Edwidge Danticat: An Intimate Reader

I NTERVI EW Edwidge Danticat An Intimate Reader INTERVIEW WITH MERIDIANS AND JESSICA HORN Edtuidge Danticat Hues in New York, where she studied/or her college degree. During her interuieu) with Meridians she explained that she,"enjoyed Barnard College, where I studied in the mid 1990s, uery much because it was small. I was uery shy when I was in college and the small class size and the allfemale atmosphere allowed me tofind my uoice. Barnard had a Higher Education Opportunity Program. I came in under that program and it really.facilitated my being there." M E R? D ? A N s : What has pushed you to write fiction? edwidge danticat: I love stories. I have always loved stories, ever since I was a little girl. I have always enjoyed listening to people telling stories, whether these stories were folktales or personal gossip. I was a very nosy child. As a matter offact, this was often said ofme, "She is jouda," nosy. Adults were afraid to talk in front ofme when I was ayoung girl because theyknewI was relishing and loving every bit ofinformation that came out oftheir mouths and they were suspicious ofmy curiosity, ofmy wanting to have a certain kind ofinformation that they considered too "advanced" for me. I think some adults think that keeping information from children is awayofprotectingthem. I have a niece and nephew now. They are both one year old, and already we are beginning to spell dirtywords around them. It's as ifwe're trying to protect their innocence that way. My family certainly did similar things when I was a girl. They never discussed some issues openly in front of the children. However, [Meridians:feminism, race, transnationalism 2001, vol. 1, no. 2, pp. 19-25]©2001 by Wesleyan University Press. All rights reserved. 19 somehow we always ended up knowing all the information anyway. So it was a kind of illusion, a veil, that we were being protected from information "too strong for our ears," things that because they seemed forbidden, we became very curious about and we discovered anyway. So I guess it is that curiosity that eventually pushed me to write fiction, this desire to participate in, listen to, and share stories. Iwrite fiction because I love thewaya storycan stretch myimagination. It's so much more exciting to imagine what could be than what actually is. Writing fiction gives you a feeling thatyou can change things, thatyou can effect their outcome, make people weak or strong, vile or noble. It also gives you deeperinsightinto the truth. Itis as ifyou are tellinga series oflies to arrive at a greater truth. For example, think ofthe way we learn and remember things. Someone can tell you a factand you might rememberit . However ifthey tell you a storyyou are more likely to remember the event through the story. Stories make events come alive. You can use a story to illustrate something in a manner that a fact cannot, and with fiction you can make up as many scenarios as you want to illustrate one thing, so you have more routes atyour disposal. Something factual never changes, but with fiction the means you have ofillustrating your "truth" are endless.µ E Ri D ? A N s : What has allowed you to write so vividly both about the pain ofpassage and ofHaiti's turbulent history? edwidge danticat: I have tried to write both what I know and what I wish I knew better. I know the pain ofpassage from leaving Haiti as a child and coming to the United States. This passage that you mentioned is in some ways strange for people like me, young migrants ofmy generation, because we didn't "choose" our migration. Our parents sent for us or brought us alongwith them when they came to another country and our migration, our "success" in the new place, immediately became part ofa dream that they had in mind for their future as well as ours. There are several types ofmigrants, ofcourse. Exiles don'tchoose their migration. They are expelled. My parents made a very difficult decision. You could say they were economic exiles. Their choice was to starve— because we were extremely poor—or leave. However...