JUNOT

DIAZ

Novelist
professor
writer
About Junot Diaz
Diaz was born in December 31th, 1968 in Santo Domingo, Dominican
Republic. In most of his early childhood, he lived with his mother and
grandparents, while his father worked in the United States. He
immigrated to Parlin, New Jersey in 1974. Junot attended Madison Park
Elementary, since his young age was fascinated with reading.
Toni Morrison
Sandra Cisneros
Years later after
obtaining a
Master of Fine
Arts from Cornell
University, Diaz
published his first
book Drown
(1995).
Important collections
“His prose style
is so irresistible,
so sheerly
entertaining, it
risks blinding
readers to its
larger offerings”
“Junot Díaz's short
story collection is
so sharp, so bawdy,
so raw with
emotion, and so
steeped in the lingo
and rhythms of
working-class
Latino life”
“we pretty
much only see
the women as
exes, crying
and screaming
after they've
been cheated
on”
Allegations of abusive behavior

Zinzi Clemmons Carmen María Machado

Alisa Valdés
Diaz had published an essay in The New Yorker, Junot Diaz
recounting his own experience of being raped at the
age of eight, along with its effect on his later life
and relationships. He addressed the essay to a
reader who had once asked him if he had been
abused, writing that the childhood abuse he
experienced led him to hurt others in later
life. While the essay was widely praised as honest
and courageous, others accused Diaz of trying to
defuse allegations about his own behavior
Some Awards and Nominations

• Pulitzer Prize for Fiction for The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao 2008.
• Salon Book Award for The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao 2007.
• Book Award for Fiction (2012) and the Andrew Carnegie Medal for Excellence
in Fiction.
• National Book Award, finalist, This is How You Lose Her 2012.
• New York Times 100 Notable Books, This Is How You Lose Her 2012.
THANKS FOR
WATCHING