2009 MacArthur Fellows Announced

Congratulations Edwidge Danticat!

View 2009 MacArthur fellows.

from Books and Books in Coral Gables:

We at Books & Books – and, we can safely say, readers everywhere – send the heartiest congratulations to our dear friend Edwidge Danticat for winning one of this year’s MacArthur “Genius Awards.”

The MacArthur Fellows Program describes itself as intending “to encourage people of outstanding talent to pursue their own creative, intellectual, and professional inclinations” – and it comes with a no-strings-attached $500,000 grant.

And as we in Miami know, it could be in no more deserving hands. As the MacArthur Foundation so accurately describes, Edwidge uses “graceful, deceptively simple prose” to provide “a nuanced portrait of the intersection between nation and diaspora, home and exile, and reminds us of the power of human resistance, renewal, and endurance against great obstacles.”

The MacArthur Fellows Program has more than 100 nominators chosen “on the basis of their expertise, accomplishments and breadth of experience.” These people nominate the most creative people they know. The three criteria: “exceptional creativity, promise for important future advances based on a track record of significant accomplishment, and potential for the fellowship to facilitate subsequent creative work.”

From those Fellow profiles: “ Edwidge Danticat is a novelist whose moving and insightful depictions of Haiti ’s complex history are enriching our understanding of the Haitian immigrant experience. In works that chronicle the lives of ordinary Haitians, she evokes themes of family, isolation, and community that, while grounded in a specific cultural milieu, resonate with a wide range of audiences.”