On Sunday, September 13, Brooklyn Borough President Marty Markowitz, the Brooklyn Literary Council and Brooklyn Tourism were back to host the fourth annual Brooklyn Book Festival, which this year honored Edwidge Danticat. Each year, the Brooklyn Book Festival “BoBi” award is bestowed on an author who has a broad impact on the field of literature and on the people of Brooklyn, and this year’s recipient is Danticat, who received her honor at the Brooklyn Book Festival Gala Mingle on September 12. Past BoBi recipients include Walter Mosley (2008) and Paul Auster (2007).

“I am extremely honored and moved by this award,” said Danticat. “Brooklyn holds a very special in my heart, both as a reader and a writer. It is a culturally rich and equally generous borough, which has given so much to my family and me, for which we are very grateful. I’m so glad to be part of the Brooklyn Book Festival, which adds another important element to Brooklyn’s cultural landscape. As someone who came to Brooklyn as a young girl and spent most of my formative years here, I’ve never felt more like a daughter of Brooklyn.”

Danticat, who hails from Port-au-Prince, Haiti, and came to Brooklyn at the age of twelve, burst onto the literary landscape with her debut novel Breath, Eyes, Memory, which was critically acclaimed for its lyrical intensity and paved the way for her National Book Award-nominated collection of short stories Krik? Krak! A writer who deftly draws on her experiences and honest depictions of the fear and pain, passion and beauty of her Haitian homeland, Danticat is one of America’s brightest and most graceful writers.

Edwidge Danticat earned a degree in French literature at Barnard College and an MFA at Brown University. She is the winner of numerous awards, including the Granta Regional Award for the Best Young American Novelist, a Pushcart Prize, a grant from the Lila Wallace-Readers Digest Foundation, the American Book Award for The Farming of Bones, and most recently was a finalist for the National Book Award for her haunting memoir, Brother, I’m Dying.

The Brooklyn Book Festival is a huge, free public event presenting over 220 authors participating in panel discussions and readings, young adult and children’s programming and a literary marketplace of more than 150 booksellers, publishers and literary organizations. Readings are held at Brooklyn Borough Hall, in Borough Hall Plaza and Columbus Park, at St. Francis College and the Brooklyn Historical Society. The Brooklyn Book Festival is presented by Brooklyn Tourism and the Brooklyn Literary Council, initiatives of Brooklyn Borough President Marty Markowitz.