Jaquira Díaz
Jaquira Díaz is a Puerto Rican fiction writer, essayist, journalist, cultural critic, and professor. She is the author of Ordinary Girls, which received a Whiting Award in Nonfiction, a Florida Book Awards Gold Medal, was a Lambda Literary Award Finalist, and a Barnes & Noble Discover Prize Finalist. She has written for The Atlantic, Time (magazine), The Best American Essays, Tin House, The Sun, The Fader, Rolling Stone, The Guardian, Longreads, [1] and other places. She was an editor at the Kenyon Review and a visiting professor at the University of Wisconsin–Madison.[2] In 2022, she held the Mina Hohenberg Darden Chair in Creative Writing at Old Dominion University's MFA program and a Pabst Endowed Chair for Master Writers at the Atlantic Center for the Arts. She has taught creative writing at Colorado State University's MFA program, Randolph College's low-residency MFA program, the University of Wisconsin-Madison, and Kenyon College. [3] Díaz lives in New York with her spouse, British writer Lars Horn, and is an Assistant Professor of Writing at Columbia University.[4]
Early life
Jaquira Díaz was born in Puerto Rico. Her family lived in the Puerto Rican housing projects, colloquially referred to as el caserío. The neighborhood was made up of government housing, and had something of a dangerous reputation. Díaz, in an interview she gave to Origins, tells stories of being menaced by a machete-armed man, and of raids by the local Police force, referred to as los camarones.[5] When she was older, her family moved to Miami. Growing up in Miami Beach during what she describes as the city's "urban blight,"[6][7] she had a difficult life, marked by drug use, attempts at suicide, and encounters with the law.[8][9] Díaz contributes some of her identity issues to being what she describes as "a closeted queer girl"[10] in a neighborhood where gay people were harassed and attacked. Another issue was the family's financial situation. Her father, who had studied at the University of Puerto Rico and whom she describes as a lover of poetry and literature, became a drug dealer in order to support the family.[11] As she grew older, writing continued to be an important outlet for her, and her writing developed a semi-autobiographical character, often dealing with suicide, drug use, and identity.[12]
Career
Díaz's fiction and essays, which are predominantly set in Puerto Rico and Miami, have been described as "lyrical" and "urgent" and are often focused on the intensely personal tragedies and triumphs of young women maturing in a dangerous world.[13] In addition to her literary writing, Díaz writes about crime, politics, sexuality, race, music, and culture, and has been described as an elegant prose stylist.[14] In 2017, Los Angeles Times critic Walton Muyumba listed Díaz as "part of a necessary cipher of extremely gifted freestylers" that includes writers Ta-Nehisi Coates, Isabel Wilkerson, Carol Anderson, Claudia Rankine, Terrance Hayes, Kiese Laymon, Rachel Kaadzi Ghansah, Junot Díaz, and Jelani Cobb,[15] and she was listed among Remezcla's "15 Latinx Music Journalists You Should be Reading"[16] and was included in NPR's Alt.Latino's Favorites: The Songs of 2017, as one of "the cream of the crop of Latinx music writers."[17] In 2018, Electric Literature's Ivelisse Rodriguez named her among the writers who "are changing the topography of Puerto Rican literature," describing Díaz's essays as being "about the awakening of sexual desire and the sexual threat all women experience."[18]
Díaz holds a B.A. from the University of Central Florida and an M.F.A. from the University of South Florida, and has been the recipient of fellowships from The Kenyon Review, the Wisconsin Institute for Creative Writing at the University of Wisconsin–Madison, the Ragdale Foundation, the Virginia Center for the Creative Arts, The MacDowell Colony, the Tin House Summer Writers' Workshop, the Bread Loaf Writers' Conference, the Sewanee Writers' Conference, and an NEA Distinguished Fellowship from the Hambidge Center for the Creative Arts and Sciences.[19] In 2022, she was awarded a Shearing Fellowship from the Berverly Rogers, Carol C. Harter Black Mountain Institute (BMI). [20]
In May 2018, Díaz announced that she had signed a two-book deal with Algonquin Books;[21] the first book, Ordinary Girls, a memoir, will be published by Algonquin on October 29, 2019, and will explore themes of girlhood in a dangerous world, and coming of age in the projects of Puerto Rico and the streets of Miami. The second book, I am Deliberate, will be a novel.[22][23]
Díaz teaches in the Writing program at Columbia University School of the Arts.
