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Edwidge Danticat Facts & Worksheets

Edwidge Danticat is a Haitian-American writer. She writes novels, plays, and short stories. Danticat's first novel was Breath, Eyes, Memory.

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Edwidge Danticat is a Haitian-American writer. She writes novels, plays, and short stories. Danticat’s first novel was Breath, Eyes, Memory. It became an Oprah’s Book Club selection and was published in 1994. She wrote and edited several books that earned her many awards and honors.

See the fact file below for more information on the Edwidge Danticat or alternatively, you can download our 25-page Edwidge Danticat worksheet pack to utilise within the classroom or home environment.

Key Facts & Information

BIOGRAPHY

  • Edwidge Danticat was born on January 19, 1969, in the town of Port-au-Prince, Haiti. Her parents left her in Haiti with her surrogate parents and emigrated to New York City when she was very young.
  • During that time, Haiti was ruled by the ruthless Tonton Macoutes and President ‘Baby Doc’ Duvalier, who killed and tortured many Haitians. As a result, in 1981, Danticat joined her parents, but she had difficulty adjusting to her new home.
  • Danticat became lonely and felt out of place. That is why she began writing fiction and drama stories that were set in her homeland of Haiti.
  • Danticat earned a degree in French, where she attended Barnard College. After graduating from college, Danticat pursued her graduate studies at Brown University, where she eventually earned a Master of Fine Arts degree.
  • When Danticat was studying at Brown University, she wrote two plays that were produced at the university’s New Play Festival. Her first novel, Breath, Eyes, Memory, was the evolution of her master’s thesis, and it was published in the year 1994.
  • In 1995, Danticat’s first collection of short stories, Krik? Krak!, became a finalist for the 1995 National Book Award. Three years later, her second novel was entitled Farming of Bones, and it earned the American Book Award and the Pushcart Prize for short fiction stories.
  • Danticat was also awarded a Story Prize for her short story collection, The Dew Breaker, which was published in 2004. In the same year, Danticat achieved a Lannan Literary Fellowship. Her short stories and novels were published in the New Yorker, Callaloo, and several other periodicals.

DANTICAT’S MAJOR WORKS OF SHORT FICTION

  • Breath, Eyes, Memory is the first novel of Danticat. It narrates the story of Sophie Caco, girl who traveled from Haiti to New York to be reunited with Martine, her mother. She felt alienated from the only home she had known, and Sophie struggled in dealing with her mother’s abusive behavior and her sense of identity. Later on, Sophie was married, had a child, and returned to Haiti to confront her family’s past.
  • The Farming of Bones is another novel of Danticat that depicts historical events. The story is about the 1937 slaughtering of thousands of Haitian sugar cane cutters as was ordered by Rafael Trujillo, a Dominican Republic dictator.
  • Danticat narrated the story from the point of view of the character of Amabelle Desir, who witnessed her parent’s drowning because of trying to cross the river back into Haiti at a very young age. Amabelle was rescued by Don Ignacio, who brought her into his house and made her a companion and servant to Ignacio’s daughter, Valencia.
  • However, a couple of years later, the Dominican government started a campaign of massacring any Haitians or citizens of mixed blood. With the fact that it was no longer safe in Valencia’s home, Amabelle was forced to take a dangerous journey back to Haiti, along with thousands of other Haitians.
  • After the Dance: A Walk Through the Carnival in Jacmel, Haiti is another novel by Danticat, and it was published in 2002. It depicts the various cultural and historical influences of the carnival to help you understand the diverse roots of Haitian culture represented in the colorful celebration.
  • Danticat also wrote two novels – Behind the Mountains and Anacoana, Golden Flower – for young adult readers.
  • Krik? Krak! and The Dew Breaker are two of Danticat’s short story collections. They are written about the challenges experienced by an immigrant and the reality of being a Haitian, and they focus on the courage and fortitude of Haitian women who often struggle to express themselves because of the patriarchal culture.

DANTICAT’S CRITICAL RECEPTION

  • Danticat is one of the most important Haitian-American authors. She is also described as a talented and insightful writer. Critics have praised Danticat for her complex characters and her wide-perspective observations on the political, socioeconomic, and cultural realities of life in Haiti and the United States.
  • Some critics have described Danticat’s fiction as uneven. Still, most reviewers praised her lyrical language and the imagery from Haitian folkloric traditions. In the sense of stylistic analysis, Danticat’s works show connections between stories, characters, and events through the repeating names, cultural experiences, and historical events that function in creating a rich narrative work.
  • The critics also praised Danticat for using the experiences of Haitian ancestors and Caribbean folklore in revisiting the events that happened in Haiti’s history.

Edwidge Danticat Worksheets

This is a fantastic bundle which includes everything you need to know about the Edwidge Danticat across 25 in-depth pages. These are ready-to-use Edwidge Danticat worksheets that are perfect for teaching students about Edwidge Danticat who is a Haitian-American writer. She writes novels, plays, and short stories. Danticat’s first novel was Breath, Eyes, Memory. It became an Oprah’s Book Club selection and was published in 1994. She wrote and edited several books that earned her many awards and honors.

Complete List Of Included Worksheets

  • Edwidge Danticat Facts
  • Danticat’s Profile
  • Timeline of Edwidge
  • Filling the Stories
  • Match the Books
  • Questions of the Author
  • Breath, Eyes, Memory
  • Jumbled Bones
  • Fact or Bluff?
  • Crossword Dance
  • The Farming of Bones

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Use With Any Curriculum

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