We’re Alone: Essays

In this collection of eight essays, novelist and essayist Danticat (Everything Inside) offers wide-ranging thoughts on finding connections, compassion, and inspiration amid tragedy and hardship. Narrating her own work, Danticat offers measured, sensitive meditation on the love, loss, and grief that mark the human experience. As she writes of her native Haiti, she discusses the devastation wrought by severe hurricanes, gun violence, racism, and police brutality, plus the plight of climate change refugees. Other essays capture her reflections on writing and the influences of her literary heroes, including Toni Morrison, Audre Lorde, and Nikki Giovanni. Danticat encourages listeners to embrace the concept of aloneness, quoting Haitian-born poet Roland Chassagne, who said, “At least we’re alone together.” For Danticat, recognizing one’s aloneness can make room for common ground, informing new conversations about injustice, resistance, self-agency, and history. Even when traversing weighty topics, Danticat injects moments of humor into her accounts, graciously inviting listeners to find solutions to make communities safer and stronger.