The Sun, the Moon, the Stars: Junot Díaz [graphic graphicname="TIF00020853" orient="portrait" size="A"]

In 1968, Junot Díaz was born into a barrio family and raised in Santo Domingo, the capital of the Dominican Republic. In 1975, he moved with his family to Perth Amboy, New Jersey, and later became a naturalized citizen of the United States. Díaz has held a variety of jobs, including copy shop assistant, dishwasher, steelworker, pool table delivery man, editorial assistant, and freelance writer. Díaz completed a bachelor of arts degree in literature and history at Rutgers University and a master of fine arts degree in creative writing at Cornell.

Díaz burst onto the literary scene with the publication of his short story collection Drown (Riverhead Books, 1996). The young author earned himself a six-figure advance that was unprecedented for someone who had...