6774: Haitian writer to speak at Yale (fwd)

[Bob Corbett <corbetre@webster.edu>]

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