Junot Diaz1968-

“I’m sentence by sentence slow. And you would think that I would create more elaborate sentences. For all my plod, I still produce rather workmanlike, short sentences. So in some ways it’s rather sad, but yep, it’s both. It’s easy to talk about this shit because people will tell you nonsense, but I think the slowness of my production speaks for itself. I work extremely slowly, and I will re-write a story fifty times.”

~from an interview with Marina Lewis (Other Voices #36)

Short Biography

• Born 1969, Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic.• Moved to the United States with his parents at age six,

settling in New Jersey.• Graduate of Rutgers University and received his Master

of Fine Arts Degree from Cornell University.• Drown (1996). Diaz's debut story collection reflects his

experience as a Dominican born in the barrios of Santo Domingo who was later transplanted to the gritty environment of urban northern New Jersey. Published when he was 27 years old.

• Currently a creative writing professor at MIT.

Major Themes

• Absent fathers

• Aimless sex

• Dreary housing projects (from his New Jersey childhood)

• Mothers struggling for their families and themselves

• Casual and deliberate cruelty

• Poverty

Major Works

• “The Sun, the Moon and the Stars,” his first short story

• (1996), Drown (collection of short stories)– Ysrael," – "Fiesta, 1980," – "Aurora," – Drown," – “Boyfriend," – "Edison, New Jersey," – “How to Date a Browngirl, Blackgirl, Whitegirl, or Halfie," – "No Face," – "Negocios"

• (2000) Cheater's Guide to Love

Awards

• 1999 Guggenheim fellowship

• Pushcart Prize XXII '97

• Eugene McDermott Award in 1998

• Named one of the 20 Writers for the 21st Century by The New Yorker.