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A Virtual Evening With Edwidge Danticat and Francesca Momplaisir

Thursday, May 14, 2020 @ 7:00 pm

Livestreamed via Crowdcast

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Celebrating the publication of My Mother’s House.

Books & Books and Miami Book Fair present A Virtual Evening With Edwidge Danticat and Francesca Momplaisir to celebrate the publication of My Mother’s House

Haitian-American novelist and short story writer Edwidge Danticat sits down with Haitian-born author Francesca Momplaisir to discuss Momplaisir’s debut novel, My Mother’s House, a literary thriller about a Haitian American family and the home that decides to put an end to the sins it has been made to hold. When Lucien flees Haiti with his family, he does so hoping for reinvention, wealth, and comfort in America. He buys a rundown house in a community that is quickly becoming a haven for Haitian immigrants, and begins life anew. Lucien and his wife call their home La Kay—“my mother’s house”—and it soon becomes a place where their fellow immigrants can find peace, a good meal, and legal help. As he settles into his new life, Lucien soon falls into his worst habits and impulses, with La Kay as the backdrop for his brutality. But what Lucien cannot imagine is that La Kay is watching, passing judgment, and deciding to put an end to all the evils it has held within its walls. At once an uncompromising look at the immigrant experience and an electrifying page-turner, My Mother’s House is a singular achievement that introduces Momplaisir as an author to watch.

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About the Author:

FRANCESCA MOMPLAISIR is a Haitian-born multilingual literature scholar and writer of fiction and poetry in both English and her native Haitian Kreyol. She holds undergraduate and graduate degrees in English and Comparative Literature from Columbia University, the University of Oxford, and New York University. She earned a Doctorate in African and African diaspora literature as an NYU MacCracken fellow under her supervisor and mentor, Ngugi wa Thiong’o. She is a recipient of a Fulbright fellowship to travel to Ghana to research the cultural retention and memory of the transatlantic slave trade. She lives in the New York City metro area.

About the Moderator: 

EDWIDGE DANTICAT is the author of numerous books, including Everything Inside: Stories (Winner of the National Book Critics Circle Award, The Story Prize and the 2020 Vilcek Prize in Literature), The Art of Death, a National Book Critics Circle finalist; Claire of the Sea Light, a New York TimesNotable Book; Brother, I’m Dying, a National Book Critics Circle Award winner and National Book Award finalist; The Dew Breaker, a PEN/Faulkner Award finalist and winner of the inaugural Story Prize; The Farming of Bones, an American Book Award winner; Breath, Eyes, Memory, an Oprah’s Book Club selection; and Krik? Krak!, also a National Book Award finalist. A 2018 Neustadt International Prize for Literature winner and the recipient of a MacArthur “Genius” grant, she has been published in The New Yorker, The New York Times, Harper’s Magazine, and elsewhere.

Other

Language
English
Occurrence
All Year