Pulitzer Prize writer Junot Diaz in Dallas on Sunday, Sept. 14th

My huge literary crush, JUNOT DIAZ--the papi' chulo of letras Dominicanas--is coming to Dallas next weekend. Go see him w/ me!!




JUNOT DIAZ started out, in the 1990s, publishing short stories here and there (New Yorker, Paris Review), and then in 1997 his first short story collection DROWN (which i love!) was published by Riverhead/Penguin to great acclaim. DROWN was sold for translational rights to over fifteen countries, was a national bestseller, and was nominated for Quality Paperback Book Club's "New Voices" award in 1997.

Diaz was the only writer chosen by Newsweek as one of the 10 "New Faces of 1996." In 1999, the New Yorker named him one of the top “20 Writers for the 21st Century.”

After all the DROWN acclaim and hoopla, he practically disappeared from the universe--but actually he was busy teaching (at MIT, no less) and writing what we anticipated would be his first novel.

And guess what?

For eleven years he held us off with bated breath (ours not his), until the point--2007--when he published his finally completed FIRST novel--which is titled THE BRIEF WONDROUS LIFE OF OSCAR WAO--and then what happens to this writer with a charmed life?

He gets the freakin' PULITZER for his first novel!!!!

THE BRIEF WONDROUS LIFE OF OSCAR WAO has gone on to win the National Book Critics Circle award for fiction and has
also been optioned by Miramax Films.

Here's more info on the reading/interview, which is being taped for KERA radio broadcast.

Lastly, here are links to a great interview Junot did with BOOKSLUT in 07; an extensive bio; and a really dope article on the political angles of the novel.

C'mon bookwormy literatontos, join me on Sunday, September 14th at the DMA (Dallas Museum of Art) from 2-4pm!