Conversations with Edwidge Danticat

<p><br />This volume sheds a much-needed light on Edwidge Danticat (b. 1969) and her ability to depict timely issues in sparkling prose that delves deep into the borderlands an uncharted in-between space located outside fixed geographic cultural and ideological bounds. Prevalent throughout many interviews here is Danticat's expressed determination not only to reveal Haitian immigrant experience but also to make that nuanced culture and its vibrant traditions accessible to a wide audience.<br /><br />These interviews coincide with Edwidge Danticat's evolving artistic vision her steady book publication and her expanding roles as fiction writer essayist memoirist documentarian young adult book author editor songwriter cultural critic and political commentator. Dating from her appearance on the literary scene at the age of twenty-five the many interviews that she has granted attest to not only her productivity but also her accessibility to scholars teachers writers and journalists eager for knowledge about her vision. Included in this volume are interviews that range from 2000 covering the publication of her debut work of fiction <em>Breath Eyes Memory</em> to a personal interview conducted with the volume editor in 2016. In that conversation which appears for the first time as part of this collection Danticat provides insight into little-known aspects of her life art and politics.<br /><br />Her candid interviews carry out a careful stripping away of preconceived notions of Danticat disclosing the private and public life of a first-class writer and intellectual whose countless achievements have assured her an enduring place within contemporary world letters.</p>