Wednesday, February 21, 2007

Interview: Junot Diaz

Fiction writer Junot Diaz is the author of the celebrated story collection Drown, as well as stories published in Story, The New Yorker, The Paris Review, Best American Short Stories, and African Voices. His long story "The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao" will serve as part of a novel of the same same, to be published in Fall 2007 by Riverhead Books. Diaz was born in Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic, and now teaches fiction writing at MIT.

He appeared at the Hollis E. Cornell Auditorium of Goldwin Smith Hall on February 22, 2007. This interview took place the previous day.

CLICK HERE TO LISTEN (21MB MP3)

9 comments:

L. said...

Thank you for posting this interview. Very incisive comments on science fiction and the immigrant by Junot Diaz. Ay! If only there were room for a handful more Latino writers on this bitter soil.

Heart of Darkness is by Joseph Conrad.

Writers At Cornell said...

Did I say it was by someone else? I wouldn't put it past myself to have said "Joseph Cornell" by mistake. -JRL

L. said...

Oscar Wilde ;-) OK, I was a pedant. Great interview. Period. Thanks again.

Writers At Cornell said...

Aha! I hear what you mean...I said "the Oscar Wao story"...that is, the character in Diaz's Conrad-inspired novella.

Glad you liked the interview! Diaz is a great interviewee...

Paul Sweeney said...

Enjoyed that very much. Great comment on "negative hallucination". Looking forward to hearing other writers in the series now. What a great resource. Thank you.

Ángela Castro said...

I like Junot Diaz, is a great writer... He came one month ago to Bogotá and it was him well in the Library book

Ángela Castro said...
This post has been removed by the author.
Andrew Ramirez said...

Glad Junot is back from Cornel. He is the only
writer to harken back the chills of childhood
of being raised impoverised in a Latino culture
where cruelty is regarded as moral strength.

Andrew Joaquin Ramirez

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