Happy to see that Junot Diaz nabbed the Pulitzer for "The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao". He was a tremendous presence at this year's Key West Literary Seminar, generous with his time and endlessly friendly to the women and men-but mostly women-who mobbed him, like Judy Blume here on the right who is sweating him hard. Just kidding. Helluva lot of charisma though, and a great guy. I actually think that reading "Wao" could jog one out of a non-reading lull that I think so many of us (myself included) are afflicted with in our shortened attention span era. The book is so full of energy and raw, often brutal life, and it's very disciplined and tight. Check out a podcast of Junot reading from the book here.
At a KWLS party Billy Collins was asking Junot about all the fanboy literature, comics and films referenced in "Wao", as a kind of follow-up to Billy's conversation about "extra-literary" inspirations, and weaving those into your work. Someone came up at this moment and pulled me away to deal with some crisis, and let me tell you I regret not overhearing this exchange.
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