Create Dangerously: The Immigrant Artist at Work, by Edwidge Danticat (Vintage)

Danticat, whose books include the story collection Krik? Krak! and the novel Breath, Eyes, Memory, grew up in Haiti in the 1970s, under the Duvalier dictatorships (she has lived in the United States since the age of 12). These essays reflect on the Haitian diaspora and artists who create despite the horrors that drove them from their homelands.

China Daily-New York Times