Edwidge Danticat on Haitian Americans in a Time of Peril

For more than thirty years, Edwidge Danticat has written about the experiences of Haitians and Haitian Americans in fiction, memoir, and journalism. In The New Yorker, she has covered the ways in which the Trump Administration has targeted Haitian immigrants with lies and threats of deportation. In a new novel about a Miami real-estate broker, called “Dèy”—which means “grief” or “mourning” in Haitian Creole—Danticat considers the meaning of home “when home may not want you,” and when violence in Haiti may preclude returning there. She speaks with the New Yorker staff writer Doreen St. Félix about the novel, and what the revocation of Temporary Protected Status for Haitians means for the large Haitian American community.

Further reading:

• “ The Great Delegalization • ,” by Dara Lind • “ The World Cup and the Changing Psyche of the Haitian Diaspora • ,” by Doreen St. Félix • “ Miami’s Haitian Community Braces for Deportations • ,” by Edwidge Danticat • “ The Haiti That Still Dreams • ,” by Edwidge Danticat

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