Hernan Diaz (born 1973) is an Argentine-American writer. [1] His 2017 novel In the Distance was a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction, [2] as well as the PEN/Faulkner Award for Fiction. [3] He also received a Whiting Award. [4] For his second novel Trust , he was awarded the 2023 Pulitzer Prize for Fiction.
Diaz was born in Buenos Aires, Argentina. When he was two, his family moved to Sweden after the military coup. [5] His family returned to Argentina after democracy was restored in 1983. Diaz was interested in writing at an early age, and even "pretended" to write, showing his parents his "stories." [6] After obtaining a Licenciate degree in Literature (Licenciatura en Letras) in the University of Buenos Aires, Diaz moved to London to study an MA degree at King's College. [7]
Diaz moved to New York in 1999 for additional studies. He received his PhD from New York University, advised by Avital Ronell and Sylvia Molloy. He filed a dissertation on a topic that straddles comparative literature, Latin American literature, and philosophy. [8] [9] [10]
He lives in Brooklyn with his wife and daughter. [11]
Diaz has received fellowships from the New York Public Library's Cullman Center for Scholars and Writers, the Rockefeller Foundation Bellagio Center, MacDowell, Yaddo, and the Ingmar Bergman Estate. [8]
Diaz has published two novels, which have been published in more than 20 languages. [8] His essays and short stories have been published in The Paris Review , Granta , Playboy , The Yale Review , and McSweeney's .
Aside from his writing, he is the associate director of the Hispanic Institute for Latin American and Iberian Cultures at Columbia University, and serves as the managing editor of the Spanish-language journal Revista Hispánica Moderna . [12] [8]
In 2019, he won a Whiting Award, which provides "$50,000 each to ten diverse emerging writers of fiction, nonfiction, poetry, and drama." [4] The award is provided "based on the criteria of early-career achievement and the promise of superior literary work to come." [4]
His second novel, Trust, won the 2023 Pulitzer Prize for Fiction. It was longlisted for the 2022 Booker Prize. [13] It was also named one of the "10 Best Books of 2022" by The Washington Post [14] and The New York Times . [15]
Borges, Between History and Eternity was published by Continuum on August 2, 2012. The book considers "key aspects of Borges's work — the reciprocal determinations of politics, philosophy and literature; the simultaneously confining and emancipating nature of language; and the incipient program for a literature of the Americas." [16]
In the Distance was published on October 10, 2017 by Coffee House Press.
Publishers Weekly , [17] Feminist Press , [18] PANK, [19] and The Paris Review [20] named it one of the top books of 2017, and Literary Hub named it one of "The 20 Best Novels of the Decade." [21]
The book has received the following accolades:
Trust was published by Riverhead Books on May 3, 2022. It received the 2022 Kirkus Prize [25] and 2023 Pulitzer Prize for Fiction.
Karen Louise Erdrich is a Native American author of novels, poetry, and children's books featuring Native American characters and settings. She is an enrolled member of the Turtle Mountain Band of Chippewa Indians of North Dakota, a federally recognized tribe of Ojibwe people.
The Pulitzer Prize for Fiction is one of the seven American Pulitzer Prizes that are annually awarded for Letters, Drama, and Music. It recognizes distinguished fiction by an American author, preferably dealing with American life, published during the preceding calendar year.
The Pulitzer Prize for History, administered by Columbia University, is one of the seven American Pulitzer Prizes that are annually awarded for Letters, Drama, and Music. It has been presented since 1917 for a distinguished book about the history of the United States. Thus it is one of the original Pulitzers, for the program was inaugurated in 1917 with seven prizes, four of which were awarded that year. The Pulitzer Prize program has also recognized some historical work with its Biography prize, from 1917, and its General Non-Fiction prize, from 1962.
The National Book Awards (NBA) are a set of annual U.S. literary awards. At the final National Book Awards Ceremony every November, the National Book Foundation presents the National Book Awards and two lifetime achievement awards to authors. The National Book Awards were established in 1936 by the American Booksellers Association, abandoned during World War II, and re-established by three book industry organizations in 1950. Non-U.S. authors and publishers were eligible for the pre-war awards. Since then they are presented to U.S. authors for books published in the United States roughly during the award year.
Richard Powers is an American novelist whose works explore the effects of modern science and technology. His novel The Echo Maker won the 2006 National Book Award for Fiction. He has also won many other awards over the course of his career, including a MacArthur Fellowship. As of 2023, Powers has published thirteen novels and has taught at the University of Illinois and Stanford University. He won the 2019 Pulitzer Prize for Fiction for The Overstory.
Arch Colson Chipp Whitehead is an American novelist. He is the author of nine novels, including his 1999 debut The Intuitionist; The Underground Railroad (2016), for which he won the 2016 National Book Award for Fiction and the 2017 Pulitzer Prize for Fiction; and The Nickel Boys, for which he won the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction again in 2020, making him one of only four writers ever to win the prize twice. He has also published two books of nonfiction. In 2002, he received a MacArthur Fellowship.
