Events

Edwidge Danticat will discuss her new book of essays — "We're Alone" — with two Columbia colleagues on March 26 at the Columbia Journalism School.

Danticat, the Wun Tsun Tam Mellon Professor of the Humanities and a professor of African American and African Diaspora Studies, will discuss her work with Farah Jasmine Griffin and Zoë L. Henry. 

Griffin is the William B. Ransford Professor of English and Comparative Literature and African American Studies and professor of African American Studies and African Diaspora Studies. Henry is an assistant professor of English and Comparative Literature.

Attendees must register by March 23. Those without a Columbia ID must register to receive a QR code required for entrance.

Danticat is the author of 18 books, including "Breath, Eyes, Memory," an Oprah Book Club selection, "Krik? Krak!," a National Book Award finalist, "The Farming of Bones," an American Book Award winner; the novels-in-stories, "The Dew Breaker," "Claire of the Sea Light," and "The Art of Death," a National Book Critics Circle finalist for Criticism. She has written seven books for children and young adults, a travel narrative, "After the Dance," and two essay collections, "Create Dangerously" and "We're Alone."

"We're Alone" a loose arc from Edwidge Danticat’s childhood to the COVID-19 pandemic and recent events in Haiti. The essays gathered in "We’re Alone" include personal narrative, reportage, and tributes to mentors and heroes such as Toni Morrison, Paule Marshall, Gabriel García Márquez, and James Baldwin that explore several abiding themes: environmental catastrophe, the traumas of colonialism, motherhood, and the complexities of resilience.

The event is organized through a collaboration that includes three Columbia entities: the African American & African Diaspora Studies Department, the Institute for Research in African-American Studies, and the Institute for Social and Economic Research and Policy.