Pulitzer Winner Rules Out Sequel

EFE

Santo Domingo -- Dominican-born author Junot Diaz, winner of the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction for "The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao," on Thursday ruled out the possibility of writing a sequel to his debut novel, saying the task would be too daunting because of his slow pace of work.

The writer, who announced that a Spanish-language edition of the work will be released, told reporters it took him 11 years to finish the book - published last year - because it is "complicated" and he is "very slow."

He said he is prepared to take on new literary projects but that what he wants most is to survive the changes that have occurred in his life since winning the Pulitzer for the novel, a saga of Dominican immigrants in the United States.

The writer told reporters that the Pulitzer Prize produced "an enormous shock" in him and that, since receiving the honor, he leaves his home less frequently.

"An award like this can change one's life radically. I'm being careful about that," Diaz said during an event in his honor at the U.S. Embassy in Santo Domingo.

"There are people who receive a prize and a lot of money and they go crazy right away. I prefer how things were before the prize and to protect that life. I don't want a prize to affect my personality and make me crazy," he said.

Diaz also talked about the influence that St. Lucian Nobel literature laureate Derek Walcott, with whom he met here on Wednesday, has had on his development as a writer.

"I know all of (Walcott's) books. He's an impressive writer," said Diaz, who, though his family emigrated to the United States when he was 7, insists that he has not abandoned his Caribbean roots.

Now 39, Diaz is a professor of creative writing at Syracuse University and fiction editor for the Boston Review. Besides the Pulitzer, he has received the Pushcart Prize XXII, the Eugene McDermott Award and a Guggenheim Fellowship.

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