Junot Díaz wins National Book Critics Award for ‘Oscar Wao’
The Associated Press
NEW YORK – Stories from the island of Hispaniola were winners Thursday night at the National Book Critics Circle awards: Dominican-American Junot Díaz took the fiction prize for “The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao,” and Haitian Edwidge Danticat was cited in autobiography for “Brother, I’m Dying.”
Díaz, whose novel tells of a young, obese Dominican immigrant and his tragicomic quest for love, was on his way to Venezuela on Thursday night for personal reasons and his award was accepted by Sean McDonald of Riverhead Books.
He joked that “some distinct shouting” could probably be heard all the way from Caracas, or at least the muffled sounds of “the vestigial part of his brain being blown.”
The National Book Critics Circle, founded in 1974, has about 500 members. There were no cash prizes.
