He was exposed to the authors who would motivate him to become a writer: Toni Morrison and Sandra Cisneros. Career ĭíaz attended Kean College in Union, New Jersey, for one year before transferring and ultimately completing his BA at Rutgers University-New Brunswick in 1992, majoring in English there he was involved in Demarest Hall, a creative-writing, living-learning, residence hall, and in various student organizations. ĭíaz graduated from Cedar Ridge High School in 1987 (now called Old Bridge High School) in Old Bridge Township, New Jersey, though he would not begin to write formally until years later.

As his school took notice Diaz's family was contacted and he soon was placed in special education to provide him with more resources and opportunities to learn the language.

He comments that it 'was a miserable experience' for him, especially since it seemed that all of his other siblings 'acquired the language in a matter of months in some ways it felt overnight'. Growing up Diaz struggled greatly with learning the English language. At this time Díaz became fascinated with apocalyptic films and books, especially the work of John Christopher, the original Planet of the Apes films, and the BBC mini-series Edge of Darkness. ĭíaz attended Madison Park Elementary and was a voracious reader, often walking four miles in order to borrow books from his public library. There he lived less than a mile from what he has described as 'one of the largest landfills in New Jersey'. In December 1974 he immigrated to Parlin, New Jersey, where he was re-united with his father. Throughout most of his early childhood, he lived with his mother and grandparents while his father worked in the United States. He was the third child among seven siblings. Early life ĭíaz was born in Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic. After obtaining his MFA from Cornell University, Díaz published his first book, the 1995 short story collection Drown.ĭiaz received the 2008 Pulitzer Prize for Fiction for his novel The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao, and received a MacArthur Fellowship 'Genius Grant' in 2012. He earned a Bachelor of Arts degree from Rutgers University, and shortly after graduating created the character 'Yunior', who served as narrator of several of his later books. īorn in Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic, Díaz immigrated with his family to New Jersey when he was six years old.

Central to Díaz's work is the immigrant experience, particularly the Latino immigrant experience. He also serves on the board of advisers for Freedom University, a volunteer organization in Georgia that provides post-secondary instruction to undocumented immigrants. Junot Díaz ( / ˈ dʒ uː n oʊ/ born December 31, 1968) is a Dominican-American writer, creative writing professor at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), and was fiction editor at Boston Review.

Short stories by junot diaz