It is a book told in four fragments, an imitation
of how Sophie, the narrator and a new speaker of
English, would have told the story in English.
Her third novel, The Farming of Bones (1999),
narrates Trujillo’s massacre of 20,000 Haitians in
1937 through the eyes of Amabelle Desir, a young
peasant girl in service to a Dominican family. The
story traces Amabelle’s journey from service to
slaughter, recounting numerous tales of horror
along the way, and yet maintains a lyric beauty
that, as Christopher John Farley notes, “con-
fronted with corpses, has the cold-eyed courage
to find a smile.”
Published in October 2002, Behind the Moun-
tains was her first foray into the realm of young
adult fiction. It is told through the journal entries
of a young Haitian girl, separated from her father
because he has moved to New York seeking enough
money to bring his family to him and to freedom.
In beautiful, fresh, practiced English, Celiane nar-
rates her family’s journey from the political strife
of Haiti to the harsh realities of black life in Brook-
lyn, New York. Not directly autobiographical, the
story still draws on Danticat’s own experience of
immigration and adjustments to the United States.
Danticat’s third such novel, The Dew Breaker
(2005), has also been highly acclaimed.
Danticat has taught creative writing at New
York University and has worked with filmmaker
Jonathan Demme on documentaries about Haiti.
In addition to her novels, she wrote a travel nar-
rative, After the Dance: A Walk through Carnival in
Jacmel, Haiti (2002), in which she takes her read-
ers to the core of Carnival—the spiritual origins
and implications that reach far beyond the surface
appearance of hedonism. Bringing her lyric voice
and practiced eye to nonfiction, Danticat creates a
travel narrative to rival most fiction for beauty and
provocative style.
In addition to her own works, including more
than 20 short stories and essays published in
magazines and newspapers, Danticat worked as
editor on The Butterfly’s Way: Voices from the Hai-
tian Dyaspora (2001) and The Beacon Best of 2000:
Great Writing by Women and Men of All Colors and
Cultures. Danticat’s voice will resonate throughout
U.S. and African-American literature as well as the
literature of the diaspora. Her awards include the
Caribbean Writer (1994), the Woman of Achieve-
ment Award (1995), the Pushcart Short Story
Prize, Best Young American Novelist for Breath,
Eyes, Memory (by Granta) (1996), the American
Book Award for The Farming of Bones (1999), fic-
tion awards from Essence and Seventeen Magazine,
and Oprah Winfrey’s book-of-the-month club for
Breath, Eyes, Memory; she was a finalist for the Na-
tional Book Award for Krik? Krak! (1995).BIBLIOGRAPHY
“A Conversation with Edwidge Danticat.” Available
online. URL: http://www.randomhouse.com/vin-
tage/danticat.html. Accessed February 14, 2007.
Farley, Christopher John. “Smiling amid Corpses.”
Time, 7 September 1998, p. 1.
Shauna Lee Eddy-SandersDash, Julie (1952– )
An independent filmmaker and feminist voice,
Julie Dash has often articulated the significance of
film as a cultural and political tool. She once wrote,
“One of the ongoing struggles of African Ameri-
can filmmakers is the fight against being pushed,
through financial and social pressure, into telling
only one kind of story.... We have so many stories
to tell. It will greatly enrich American filmmaking
and American culture if we tell them” (25).
Born in New York City in 1952, Dash grew up
in the Queensbridge Housing Projects, develop-
ing a passion for films while in high school and
studying film production at the Studio Museum
of Harlem. She attended City College of New York
to study psychology but changed her major to film
and television production, receiving a B.A. in 1974.
Traveling to Los Angeles, she studied at the Ameri-
can Film Institute, where she completed a feature-
length script titled “Enemy of the Sun,” and then
she completed graduate work in film production
at University of California, Los Angeles. While
there, Dash completed an experimental dance
film, titled Four Women, based on a Nina Simone
song. The film won the 1977 Golden Medal for
Women in Film at the Miami International Film130 Dash, Julie