Posted submitted by Ethan Moitra

Another exciting season of author events at the Free Library of Philadelphia has arrived. In past years, the FL has attracted heavyweights from the fiction, nonfiction, and culinary worlds, including Salman Rushdie and Lidia Bastianich. This diversity continues this season as the FL will be hosting political writers, such as Jeffrey Toobin of The New Yorker, stars of the literature world, like Ann Patchett and Alice Sebold, and Philadelphia foodie favorites, Masaharu Morimoto and Ellen Yin.

This Tuesday’s speaker was Junot Díaz, the acclaimed author of Drown, a collection of short stories set in Santo Domingo and New Jersey, and the recently published, long awaited first novel, The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao (Riverhead; $24.95). Typically, author events are held in the auditorium of the central branch of the FL, at 20th and Vine Sts. According to Andy Kahn, director of FL events, the auditorium was booked Tuesday night so Díaz’s talk was moved to the Friends Select School at 17th and the Parkway. The audience was mixed and included some teenagers accompanied by their creative writing teacher, as well as Temple University’s Samuel Delany. Delany’s work clearly has influenced Díaz, as he frequently thanked the science-fiction acolyte for his literary contributions. Undoubtedly a working knowledge of this genre serves Díaz well in his current position as creative writing professor at M.I.T.

In the late-1990s, Díaz was a wunderkind, known for his venomous, angst-ridden prose; indeed, his narrators spoke a mixture of English and street-wise Spanish slang. Not surprisingly, the author’s dialogue mimicked his characters’ voices: it was full of piquant observations mixed with slang and profanity. However, Díaz also showed a gentle sweetness that is not palpable in his work. He encouraged the young writers in the audience to push themselves, though admitting, “I hate writing,” and “I’d rather be reading than writing.” He confessed to writing to satisfy his addiction to reading, something he described as an unconscious need. Díaz read two excerpts from his new novel; one was the introduction to Wildwood, an excerpt published in The New Yorker in which Díaz writes in the second person from a teenage girl’s perspective. Díaz was an affable, candid speaker who did not pretend to be an avatar of literature. Instead, he admitted he was a native Dominican who grew-up in New Jersey, appreciative of his upbringing but slowly emerging from negativity to succeed in something he loves.

Friends Select School
1651 Benjamin Franklin Pkwy, Philadelphia, PA 19103
(215) 561-5900
Friends Select online

Free Library of Philadelphia (Central branch)
1901 Vine Street, Philadelphia, PA 19103
Free Library of Philadelphia online

Junot Diaz
Riverhead Publishing (Penguin)