Haitian American Archives

My Mother’s House by Francesca Momplaisir [in Booklist]

24 Nov, by Smithsonian Asian Pacific American Center in Adult Readers, Audio, Black/African American, Caribbean American, Fiction, Haitian American, Repost

*STARRED REVIEW It opens with the mellifluous Dion Graham and ends with an always-appreciated who-read-whom at recording’s end. In between, the horror is unrelenting, yet the three narrators persist with tenacious dignity and grace. Graham enthralls as the titular “my mother’s house” – Kay Manman Mwen...

Five More to Go: Edwidge Danticat’s Everything Inside [in The Booklist Reader]

28 Aug, by Smithsonian Asian Pacific American Center in Adult Readers, Black/African American, Caribbean American, Chinese American, Fiction, Haitian American, Indian American, Japanese, Korean, Korean American, Latina/o/x, Repost, Short Stories, South Asian American, Translation

Everything Inside by Edwidge Danticat Following The Art of Death (2017), a reflection on her mother’s passing, Danticat focuses this haunting eight-story collection on, well, death. Looming death becomes a bargaining chip in “Dosas,” when an ex-husband begs his ex-wife to help save her kidnapped replacement....

Everything Inside by Edwidge Danticat [in Booklist]

19 Jun, by Smithsonian Asian Pacific American Center in Adult Readers, Black/African American, Caribbean, Caribbean American, Fiction, Haitian, Haitian American, Repost, Short Stories

*STARRED REVIEW Following The Art of Death (2017), a reflection on her mother’s passing and writing, Edwidge Danticat focuses this haunting eight-story collection on, well, death. Looming death becomes a bargaining chip in “Dosas,” when an ex-husband begs his ex-wife to help save her kidnapped replacement, and in “In the Old...

American Like Me: Reflections on Life between Cultures by America Ferrera [in Booklist]

04 Feb, by Smithsonian Asian Pacific American Center in Adult Readers, Arab American, Audio, Black/African American, Chinese American, Filipina/o American, Haitian American, Hawaiian, Indian African, Korean American, Latina/o/x, Memoir, Nonfiction, Pan-Asian Pacific American, Puerto Rican, Repost, South Asian American, Young Adult Readers

*STARRED REVIEW “I believe that culture shapes identity and defines possibility; that it teaches us who we are, what to believe, and how to dream.” Actor-activist America Ferrera in her editorial and authorial debut, highlights her distinct Honduran American identity and invites 31 others she “deeply...

Not That Bad: Dispatches from Rape Culture edited by Roxane Gay [in Library Journal]

13 Jun, by Smithsonian Asian Pacific American Center in Adult Readers, Audio, Black/African American, Haitian American, Memoir, Nonethnic-specific, Nonfiction, Repost

"What is it like to live in a culture where it often seems like it is a question of when, not if, a woman will encounter some kind of sexual violence?" Roxane Gay (Hunger) posits in the introduction to her latest title, a "place for...

The Art of Death: Writing the Final Story by Edwidge Danticat [in Library Journal]

11 Jan, by Smithsonian Asian Pacific American Center in Adult Readers, Audio, Black/African American, Haitian American, Memoir, Nonfiction, Repost

Compassion goes a long way when writing about death – especially the death of loved ones. Narrating such a book requires a gentleness, a soothing rhythm. That Danticat reads her latest nonfiction – a thoughtful meditation bookended by her mother's fatal cancer diagnosis and Danticat's...

Hunger: A Memoir of (My) Body by Roxane Gay [in Library Journal]

29 Sep, by Smithsonian Asian Pacific American Center in Adult Readers, Audio, Black/African American, Haitian American, Memoir, Nonfiction, Repost

*STARRED REVIEW For such a vulnerable, raw memoir, no one but the author could voice the breathtaking revelations, brutal truths, and profound knowledge contained here. “Every body has a story and a history,” Roxane Gay (Bad Feminist, Difficult Women) begins. Gay stands 6'3"; at her heaviest, she...

American Street by Ibi Zoboi [in Shelf Awareness]

23 Feb, by Smithsonian Asian Pacific American Center in Black/African American, Caribbean, Caribbean American, Fiction, Haitian, Haitian American, Repost, Young Adult Readers

Arriving with her mother from Port-au-Prince, Haiti, at Kennedy Airport, "holding hands for courage," 17-year-old Fabiola Toussaint, a U.S. citizen by birth, is ushered through Customs while immigration officials detain Manman. Fabiola is forced to leave her behind in New York, and lands alone in...

