An illustration from Junot Díaz’s “Islandborn,” a picture book to be published next spring. (So exciting!)
Excerpt from recent NY Times article, “Islandborn” is a picture book — Mr. Díaz’s first work of fiction for young readers. It grew out of a promise that he made to his goddaughters two decades ago, when they asked him to write a book that featured characters like them, Dominican girls living in the Bronx.
“I’ve always had this over my head,” he said in a recent interview. “They asked me if I could write them something, and foolishly, I said yes.”
Mr. Díaz’s goddaughters are now in their late 20s, but he has finally delivered on his promise. Next spring, “Islandborn” will be published by Dial Books for Young Readers, with illustrations by Leo Espinosa.
Original Article published in the NY Times —> Next From the Novelist Junot Díaz? A Picture Book
about
Junot Díaz was born in the Dominican Republic and raised in New Jersey. He is the author of the critically acclaimed Drown; The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao, which won the 2008 Pulitzer Prize and the National Book Critics Circle Award; and This Is How You Lose Her, a New York Times bestseller and National Book Award finalist. He is the recipient of a MacArthur “Genius” Fellowship, PEN/Malamud Award, Dayton Literary Peace Prize, Guggenheim Fellowship, and PEN/O. Henry Award. A graduate of Rutgers College, Díaz is currently the fiction editor at Boston Review and the Rudge and Nancy Allen Professor of Writing at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.