When and where was Junot Díaz born?
Junot Díaz was born in Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic, on the 31st of December 1968. He moved to Parlin, New Jersey, in the winter of 1974 at the age of six.
Common questions about Junot Díaz
Short answers, pulled from the story.
What is the significance of the character Yunior in Junot Díaz's work?
Yunior is a character created by Junot Díaz in the early 1990s who serves as the central figure in his first book Drown published in 1996 and later in This Is How You Lose Her published in 2012. The character functions as a vessel for Díaz's own experiences as an immigrant and a narrator who carries the weight of the Dominican diaspora.
When did Junot Díaz win the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction?
The Pulitzer Prize Board announced that Junot Díaz's novel The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao won the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction on the 14th of April 2008. The novel was published in September 2007 and won numerous awards including the National Book Critics Circle Award.
What happened to Junot Díaz in May 2018 regarding sexual harassment allegations?
In May 2018 author Zinzi Clemmons publicly confronted Junot Díaz alleging that he had forcibly cornered and kissed her. Díaz voluntarily resigned as chair of the Pulitzer Prize board soon after the allegations were made public and later denied having inappropriately kissed Clemmons.
When did Junot Díaz publish his first children's book Islandborn?
Junot Díaz published his first children's book Islandborn in March 2018. The story follows an Afro-Latina girl named Lola whose journey takes her back to collect memories of her country of origin the Dominican Republic.