I’m not sure other readers will see ambiguity in the sentence, but the line stuck out to me for whatever reason. Diaz could be referring to people such as prostitutes who do indeed get naked for a living.
Diaz could be making use of the “like a pro” idiom.
About halfway in, the narrator describes Miss Lora by saying, “She gets naked like a pro.” I could think of at least two meanings for the sentence: Diaz’s lines made me stop and consider what he meant. Diaz is doing what I call the “flood and release.” The reader is given some highly emotional content…and then the narrative jumps, providing the reader with time to digest and contextualize the narrator’s unique situation.Īt least one of Mr. The first three sections increase in length Mr. The narrator has some kind of interesting sexual affair and his brother is dead and he’s very in love (sexual and otherwise) and his current girlfriend isn’t quite fitting the bill. After establishing that the bulk of the narrative will take place in the past (“Years later,”), Mr. Years later, you try to track Miss Lora down. One of your college girlfriends tries to confront Miss Lora for sexually abusing you, but Miss Lora never enters the door. Miss Lora gets a better job, you and Paloma go to different colleges. That’s why you start sleeping with Miss Lora, a teacher who is so skinny that she “made Iggy Pop look chub.” Miss Lora makes you cheeseburgers and “gets naked like a pro.” Time goes on. Your girlfriend Paloma is the “only Puerto Rican girl on the earth who wouldn’t give up the ass for any reason.” Why? She doesn’t want to make any “mistakes” that would prevent her from going to college and succeeding in life. You are a young Dominican man whose brother has recently died. Here are my thoughts about the Junot Diaz story, “Alma.”Įlement of Craft We’re Stealing: Exposition Writer and critic Charles May shares some thoughts about “Miss Lora.” You may or may not agree with them, but you should enjoy the discussion. You will also find the story in the 2013 edition of Best American Short Stories.īonuses: Very cool! The Brooklyn Academy of Music commissioned Nathan Gelgud to adapt “Miss Lora” into the form of the graphic novel. You will also find the story in his collection This is How You Lose Her.
#Junot diaz short stories for free
As of this writing, the story is available for free on the New Yorker web site. Henry Award.Ĭurrently the Rudge and Nancy Allen Professor of Writing at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and fiction editor at Boston Review, Díaz received his Bachelors degree from Rutgers University and a Master of Fine Arts from Cornell University.Title of Work and its Form: “Miss Lora,” short story Author: Junot Diaz Date of Work: 2012 Where the Work Can Be Found: The story debuted in the Apissue of The New Yorker. He is the recipient of the MacArthur “Genius” Fellowship, the PEN/Malamud Award, the Dayton Literary Peace Prize, a Guggenheim Fellowship, and the PEN/O. A dozen years later, he won the Pulitzer Prize for his first novel, The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao, which was cited for its use of “raw, vernacular dialogue and spare, unsentimental prose to draw readers into the various and distinct worlds that immigrants must straddle.” His latest book, This Is How You Lose Her, another collection of short stories, is a finalist for a 2012 National Book Award.ĭíaz’s writing has appeared in magazines and anthologies including The New Yorker, The Paris Review, and Best American Short Stories. Born in Santo Domingo and raised in New Jersey, Díaz’s writing offers powerful insight into the struggle and personal growth of leaving a culture and homeland behind.ĭíaz’s debut book, Drown, a collection of short stories, was published in 1996. Junot Díaz is a Dominican-American Pulitzer Prize-winning author whose fiction is celebrated for its distinct voice, “addictive prose,” and unique ability to capture the contemporary American immigrant experience.
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