‘I’m Nobody or I’m a Nation’

When Dominican-American author Junot Diaz's first short story collection, "Drown," was published in 1996, it was met with widespread acclaim, and the young author was heralded as the next big thing on the literary scene. But it took Diaz, 39, more than a decade to publish his follow-up. When his debut novel, "The Brief, Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao," was finally published last September, the naysayers were immediately silenced—a judgment confirmed again today when it was announced that Diaz had won this year's Pulitzer Prize for fiction (last month he won the National Book Critics Circle award for fiction as well). The novel, which has been optioned by Miramax Films, is a sharp tour de force in which Diaz creates his own language to explore some familiar themes: the immigrant experience, family dynamics and sex. Recently (pretty much halfway between winning his two awards) Diaz spoke to NEWSWEEK's Jesse Ellison about his difficult relationship with notoriety, the difficulty of getting out of an 11-year hole and why the Dominican experience is universal. Excerpts:

NEWSWEEK: I hear that you have a conflicted relationship with fame.
Junot Diaz: Yeah, I do a very good job at seeming comfortable with the little attention that writers get. But that's just a cover. I am a person who dreads any kind of public exposure and any kind of public event. I spend all day, if I have to do a reading, preparing.

Has it gotten any easier?
It's gotten worse actually. I'm sure I'm one of those undiagnosed people with social anxiety.

So are awards bittersweet?
Well, everybody likes to win. But what's really awe-inspiring is being in that company for five weeks. Who can dream of that? My whole life, I would never in my wildest dreams imagine that a book of mine would share the stage with all those writers.

You had your editor accept the award for you.
Yeah, they showed up. They had way more faith than me. I told them not to go. For real, they were pissed because I was like, "We're not going to win. Don't worry about it." The fact that they showed up was a bone of contention. I honestly think the people in my life have more faith in me than I do.

So 10 years ago you were the hot young writer. There was a lot of expectation placed on you. Was that a burden?
Someone said this to me and I love it: "Being a hot young short-story writer is like being a hot young up-and-coming pastry chef." Who really knows or cares in the real world? I think most of the pressure that was on was because of me. I drive myself crazy very well, thank you. Even if the first book had had no success, I would have driven myself crazy with the second one. But no, it didn't help people saying, "Hey, it's taken a long time for your book, do you think you can't write novels?" And every time I did a Q&A at a reading, there was always someone who was like, "So do you think you suck or what?"