“There is no one writing in the English language today more precisely or more passionately articulating the exile’s experience than Edwidge Danticat.” -Henry Louis Gates, Jr.

Edwidge Danticat brings her unparalleled gifts as a writer in touch with political violence and migration to respond to The Materiality of Mourning, Harvard Art Museum’s exhibition of the works of Colombian-born sculptor Doris Salcedo. Danticat’s lecture, “Doris Salcedo’s Circles of Sorrows,” reflects on the ethical and spiritual dimensions of memory and mourning.

Danticat’s books include Breath, Eyes, Memory, an Oprah’s Book Club selection, Krik? Krak!, a National Book Award finalist, and The Farming of Bones, an American Book Award winner, and The Dew Breaker. Her memoir, Brother, I’m Dying, was a 2007 finalist for the National Book Award and a 2008 winner of the National Book Critics Circle Award for autobiography.

She is the editor of The Butterfly’s Way: Voices from the Haitian Diaspora in the United States and The Beacon Best of 2000: Great Writing by Men and Women of All Colors and Cultures, Haiti Noir and Haiti Noir 2, and Best American Essays 2011. She has written six books for young adults and children, as well as a travel narrative. She is a 2009 MacArthur Fellow and the 2016 recipient of the Toni Morrison Award.