In "Create Dangerously: The Immigrant Artist at Work", Danticat tells her own story as a part of the Haitian diaspora. "Create Dangerously" was inspired by author Albert Camus's lecture "Create Dangerously" and his experience as an author and creator who defined his art as "a revolt against everything fleeting and unfinished in the world". In "Create Dangerously", Danticat is admired for "writing about tragedies and vanished cultures" and how "she accepts that by some accident she exists and has the power to create, so she does." NPR positively reviewed "Create Dangerously" and the journey through "looming loss [which] makes every detail and person to whom we are introduced more luminous and precious." It was chosen by The University of Kansas as the 2018–19 Common Book, which is distributed to all first-year students at the University.