Junot Diaz
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This Week in Short Fiction
The news of Michael Brown’s death cannot be ignored. When one of our young people dies from shots fired by a police officer, there will be sadness and confusion. There will inevitably be questions, and questions left unanswered will lead…
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Junot Díaz Plans A Holiday Vacation
Summer isn’t over yet. Read what Junot Díaz, Donald Trump, and others have planned before the weather turns cold. And may we all be as lucky as Junot: Once on a beach in Jamaica, right before an October storm swept…
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From Nerd Game to Literary Glory
The role-playing fantasy game, Dungeons & Dragons, has just turned 40. And along with its enduring popularity comes a literary legacy: For certain writers, especially those raised in the 1970s and ’80s, all that time spent in basements has paid…
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Teaching How to Read Racial Identity
Last week, we wrote about Junot Diaz‘s thoughts on the silence around racial identity that he experienced during his MFA in the ‘90s. Salon tracked down the syllabi of two undergrad courses the writer teaches at MIT, in the Comparative Media Studies/Writing Department. Informed…
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Our Voices Are Voices Too
In the 1990s, Junot Diaz enrolled in an MFA program where there was silence when it came to critical discussions of racial identity. As Diaz writes in the New Yorker, “Shit, in my workshop we never talked about race except on…
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VONA Workshop for Writers of Color
The Voices of Our Nation Arts foundation is now accepting submissions for its summer workshop! Founded in 1999 by, among others, Junot Díaz, VONA helps writers of color develop their work in all genres, from fiction to memoir to graphic…
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Literary Puns, Round III
If you enjoyed Timothy Leo Taranto’s first and second rounds of literary puns, check out these new illustrations of such essential authors as Juneau Díaz and Karen Mussel
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The Rumpus Interview with Edwidge Danticat
For our first interview of 2014, The Rumpus sits down with the luminous Edwidge Danticat to discuss the staying power of the short story, the impact of resistance, statelessness and Dominican-Haitian relations, and giving yourself permission to write.
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Morrison and Díaz on Writing, Editing, and Race
We’re all very excited about the new Beyoncé album (especially the track featuring Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie), but there’s another must-hear event for literary types: a Live from the New York Public Library conversation between Junot Díaz and Toni Morrison. Díaz…
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Writing Your First Book
When I started writing a novel I thought, I’m not ready, because I’ve only written short stories and nobody wants them, but I also thought, For Christ’s sake, what am I going to do? I can’t keep on like this.…
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Notable NYC 10/26–11/1
Saturday 10/26: Junot Diaz comes to the Brooklyn Library to discuss his short story collection This is How You Lose Her (September 2012). As with all Diaz events, expect large crowds. Central Library, Dweck Center, 4pm, free. Joan Retallack reads…
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Notable NYC: 10/21–10/27
Monday 10/21: Novelist Jonathan Grimwood hosts Charlotte Druckman, Gideon Lewis-Kraus, and Matt Gross for an evening of storytelling focused on obsessions. Grimwood’s novel, The Last Banquet (October 2013), set in Enlightenment era Versailles, will inspire refreshments served by chef Emily Casey. Housing…