Selected works
- Memoirs
- Ordinary Girls (October 2019) ISBN 978-1616209131
- Essays
- "Ordinary Girls" in The Kenyon Review and The Best American Essays 2016
- "Girl Hood: On (Not) Finding Yourself in Books" in Her Kind, reprinted in Waveform: Twenty-first Century Essays by Women (Notable Essay in The Best American Essays 2014)
- "My Mother and Mercy" in The Sun (Notable Essay in The Best American Essays 2015)
- "Beach City" in Brevity and in Pushcart Prize XLII: Best of the Small Presses
- "Baby Lollipops" in The Sun (Notable Essay in The Best American Essays 2012)
- "Monster Story" in Ninth Letter (Notable Essay in The Best American Essays 2017)
- "How Memory is Written and Rewritten: On Adriana Paramo's My Mother's Funeral" in the Los Angeles Review of Books
- "Girls, Monsters" in Tin House (Reprinted in Best American Experimental Writing 2020).
- "You Do Not Belong Here" in the Kenyon Review Online (Notable Essay in The Best American Essays 2018).
- "La Otra" in Longreads (Notable Essay in The Best American Essays 2019).
- Short stories
- "A Fairy Tale Set in Florida, in 10 Parts" in T: The New York Times Style Magazine, in collaboration with Laura van den Berg, Lindsay Hunter, Karen Russell, Alissa Nutting, Andrew Holleran, Lauren Groff, Diana Abu-Jaber, Sarah Gerard, and Jeff VanderMeer.
- "Section 8" in The Southern Review and Pushcart Prize XXXVII: Best of the Small Presses
- "Ghosts" in The Kenyon Review (received Special Mention in Pushcart Prize XL: Best of the Small Presses, and Notable Story in The Best American Nonrequired Reading 2014)
- "December" in Salon, as part of the Two-sentence Holiday Fiction feature
- Other work
- "Who Is the Real Kali Uchis?" Archived 2019-02-02 at the Wayback Machine in The Fader[dead link]
- "Inside the Brutal Baby Lollipops Murder Case that Shook South Florida" Archived 2017-12-15 at the Wayback Machine in Rolling Stone
- "Puerto Rico's Last Political Prisoner" in The Guardian
- "Rescue From Dead Dog Beach" in The Guardian 26 October 2015
Awards and honors
- 2023 Jeanne Córdova Prize for Lesbian/Queer Nonfiction[24]
- 2023 Shearing Fellowship[25]
- 2022 Alonzo Davis Fellowship[26]
- 2020 Whiting Award in Nonfiction for Ordinary Girls
- 2020 Florida Book Awards Gold Medal for Ordinary Girls[27]
- 2020 Lambda Literary Award Finalist in Lesbian Memoir for Ordinary Girls[28]
- 2019 Discover Prize Finalist, Ordinary Girls[29]
- 2019 Barnes & Noble Discover Great New Writers Selection, Ordinary Girls[30]
- 2019 Indie Next Pick, Ordinary Girls
- 2019 Indies Introduce Selection, Ordinary Girls
- 2017 Pushcart Prize for "Beach City"
- 2017 Reynolds Price Short Fiction Award for "Carraízo[31]
- 2016 The Krause Essay Prize Finalist for "Ordinary Girls"[32]
- 2014 Summer Literary Seminars Award in Nonfiction for "Ordinary Girls"
- 2012 Pushcart Prize for "Section 8"
References
- ^ Ruiz, Matthew Ismael (16 October 2017). "15 Latinx Music Journalists You Should Be Reading". Remezcla. Retrieved 16 December 2017.
- ^ "Kenyon Review Newsletter, September 2018". Kenyon Review. 1 September 2018. Retrieved 5 November 2018.
- ^ "Black Mountain Institute Announces 2022-23 Fellows". University of Nevada, Las Vegas. 12 September 2022. Retrieved 26 September 2022.
- ^ "Jaquira Díaz". Black Mountain Institute. 15 August 2022. Retrieved 2022-09-27.
- ^ MacCauley, Jennifer Maritza (5 March 2016). "Life, Story, Action: Jaquira Díaz". Origins. Retrieved 16 December 2017.
- ^ "Ask a Local: Jaquira Díaz, Miami Beach, FL". The Common. 30 July 2015. Retrieved 17 December 2017.
