Pulitzer Prize winning author Junot Díaz is coming to campus tonight to read some of his writing and discuss common themes in his life and work.
Díaz’s reading at 8:30 p.m. in 180 Prince Lucien Campbell Hall is part of an annual series organized by David Li, Collins Professor for the Humanities. Li’s aim for the series, which began last year with a reading by renowned Chinese author Ha Jin, is to introduce distinguished authors whose writings feature diverse cultural ideas to the University and community.
“The series is devoted to three concepts that I think are very crucial for our contemporary world: ethnicity, modernity and universality,” Li said.
Celebrated for his dynamic writing style as well as his coverage of a young immigrant’s experience and struggle with identity, Díaz’s work is often informed by his own experiences as a Dominican immigrant growing up in New Jersey.
Díaz has kept what he plans to read a surprise, so the evening promises to be fascinating for both longtime fans as well as people who are new to his work.
However, he did list off several themes he plans to cover during his talk, including “the importance of art, writing as a Dominican immigrant, as a Caribbean New Jersey writer, as a brainy nerd-type person.”
Díaz is best known for his critically acclaimed novel “The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao,” which won the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction in 2008, the Dayton Literary Peace Prize in Fiction, the John Sargent Sr. First Novel Prize and the National Book Critics Circle Award. He has also published a collection of short stories titled “Drown,” and frequently has short stories published in the New Yorker and other top magazines.
In addition to his work as an author, Díaz is a creative writing professor at MIT and said he enjoys meeting and working with young people. He is a vocal advocate against the immigration policies in the United States, and is passionate about creative and political awareness.
“I promote art and reading and nerdiness of all kinds. I believe these practices to be essential to any kind of human existence worth a damn. Everything else is pretty boring,”
he said.
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