As part of The Writing Lives Series at the Heyman Center for the Humanities and the Center for the Study of Ethnicity and Race's Artist at the Center Series, author Junot Díaz will read from his work and discuss his writing. Díaz will be in discussion with Alondra Nelson, Professor of Sociology at Columbia, and Frances Negrón-Muntaner, Associate Professor of English and Comparative Literature at Columbia. 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.

All events are open to the public. Seating is first come, first served.

Note: Due to the large crowd expected at this event, please arrive early. The event space holds 400 people. We cannot exceed the room capacity for safety reasons and cannot let in any attendees over 400. Thank you for your understanding.