27075: Hermantin(News)Young writers the focus of novelist's work (fwd)

[Bob Corbett <corbetre@webster.edu>]

Young writers the focus of novelist's work


Joanne Hyppolite: Haitian women and literature Hyppolite, shown with her infant 
son Carl Green, is the author of two novels for young adults, Seth and Samona 
and Ola Shakes It Up. Origin



-- Chauncey Mabe

January 1, 2006



"We help to connect Haiti's literary daughters with their heritage," says 
young-adult author Joanne Hyppolite. Along with a few leading women authors, 
Hyppolite is a member of Women Writers of Haitian Descent, a group founded in 
2001 to encourage young Haitian-American writers.

WWOHD sponsors workshops, brings in authors for readings and conducts the 
annual Butterfly Award, which alternates between the short story one year and 
poetry the next.

Other members include Ketsi Theodore Pharel, Michele Jessica Fievre, Fabienne 
Josaphat, Irmine Milord, Liliane Nerette and Maude Heurtelou.

"The interesting thing is that we're from all different age groups," says 
Hyppolite, who moved to South Florida from Boston in 1992.

"I'm in my 30s, while Jessica and Fabienne are in their 20s and came to the 
United States specifically to go to college. Liliane, who is in her 60s, was 
fully raised in Haiti and is an expert on folklore. ... It's a diverse group, 
some writing in English, some in French, some in Creole."

All of the group's authors are published, several with multiple books to their 
credit. Hertelou's novel The Bonplezi Family: The Adventures of a Haitian 
Family in North America was published by her husband's English-Creole company, 
Deerfield Beach-based Educavision. Some of the members are self-published, 
which, Hyppolite says, doesn't carry the stigma among the Haitian community 
that it does in mainstream American literature.

"The situation in Haiti is that you have to self-publish because there is no 
economy for commercial publishers," says Hyppolite, whose novels are published 
by Random House. "The infrastructure doesn't exist for that. While some of us 
are self-published, we are all established writers."

Distinguished novelist Edwidge Danticat, though not a member of the group, says 
role models are especially important "when you have a very young immigrant 
community." Haitian parents, Danticat says, still push children toward 
professions "that offer a more secure route for a decent life in this country."

And for good reason, she says: "On some level being an artist is a luxury, but 
it is also a necessity for the person doing it. And so it is a hard thing, a 
hard choice for a young person to make as a new immigrant.

"But here there is the perfect environment for an explosion of the literary 
arts. When I've visited schools, I've seen that excitement the children have 
when they are presented with a role model like Joanne or myself. There's 
something exciting about that."


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