When it comes to reality -- life off of the page -- the MIT professor, Pulitzer Prize winner and compulsive reader Junot Díaz still flourishes. Díaz recently shared his thoughts on immigration, activism, advocacy and cultural identity in an email interview with Latin Post; the author's answers are as bold and astounding as one might expect from the frank novelist. "I'm an activist before I'm a writer. That's about as much as I can say without sounding ridiculous," said Díaz, who's been extremely vocal about the "sentencia" and stateless Haitians in the Dominican Republic.
Editors at Bomb Magazine published a terrific literary exchange between the stellar Haitian-American author Edwidge Danticat and the Dominican frontrunner for well-written and finely-crafted fiction, Junot Díaz. The introduction to the article made a compelling statement, remarking that if Marvel Comics had gotten their hands on Oscar Wao (the lead from The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao), then he "would have been a hero." A novel idea... in fact, one might imagine the same might occur if Marvel got its hands on Díaz. However, Díaz would undoubtedly disagree.
The 2014 Pulitzer Prize winners were announced on Monday. The Pulitzer Prize honors “excellence in journalism and the arts since 1917,” as stated on the website. The award was first established by publisher Joseph Pulitzer and is administered by Columbia University in NYC. Winners of the prize receive a certificate along with $10,000 in cash. The winner in the public service category receives a gold medal.
The two foremost news organizations behind reports about the National Security Agency's cybersurveillance programs have won the top award for journalism. On Monday, The Washington Post and the U.S. branch of The Guardian were awarded the Pulitzer Prize for public service journalism, for their reports based on ex-NSA contractor Edward Snowden's leaked documents.
Oscar Hijuelos, the Pulitzer Prize-winning Cuban-American novelist, died this past Saturday, in Manhattan. The author of the fictional masterpiece The Mambo Kings Play Songs of Love was playing tennis with his wife, Lori Marie Carlson, when he collapsed, suffering a heart attack, and never regained consciousness.
