Literary Luminary Comes to Campus

Edwidge Danticat

Acclaimed Writer Edwidge Danticat to visit Dickinson as Stellfox recipient

Dickinson has named acclaimed writer Edwidge Danticat the 2015-16 recipient of The Harold and Ethel L. Stellfox Visiting Scholars and Writers Program award. Danticat will accept the Stellfox award and present a public reading followed by a book signing and reception on Thursday, April 7, at 7 p.m. in Allison Great Hall.

Danticat, a MacArthur Fellow, is the author of several books, including Breath, Eyes, Memory, an Oprah Book Club selection; Krik? Krak!, a National Book Award finalist; and Brother, I’m Dying, a 2007 finalist for the National Book Award and 2008 winner of the National Book Critics Circle Award for autobiography. Her most recent books are Mama’s Nightingale, a picture book, and Untwine, a young-adult novel. Her work has been translated into several languages including Korean, Italian, German, Spanish and Swedish.

Danticat was born in Port-au-Prince, Haiti, in 1969 and followed her parents to the U.S. at the age of 12, speaking only French and Haitian Creole. However, after only two years, she began writing in English and is now an accomplished writer of English-language short stories and novels. She earned a degree in French literature from Barnard College, where she won the 1995 Woman of Achievement Award. She also holds a Master of Fine Arts degree from Brown University.

The Stellfox Visiting Scholars and Writers Program is funded by a gift from Jean Louise Stellfox, a 1960 graduate of Dickinson who was inspired to become an English teacher after meeting Robert Frost during the poet’s visit to the college in 1959. When Stellfox died in 2003, her estate provided $1.5 million to the college to continue her mission of inspiring students by bringing renowned literary figures to campus. Stellfox named the program in honor of her parents, Harold and Ethel L. Stellfox.

Danticat joins an illustrious group of previous Stellfox distinguished writers, including three-time Pulitzer Prize-winning playwright Edward Albee; Nobel laureate Mario Vargas Llosa; Pulitzer Prize-winning author Richard Russo; Pulitzer Prize-winning poets Rita Dove and Paul Muldoon; Tony Award-winning playwright David Henry Hwang; and Booker Prize-winning authors Ian McEwan and Margaret Atwood.

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Published April 4, 2016