Barbara Ellen Kingsolver is a Pulitzer Prize-winning American novelist, essayist, and poet. Her widely known works include The Poisonwood Bible, the tale of a missionary family in the Congo, and Animal, Vegetable, Miracle, a nonfiction account of her family's attempts to eat locally. In 2023, she was awarded the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction for the novel Demon Copperhead. Her work often focuses on topics such as social justice, biodiversity, and the interaction between humans and their communities and environments.
Chang-rae Lee is a Korean-American novelist and a professor of creative writing at Stanford University. He was previously Professor of Creative Writing at Princeton and director of Princeton's Program in Creative Writing.
Alice McDermott is an American writer and university professor. For her 1998 novel Charming Billy she won an American Book Award and the U.S. National Book Award for Fiction. She was shortlisted for the PEN/Faulkner Award for fiction.
Marilynne Summers Robinson is an American novelist and essayist. Across her writing career, Robinson has received numerous awards, including the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction in 2005, National Humanities Medal in 2012, and the 2016 Library of Congress Prize for American Fiction. In 2016, Robinson was named in Time magazine's list of 100 most influential people. Robinson began teaching at the Iowa Writers' Workshop in 1991 and retired in the spring of 2016.
Denis Hale Johnson was an American novelist, short-story writer, and poet. He is perhaps best known for his debut short story collection, Jesus' Son (1992). His most successful novel, Tree of Smoke (2007), won the National Book Award for Fiction. Johnson was twice shortlisted for the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction. Altogether, Johnson was the author of nine novels, one novella, two books of short stories, three collections of poetry, two collections of plays, and one book of reportage. His final work, a book of short stories titled The Largesse of the Sea Maiden, was published posthumously in 2018.
Ann Patchett is an American author. She received the 2002 PEN/Faulkner Award and the Orange Prize for Fiction in the same year, for her novel Bel Canto. Patchett's other novels include The Patron Saint of Liars (1992), Taft (1994), The Magician's Assistant (1997), Run (2007), State of Wonder (2011), Commonwealth (2016), The Dutch House (2019), and Tom Lake (2023). The Dutch House was a finalist for the 2020 Pulitzer Prize for Fiction.
Andrew Sean Greer is an American novelist and short story writer. Greer received the 2018 Pulitzer Prize for Fiction for his novel Less. He is the author of The Story of a Marriage, which The New York Times has called an "inspired, lyrical novel", and The Confessions of Max Tivoli, which was named one of the best books of 2004 by the San Francisco Chronicle and received a California Book Award.
Junot Díaz is a Dominican-American writer, creative writing professor at Massachusetts Institute of Technology, and a former fiction editor at Boston Review. He also serves on the board of advisers for Freedom University, a volunteer organization in Georgia that provides post-secondary instruction to undocumented immigrants. Central to Díaz's work is the immigrant experience, particularly the Latino immigrant experience.
Benjamin S. Lerner is an American poet, novelist, essayist, and critic. The recipient of fellowships from the Fulbright, Guggenheim, and MacArthur Foundations, Lerner has been a finalist for the National Book Award for Poetry, the National Book Critics Circle Award in fiction, and the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction, among many other honors. Lerner teaches at Brooklyn College, where he was named a Distinguished Professor of English in 2016.
Adam Johnson is an American novelist and short story writer. He won the Pulitzer Prize for his 2012 novel, The Orphan Master's Son, and the National Book Award for his 2015 story collection Fortune Smiles. He is also a professor of English at Stanford University with a focus on creative writing.
Elif Batuman is an American author, academic, and journalist. She is the author of three books: a memoir, The Possessed, and the novels The Idiot, which was a finalist for the 2018 Pulitzer Prize for Fiction, and Either/Or. Batuman is a staff writer for The New Yorker.
Tanaïs is an American fiction writer and perfumer. They are the founder of the Brooklyn-based beauty and fragrance company TANAÏS. They are of Bangladeshi descent.
In the Distance is a 2017 novel by writer and professor Hernán Diaz. The story recounts the life of Håkan, a Swedish emigrant who is separated from his brother on their journey to the United States in the mid-19th century. Penniless, Håkan travels across the American West, sometimes in very harsh conditions, with the goal of finding his brother in New York City.
Patricia Engel is a Colombian-American writer, professor of creative writing at the University of Miami, and author of five books, including Vida, which was a PEN/Hemingway Fiction Award Finalist and winner of the Premio Biblioteca de Narrativa Colombiana, Colombia's national prize in literature. She was the first woman, and Vida the first book in translation, to receive the prize.
Yo también soy un inmigrante. No nací en Estados Unidos; entré con una visa hace muchos y ahora soy ciudadano. Mi historia también es la de un inmigrante. [...] A los dos años me fui de Argentina y después volví. English: My story is the story of an immigrant too. I entered to USA with an Immigrant visa and now I'm naturalized citizen. [...] I was born and lived again in Argentina until I was two and then return after...