Dany Laferrière arrived in Haiti on Saturday, July 11, for a two-week tour at the invitation of the administration of the State University of Haiti (UEH). On Monday, July 13, he began the first official event of his visit: a meeting with students at the UEH administration building in Port-au-Prince, attended by University President Dieuseul Prédélus. After introductory welcoming remarks, the writer led a discussion devoted to childhood, in conversation with Darline Alexis, president of the committee coordinating the visit, and Francesca Mintor, a master's student in Modern Literature at the École Normale Supérieure. From the outset, he clarified the focus of his talk: "I am not going to tell you about my childhood; I am going to tell you how I write about childhood."

Looking back at the genesis of his works—from L'Odeur du café (1991) to Je suis fou de Vava (2006), which won the Governor General's Literary Award of Canada—Dany Laferrière emphasized the need for every writer to resist the temptation of artificiality in their early works. "We sometimes fall into artificiality: we choose a subject that our reflections and studies allow us to address, giving us the opportunity to show readers how interesting we are," he explained, before adding what he believes should remain the guiding principle above all else: "You should always write a book for yourself."