.
The Yale Americanist Colloquium is an annual series of events and speakers
designed primarily for faculty and graduate students studying the literature,
arts, theater and other cultural aspects of the Americas.
The overall theme adopted by the Colloquium for 2000-2001 is "Inter-American
Connections." Issues surrounding the Caribbean dominated the fall term's
events, and the focus this term is "American Literary Studies as a
Discipline."
Featured guests of the Americanist Colloquium have included the Chinese-
Canadian artist Ken Lum from the University of British Columbia,
Vancouver, and
Pulitzer prize-winning poet Yusef Komunyakaa, professor of creative writing at
Princeton University.
Danticat will speak at a master's tea at Calhoun College, 189 Elm St., on
Tuesday, at 4:30 p.m. She will give a reading at the Beinecke Rare Book and
Manuscript Library, 121 Wall St., on Wednesday, at 4 p.m. Both events are free
and open to the public.
CONTACT: Dorie Baker
Tel: +1 203 432 8553 x 203