- ^ Martinez, Nicole (17 September 2015). "15 Views of Miami, as told by Jaquira Díaz". The New Tropic. Retrieved 11 January 2018.
- ^ Martinez, Nicole (17 September 2015). "15 Views of Miami, as told by Jaquira Díaz". The New Tropic. Retrieved 11 January 2018.
- ^ "The Kenyon Review Conversations: Jaquira Díaz". The Kenyon Review. 1 November 2015. Retrieved 17 December 2017.
- ^ Seriously Entertaining: Jaquira Díaz on "Other Side of Reason", February 2021, retrieved 2023-02-16
- ^ Philyaw, Deesha. "VISIBLE: Women Writers of Color: Jaquira Díaz". Retrieved 16 December 2017.
- ^ MacCauley, Jennifer Maritza (5 March 2016). "Life, Story, Action: Jaquira Díaz". Origins. Retrieved 16 December 2017.
- ^ Philyaw, Deesha (17 August 2016). "VISIBLE: Women Writers of Color: Jaquira Díaz". The Rumpus. Retrieved 16 December 2017.
- ^ Peña, Daniel. "Las Damas: The New Generation of Latina Writers". Ploughshares. Retrieved 16 December 2017.
- ^ Muyumba, Walton (29 September 2017). "Ta-Nehisi Coates blazes a singular intellectual path in 'We Were Eight Years in Power'". Los Angeles Times. Retrieved 16 December 2017.
- ^ Ruiz, Matthew Ismael (16 October 2017). "15 Latinx Music Journalists You Should Be Reading". Remezcla. Retrieved 16 December 2017.
- ^ Contreras, Felix (21 December 2017). "Alt.Latino's Favorites: The Songs of 2017". NPR.org (Alt.Latino). Retrieved 23 December 2017.
- ^ Rodriguez, Ivelisse (August 15, 2018). "16 Puerto Rican Women and No-binary Writers Telling New Stories". Electric Literature.
- ^ "The Kenyon Review Fellowships History". Kenyon Review. Retrieved 2017-12-16.
- ^ "Black Mountain Institute Announces 2022–23 Fellows". University of Nevada, Las Vegas. 2022-09-09. Retrieved 2022-09-27.
- ^ Díaz, Jaquira (22 May 2018). "For the last ten years, I've been writing a book about girls. A few months ago, my fierce and wonderful agent, @michellebrower said, "Tell me your dreams, and I will work to make them come true." And then she did. I can't wait to share this book with you". Twitter. Retrieved 2018-11-07.
- ^ Musgrave-Johnson, Devon (September 15, 2016). "Meet the New KR Fellows, Margaree Little and Jaquira Diaz". Kenyon Collegian.
- ^ Rodriguez, Ivelisse (August 15, 2018). "16 Puerto Rican and Non-binary Writers Telling New Stories". Electric Literature.
- ^ "Jaquira Díaz Wins 2023 Jeanne Córdova Prize in Lesbian/Queer Nonfiction". Lambda Literary. 7 June 2023. Retrieved 7 June 2023.
- ^ "Black Mountain Institute Announces 2022-2023 Fellows". Black Mountain Institute at UNLV. 20 September 2022. Retrieved 7 June 2023.
- ^ "Jaquira Díaz Awarded 2022 Alonzo Davis Fellowship". VCCA. 15 Nov 2022. Retrieved 7 June 2023.
- ^ "Paul Wilborn Takes Gold Medal in Florida Book Awards". Tampa Bay Times. 5 March 2020. Retrieved 12 March 2020.[dead link]
- ^ "These Are The Finalists for the 2020 Lambda Literary Awards". The Oprah Magazine. 10 March 2020. Retrieved 12 March 2020.
- ^ "Adam, Young Win B&N Discover Awards". Publishers Weekly. 31 January 2020. Retrieved 22 March 2020.
- ^ "Adam, Young Win B&N Discover Awards". Publishers Weekly. 31 January 2020. Retrieved 22 March 2020.
- ^ "2017 International Literary Award Winners". The Center for Women Writers. 1 August 2017. Retrieved 16 December 2017.
- ^ "The Essay Prize 2016 Nominees". The Essay Prize. 1 October 2016. Archived from the original on 2 June 2018. Retrieved 1 December 2017.
External links
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- Official website