Slice's spotlight author: Junot Díaz:
Junot Díaz's first novel, The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao (Riverhead Books) has enjoyed a flood of outstanding reviews since it was published on September 7. The New York Times calls it "funny, street-smart and keenly observed...[It] decisively establishes him as one of contemporary fiction's most distinctive and irresistible new voices." He's also been featured in New York Magazine, Newsweek and the Philadelphia Inquirer, and received rave reviews on bookslut.com and BlogCritics.org, among many others.
Visit these links to learn more about the book that everyone is buzzing about:
New York magazine
Newsweek
Philadelphia Inquirer
bookslut.com
BlogCritics.org
Issue One's theme, new beginnings, wears many faces throughout Slice's pages. We were fortunate enough to have the chance to speak with Díaz about some of his beginnings and how they've fueled his writing. Below is an excerpt from our conversation with Díaz—check out the print magazine for the full interview. Click here to subscribe.
So much of your writing focuses on the struggles and nuances of what it meant to grow up as a Dominican immigrant in New Jersey. At what point did you begin writing about these experiences? Did your fiction stem from a childhood and adolescence of naturally jotting down observations as they came to you, or was becoming a writer more of a conscious decision you made as a young adult?
I started writing wanting to be the next Stephen King. That lasted about two years in high school but even in this phase I was writing about being an immigrant, being from an Island. Dominican New Jersey came to me in college; it was the place I loved most and that I knew best so I figured, hell, why not use my knowledge? I knew I wasn't from a major literary center so instead of fighting that I thought-let's just go the opposite route. Make the Elsewhere into a Somewhere.
Did you have a writing mentor? If so, how have they influenced you and what is the best advice they ever passed along?
So many people have helped me. But one of the most important: the writer David Mura. During my long midnight struggle with my novel he told me: In order to write the book you want to write in the end you have to become the person you need to become to write that book. It was a hard lesson for me to understand and ultimately to practice. For my novel I had to become a more compassionate person. Who wants to go through that fucking process? I just wanted to write. And yet until I achieved that condition there just was no finishing the novel, no matter how hard I tried.
Junot Díaz's first novel, The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao (Riverhead Books) has enjoyed a flood of outstanding reviews since it was published on September 7. The New York Times calls it "funny, street-smart and keenly observed...[It] decisively establishes him as one of contemporary fiction's most distinctive and irresistible new voices." He's also been featured in New York Magazine, Newsweek and the Philadelphia Inquirer, and received rave reviews on bookslut.com and BlogCritics.org, among many others.
Visit these links to learn more about the book that everyone is buzzing about:
New York magazine
Newsweek
Philadelphia Inquirer
bookslut.com
BlogCritics.org
Issue One's theme, new beginnings, wears many faces throughout Slice's pages. We were fortunate enough to have the chance to speak with Díaz about some of his beginnings and how they've fueled his writing. Below is an excerpt from our conversation with Díaz—check out the print magazine for the full interview. Click here to subscribe.
So much of your writing focuses on the struggles and nuances of what it meant to grow up as a Dominican immigrant in New Jersey. At what point did you begin writing about these experiences? Did your fiction stem from a childhood and adolescence of naturally jotting down observations as they came to you, or was becoming a writer more of a conscious decision you made as a young adult?
I started writing wanting to be the next Stephen King. That lasted about two years in high school but even in this phase I was writing about being an immigrant, being from an Island. Dominican New Jersey came to me in college; it was the place I loved most and that I knew best so I figured, hell, why not use my knowledge? I knew I wasn't from a major literary center so instead of fighting that I thought-let's just go the opposite route. Make the Elsewhere into a Somewhere.
Did you have a writing mentor? If so, how have they influenced you and what is the best advice they ever passed along?
So many people have helped me. But one of the most important: the writer David Mura. During my long midnight struggle with my novel he told me: In order to write the book you want to write in the end you have to become the person you need to become to write that book. It was a hard lesson for me to understand and ultimately to practice. For my novel I had to become a more compassionate person. Who wants to go through that fucking process? I just wanted to write. And yet until I achieved that condition there just was no finishing the novel, no matter how hard I tried.