Junot Díaz is an amazing writer. I couldn’t put his book “The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao” down. Junot captured what it is like to be young and unsure of one’s self (Oscar). His book is about much more though. You should read it!
At his book reading, and book signing at Montclair State University on September 30th, 2010, Pulitzer Prize winning author Junot Díaz spoke openly, and frankly with students about what it took for him to succeed in college. Junot also shared with students that it is important to work hard, and own your personal development, and personal success as you move in and out of social circles, the college environment, and family life. In this interview Junot Díaz talks about being transformed through education.
Junot was born in Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic and is the author of Drown and The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao which won the John Sargent Sr. First Novel Prize, the National Book Critics Circle Award, the Anisfield-Wolf Book Award, the Dayton Literary Peace Prize and the 2008 Pulitzer Prize.
Resident Planning Geek: If you could take Oscar aside and offer him a bit of encouragement at that time in his life what would you say to him?
Junot Díaz: I would try to be his friend. Best encouragement there is.
Resident Planning Geek: During your Q. & A. you said that to get an education you have to let your guard down, and that you regretted not opening yourself up when you were at Rutgers because the university gave you the world.
What advice do you wish you had received as a student in college, going through the motions of learning, unsure of yourself, that would have helped you lower your guard?
Junot Same advice I gave above. Education is transformation but you can never have the chance to be transformed if you don’t work hard at being open.
Resident Planning Geek: What was your major in college and did you have a favorite professor?
Junot Díaz: I was a history and english major. I am three credits shy of my history major and my favorite professor was a writer T.E. Holt. He was brilliant and cared about us and what more can you ask of a mentor?
Resident Planning Geek: Currently you are a professor at MIT. What is the most important lesson you pass on to your students?
Junot Díaz: Why all these lessons? I just try to support them and make them more critically minded. I’m not really a preacher. Kids get enough lectures and advice.
Resident Planning Geek: Looking forward, do you have a dream that you want to fulfill?
Junot Díaz: Yes, I want to write another book.
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You can purchase The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao byJunot Díazat Indie Bound l Amazon l Barnes & Noble
Junot Díaz’s fiction has appeared in The New Yorker, African Voices, Best American Short Stories(1996, 1997, 1999, 2000), in Pushcart Prize XXII and in The O’Henry Prize Stories 2009. He has received a Eugene McDermott Award, a fellowship from the John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation, a Lila Acheson Wallace Readers Digest Award, the 2002 Pen/Malamud Award, the 2003 US-Japan Creative Artist Fellowship from the National Endowment for the Arts, a fellowship at the Radcliffe Institute for Advanced Study at Harvard University and the Rome Prize from the American Academy of Arts and Letters. He is the fiction editor at the Boston Review and the Rudge (1948) and Nancy Allen professor at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.
© 2011 W. S. Hughes l Junot Díaz earned his undergraduate degree from Rutgers University. He graduated Rutgers College in 1992. In May 2010 he was inducted into the Hall of Distinguished Alumni, the most prestigious honor for alumni granted by Rutgers University.
Excellent!