Oscar is a Dominican-American kid who doesn't fit into the macho culture that surrounds him. Diaz describes Oscar, the main character in his novel, as a ghetto nerd at the end of the world. Terry spoke to Diaz in 2007, after his Pulitzer Prize-winning novel "The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao" was published. The announcement of the MacArthur fellowship coincides with the publication of his new collection of short stories titled "This is How You Lose Her." So it's been a good few weeks for Junot Diaz. Most of us call it by its unofficial name, the Genius Award. It's an honor that also comes with a $500,000 no-strings-attached grant to support the work of each recipient. He's one of 23 new MacArthur fellows who were named this week. Pulitzer Prize-winning novelist Junot Diaz, who teaches writing at MIT, has a new reason for his students to pay close attention. I'm Dave Davies, sitting in for Terry Gross.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |