Junot Diaz, the Dominican-born author of “Drown” (1997) short stories and “The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao” (2008) has won another prestigious award. He has just received the 30,000 British pounds for the London Sunday Times EFG Private Bank Short Story Award 2013. The cash award is described as the world’s most lucrative award granted for a single short story.
The short story is “Miss Lora”. It is written in Spanglish and talks about a relationship between a high school age boy and an older woman in the 1980s in New Jersey. Judge and novelist Andrew O’Hagan called it a “contemporary classic”.
In celebrating the award, Nestor Montilla, chairman of the Dominican American National Roundtable says: “With this story, Junor proves once more that he is indeed one of the best and most successful writers of our time.”
Junot Diaz is also a MacArthur Genius Grant recipient. Read more on the award at
http://www.thesundaytimes.co.uk/sto/Magazine/stefg/article1232111.ece
http://www.thesundaytimes.co.uk/sto/culture/books/fiction/article1232391.ece
http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2013/mar/22/junot-diaz-wins-short-story-prize?INTCMP=SRCH
guardian.co.uk