The character arc of Edwidge Danticat

A life drawn by Character Arc from the public record

Born 19 January 1969 in Port-au-Prince. Between then and now sit a father who emigrated when she was two, a mother two years after that, a childhood with an aunt and uncle, Brooklyn at twelve, Barnard in 1990, a Brown MFA in 1993, a first novel in 1994, a National Book Award shortlist in 1995, a National Book Critics Circle Award in 2007, a MacArthur in 2009 and the Neustadt Prize in 2018. The line below draws the story so far, in order.

Tap the line to pluck it. Hover or tap any mark for its card. Drawn from the public record of her life; the sources are at the foot of the page.

Who is Edwidge Danticat?

She learned the language at twelve and published at twenty five.

Her father André left Port-au-Prince for New York when she was two. Her mother Rose followed two years later. She and her younger brother stayed in Haiti with an aunt and uncle, and that is how she was raised until she was twelve, when she joined her parents in Brooklyn. She arrived speaking Haitian Creole and French, and had to make a life in English.

She went to Clara Barton High School in Brooklyn, then Barnard College, where she took a BA in French literature in 1990 and was elected to Phi Beta Kappa, and then Brown, where she finished an MFA in creative writing in 1993. In 1994, at twenty five, she published Breath, Eyes, Memory, which Oprah's Book Club later chose. Her story collection of 1995 was a finalist for the National Book Award. She was twenty six.

The Farming of Bones followed in 1998. Brother, I'm Dying, in 2007, won the National Book Critics Circle Award for nonfiction, and it is about the two men who raised her, one in Haiti and one in New York. The MacArthur Foundation gave her a fellowship in 2009, and in 2018 she won the Neustadt International Prize for Literature. In 2023 Columbia named her the Wun Tsun Tam Mellon Professor of the Humanities. Her line is worth reading because the language she writes in is the third one she learned, and she started using it professionally thirteen years after she first heard it.

The moments

Edwidge Danticat's timeline.

The 1970s

~1971

Her father left for New York

Setback, and it changed everything. Two years old. Then four, and both of them gone.

~1973

Raised by an aunt and uncle

Setback, and it changed everything. The people who brought her up, and later the subject of the book that won her a national award.

The 1980s

~1981

Brooklyn, at twelve

Milestone, and it changed everything. A new country, a new family arrangement, and a language she did not have.

The 1990s

Jun 1990

Barnard, and Phi Beta Kappa

Milestone, and it changed her direction. Nine years after arriving without the language, at the top of her class.

1 Jun 1991

A safe profession, or write

Crossroads, decided.

The paths laid out: take the writing degree, taken, or use the French degree safely. Breath, Eyes, Memory came in 1994, her story collection was a National Book Award finalist in 1995, and a MacArthur followed in 2009.

Jun 1993

An MFA at Brown

Milestone, and it changed her direction. The training, taken deliberately, in the third language she learned.

~1994

Breath, Eyes, Memory

Milestone, and it changed everything. A first novel at twenty five, and then a book club that sold it to a country.

15 Nov 1995

A National Book Award finalist

Milestone, and it changed her direction. Her second book, at twenty six, on the shortlist.

~1998

The Farming of Bones

Milestone. The third book, and a harder subject than either of the first two.

The 2000s

~2007

Brother, I'm Dying

Milestone, and it changed everything. A book about the two men who raised her, one in Haiti and one in New York.

22 Sep 2009

A MacArthur Fellowship

Milestone, and it changed everything. The fellowship nobody applies for. It simply arrives.

The 2010s

~2018

The Neustadt Prize

Milestone, and it changed her direction. An international prize given for a body of work, not for one book.

The 2020s

~2023

A chair at Columbia

Milestone, and it changed her direction. A named chair, in the city she arrived in at twelve.

The line reaches today still adding to itself, which is why it is drawn now rather than at the end. What it has set moving is a body of Haitian writing inside American letters, and a rule broken for good: a first language is not the only one you are allowed to be great in.

What she wrote

Books by Edwidge Danticat

1994
Breath, Eyes, Memory
1998
The Farming of Bones
2004
The Dew Breaker
2007
Brother, I'm Dying
2013
Claire of the Sea Light

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Edwidge Danticat: frequently asked questions

What people ask about her line.

What is Edwidge Danticat's character arc?

A girl left in Haiti at two when her father emigrated, raised by an aunt and uncle, reunited with her parents in Brooklyn at twelve, and publishing her first novel at twenty five in a language she had learned as a teenager.

What were the turning points in Edwidge Danticat's life?

Her parents leaving for New York when she was two and four. Joining them in Brooklyn at twelve. The Brown MFA in 1993 and the first novel in 1994. Brother, I'm Dying winning a national award in 2007, and the MacArthur in 2009.

Who raised Edwidge Danticat?

Her aunt and uncle, in Haiti. Her father André emigrated to New York when she was two and her mother Rose followed two years later, leaving her and her younger brother behind. She joined her parents in Brooklyn at twelve.

What language does Edwidge Danticat write in?

English, which is not her first. She grew up with Haitian Creole and French in Port-au-Prince and arrived in Brooklyn at twelve. She took a degree in French literature at Barnard in 1990 and published her first novel in English in 1994.

What prizes has Edwidge Danticat won?

The National Book Critics Circle Award for Nonfiction in 2007 for Brother, I'm Dying, a MacArthur Fellowship in 2009, and the Neustadt International Prize for Literature in 2018. Her second book, a story collection published in 1995, was a National Book Award finalist.

What is Brother, I'm Dying about, by Edwidge Danticat?

The two men who raised her: the uncle who brought her up in Haiti and the father who had gone to New York. It won the National Book Critics Circle Award for Nonfiction in 2007 and is the book that turns her own line into her subject.

What does Edwidge Danticat do now?

She writes, and since 2023 she has held a named chair at Columbia University as the Wun Tsun Tam Mellon Professor of the Humanities, in African American and African Diaspora Studies, in the city she arrived in at twelve.

Where does this timeline of Edwidge Danticat's life come from?

From the public record. Character Arc drew every moment on this line from the sources listed at the foot of the page, and the kind and weight of each moment are our editorial reading. Edwidge Danticat isn't a Member of Character Arc and has no connection with it, and no feeling is attributed to her.

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Sources

Edwidge Danticat, English Wikipedia biography, article current to 27 August 2026.
National Book Critics Circle, 2007 award record.
John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation, 2009 fellows.
Neustadt International Prize for Literature, 2018 laureate.