Edwidge Danticat Papers

The Edwidge Danticat Papers include materials that reflect Danticat’s writing process, including manuscripts and drafts of works; proofs with corrections; research notebooks and materials (including annotated published works, primary sources, and movies and other audiovisual materials); and copies of works published by her (including books–some with her annotation–as well as magazines and other periodicals featuring her work). Her papers also illustrate the critical and popular reception of her work through reviews, features, and other coverage in the popular and scholarly press, including in local newspapers and magazines; interviews with her; and lecture notes, ephemera, and recordings from her public appearances. The collection also includes a small amount of scrapbooks, photographs, journals, ephemera, and other materials which have a mix of personal and professional contents.

Materials related to Danticat’s writing process are mostly concentrated in Series 1, Books by Danticat, with additional materials relevant to researching these works–such as interviews, notes for book talks and appearances, and reviews–in other series within the collection. Researchers should note that the majority of the materials in Series 2 and Series 4 are copies of published works, including books, magazines, scholarly journals, and films. Where this is the case, materials are described as a “copy of” or “copies of” print materials, and any significant annotations are also noted. Much of the material in the collection shows the signs of Danticat’s retroactive review of materials as she prepared the collection for donation: items are often annotated with written notes as well as sticky notes dating from just prior to the transfer of the collection to Barnard.

Series 1, Books by Edwidge Danticat, includes drafts, scrapbooks, manuscripts, corrected proofs, published copies (some including annotations), notes, fragments, and other materials related to book-length works by Danticat. Works represented include novels, memoirs, children’s books, and collections of short stories.

While this series includes the bulk of materials about book-length works by Danticat, other useful materials related to her writing practice may be found elsewhere in the collection: in Series 2 (which includes published short stories, articles, essays, and other works by Danticat); Series 3 (which includes recorded interviews of and other public appearances with Danticat speaking about her writing practice); Series 4 (which includes reviews and other coverage of works, written interviews with Danticat, and written remarks from public appearances, sometimes mentioning her works); and Series 5 (in which research notes for Danticat’s writing and personal notes are often commingled in a single notebook).

This series is further arranged into 12 subseries, one for each work with significant material in the collection as well as one subseries that includes materials related to children’s books by Danticat.

Series 2, Short Stories, essays, articles, and contributions by Danticat, primarily contains published copies of short works by Danticat, often within a complete copy of the publication or book in which they were published. Limited materials include Danticat’s annotations. The writing includes forewords, introductions, articles, essays, short stories, and contributions to other works. Some of the magazines and journals in Subseries 4.1, Media coverage, may also contain short work by Danticat; likewise some of the items in this series may contain coverage of her work alongside work by her. For interviews with Danticat (as either interviewer or interviewee), see Subseries 4.2, Interviews.

Series 3, Audiovisual materials, contains audio and moving image materials, including radio interviews, television programs, films, audiobooks, and documentaries featuring or created by Danticat. This collection also includes Haitian films, documentaries, radio programs, and television programs collected by Edwidge Danticat. Where archivists were able to discern Danticat’s role (as a creator, featured speaker, narrator, etc.), that is noted.

Series 4, Media coverage, interviews, and appearances, contains print media about Edwidge Danticat and her work, including magazine and newspaper articles, scholarly articles and theses, interviews, and materials documenting speaking engagements. This series is further arranged into three subseries.

Series 5, Personal, contains photographs of Danticat and others, journals and notepads (containing research notes and personal notes, often mixed in the same journal), yearbooks and facebooks from junior high and college, awards, gifts, and memorabilia, as well as scrapbooks created by Danticat containing letters, postcards, ephemera, and clippings.