junot diaz, pulitzer prize winner.
this book is full of win.
junot won the pulitzer. no, this has nothing to do with that movie about the lippy pregnant/teenage white girl that was written by a former stripper who is named after the devil. despite his ethnic handicap (damned dominicans!), junot diaz is one of my favorite authors
normally, i am loathe to give praise to the accomplishments of any dominican person, save for their exploits on a baseball field (sorry if the whole rican vs dominican rivalry is over your head). however, if i didn’t stand up and take notice of this event i would have had my pseudo-intellectual latino membership card revoked and torn to shreds. in that spirit – SANTO DOMINGO, DR / PATERSON, NJ STAND UP:
Updated Tuesday, April 8th 2008, 10:53 AM
NEW YORK – Junot Díaz, a 39-year-old native of the Dominican Republic who moved to New Jersey as a boy, won the Pulitzer prize for fiction Monday for his novel “The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao.”
The novel, which also won the National Book Critics Award, revolves about Oscar, an obese comics fan growing up in Paterson, N.J., and his dysfunctional Dominican family, going back to the Rafael Trujillo dictatorship.
Diaz worked for more than a decade on his first novel, a tragic but humorous story of desire, politics and violence among Dominicans at home and in the United States — “I spent most of the time on dead-ends and doubts,” he said Monday.
Also nominated as finalists in this category were: “Tree of Smoke” by Denis Johnson, and “Shakespeare’s Kitchen” by Lore Segal.
Up until Monday, the only U.S. Latino writer to ever receive the Pulitzer Prize in literature was Oscar Hijuelos, for “The Mambo Kings Play Songs of Love,” published in 1989.
Díaz has also published a story collection, “Drown.” His fiction has been published in The New Yorker, The Paris Review and “The Best American Short Stories.” LINK
once again, peace to urban for bringing this news to my attention. the homegirl is well aware of my love for junot ever since i posted this link which features an audible excerpt from his first novel “drown.” hilarity does ensue, so if you haven’t listened – you better step your game up. if you have? then its time to bump on down to the nearest barnes and noble and cop the hotness that is “The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao.“
Thanks for this post… I was looking for a new book to read and I especially like reading books by latino authors.
You know, despite the heavy rican v dominican rivalry that the rican side of my family loves to indulge in- there are a lot of HALF ricans and HALF dominicans in our family!
Blasphemy you say? No. I just say its the horny rican men in my family who overlook that rivalry for some culo. LOL My step-grandma is dominican- so all my tias from her are halfies as well. A few cousins….yeaaaaah it happens.
hey i have a really good story about this book, junot, and how he might use my weird birth name in the future…..
saucy – don’t be a tease… tell the story.
lady v – i won’t front. there are more dominicans mixed into my family tree than i will ever admit. something about those miss phat bootys…
hey hey hey – dominicans arent the only ones blessed with ample derriere!
saucy- I wanna hear the story!!!!
well to make a long story as short as possible….the prod. co. i worked for was looking to buy the rights to his book, but mr. rudin (the super terminating producer) took over and swept it out from underneath us. however my girl and i were communicating with mr. diaz and decided to pay him a visit when he came to LA. he signed my book and when he heard my name he said, “wow. can i steal that?” i said no, but he gave me that player’s smirk. haha. anywho, we’re still bitter about losing the option rights……………..and now this…
saucy zeta – see, lines *like that* is why i need to become a published author.
lady v – whirred… but when it comes to “the thickness,” neither the ricans or the domis wear the crown. which reminds me… see my next post.
A messican won a writing competition?!?!?! How does that even happen? I demand a recount.
like you can count, much less recount.
I can count enough to pay a messican $0.25 for his box of strawberries. You just outted yourself as a dominican, you lost.
no, you won’t be fomenting a race war on my site. thats what tehbored is for.
werd.
Lady V…Hi.
ROFL@”Tia in Union City that hugs your nuts.”
Congrats to Junot Diaz. I haven’t read this novel yet. Is it THAT good?
Hi Huck
LOL
@ messicans….thats what I say!!!!!
sosa – own it, haven’t read it. i’ll let you know in 2 weeks when my classes are finished and i have some time to read things that don’t pertain to work.
lady v – meet huck. he’s a bastard and a lowlife, but good peoples.
HEY! I’m not a bastard.
LMAO @ Jay…..
you can be such a jerk….. thats one of the reasons i keep coming back
and long as he good peoples then im cool with huck
Look at the shit you start….
And this is why I read your blog.