Author Interview: Pamela Erens [in Bloom]

04 Oct, by Smithsonian Asian Pacific American Center in Adult Readers, Author Interview/Profile, Black/African American, Caribbean American, Fiction, Haitian, Haitian American, Jewish, Korean American, Nonethnic-specific, Repost

While Pamela Erens might not yet be a household-name author, she’s hardly a stranger to literary recognition. Her 2007 debut, The Understory – about a solitary, unemployed lawyer who’s about to lose his home – was a finalist for the Los Angeles Times Book Prize and the...

Bad Feminist: Essays by Roxane Gay

24 Dec, by Smithsonian Asian Pacific American Center in Absolute Favorites, Adult Readers, Audio, Black/African American, Caribbean American, Fiction, Haitian, Haitian American, Memoir, Nonfiction

If I were to choose the one book that affected me most this year – the one that ran the entire spectrum from giddiest to maddest, from eye-opening in wonder to eye-scrunching in horror – this is it. Bad Feminist has forever changed the way I read,...

Claire of the Sea Light by Edwidge Danticat

28 May, by Smithsonian Asian Pacific American Center in Adult Readers, Black/African American, Caribbean, Caribbean American, Fiction, Haitian, Haitian American

I read the eponymous first chapter almost a year ago and then stopped. I listened to the same story – the absolute highlight in the disappointingly uneven collection Haiti Noir – so smoothly, lullingly read by Robin Miles, and again stopped. The book stayed on my desk...

Sélavi, That is Life: A Haitian Story of Hope by Youme, with an essay by Edwidge Danticat

29 May, by Smithsonian Asian Pacific American Center in Caribbean, Caribbean American, Children/Picture Books, Haitian, Haitian American, Nonfiction

The first thing you need to know is that this story is real. And although it was first published eight years ago – and six years before the tragic January 12, 2010 Haitian earthquake – Sélavi is an even more urgent call for help for Haiti's children. A...

Eight Days: A Story of Haiti by Edwidge Danticat, illustrated by Alix Delinois

30 Sep, by Smithsonian Asian Pacific American Center in Black/African American, Caribbean, Caribbean American, Children/Picture Books, Fiction, Haitian, Haitian American

This has been one tragic week: the deadly Oaxaca, Mexico mudslide, the two Rutgers freshmen whose abusively invasive actions led to the suicide of a third first-year student, the deaths of iconic actor Tony Curtis and director Arthur Penn ...

Brother, I’m Dying by Edwidge Danticat [in San Francisco Chronicle]

10 Oct, by Smithsonian Asian Pacific American Center in Adult Readers, Black/African American, Caribbean, Caribbean American, Haitian, Haitian American, Memoir, Nonfiction, Repost

brother-im-dying1 Something magical happens when prize-winning novelist Edwidge Danticat strings words together. From the most trivial details to breathtaking moments of enormous gravity, Danticat uses words as charms that gently beckon readers into her world and make...

We Are All Suspects Now: Untold Stories from Immigrant Communities after 9/11 by Tram Nguyen, foreword by Edwidge Danticat [in AsianWeek]

29 Sep, by Smithsonian Asian Pacific American Center in Adult Readers, Haitian, Haitian American, Nonethnic-specific, Nonfiction, Repost, Vietnamese American

We Are All Suspects Now Award-winning Haitian American writer Danticat opens this sobering title with the death of her 81-year-old uncle who fled his native land when his life was threatened,...

The Dew Breaker by Edwidge Danticat + Author Interview [in Bloomsbury Review]

01 Sep, by Smithsonian Asian Pacific American Center in Adult Readers, Author Interview/Profile, Black/African American, Caribbean, Caribbean American, Fiction, Haitian, Haitian American, Repost

dew-breaker Horror, Hope & Redemption: A Talk with Edwidge Danticat About Her Latest Novel, The Dew Breaker When I mention to a dear friend in England, who happens to be an excellent fiction writer herself, that I’m preparing...

Series Profile: First Person Fiction [in Bloomsbury Review]

01 Jan, by Smithsonian Asian Pacific American Center in Author Interview/Profile, Black/African American, Cambodian American, Caribbean, Caribbean American, Fiction, Haitian, Haitian American, Korean American, Latina/o/x, Middle Grade Readers, Repost, Southeast Asian, Young Adult Readers

first-person-fiction Behind the Mountains by Edwidge Danticat Flight to Freedom by Ana Veciana-Suarez Finding My Hat by John Son The Stone Goddess by Minfong Ho With the exception of the Native Americans—and some may still argue that they walked over the...

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