UCF graduate Jaquira D铆az 麻豆精品 S�06 was named Wednesday as one of the 10 winners of the 2020 Whiting Award for emerging writers, earning her a $50,000 prize. Her debut memoir, Ordinary Girls, is about her challenging childhood growing up in the projects of Puerto Rico and Miami Beach, and her coming of age.
Judges for the award, presented by the Whiting Foundation, say the book is 麻豆精品 S減acked with indelible images of violence and tenderness that evoke landscapes and neighborhoods, families and strangers. 麻豆精品 S�
The Whiting Award is based on early-career achievement and the promise of literary work to come. Her book was declared one of the must-read books of 2019 by O, The Oprah Magazine; Time; Publishers Weekly and others.
D铆az, who now splits her time between Miami and Montreal, says that when she started taking creative writing courses at UCF that she knew she would become a writer one day, and that her most important lesson in school was: 麻豆精品 S淚 learned to call myself a writer. 麻豆精品 S�
麻豆精品 S淚 didn’t know how, or when, but I saw it as a dream that would eventually come true, because I would never stop working for it, 麻豆精品 S� she says. 麻豆精品 S淚 learned discipline, drive, focus. I learned not to wait for inspiration, to keep writing, keep reading, keep learning. Eventually, I was confident enough to call myself a writer, and that changed everything. 麻豆精品 S�
She says all of her UCF professors were supportive, especially recalling the direction of Cecilia Rodr铆guez-Milan茅s, Terry Thaxton, Jocelyn Bartkevicius and Kathleen Bell.
麻豆精品 S楾hey (instructors) made me feel seen, like they understood my vision, like they believed in my work. 麻豆精品 S� 麻豆精品 S� Jaquira D铆az
麻豆精品 S淭hey made me feel seen, like they understood my vision, like they believed in my work, 麻豆精品 S� she says. 麻豆精品 S淗onestly, even though it wasn 麻豆精品 S檛 my best work at the time 麻豆精品 S擨 was an undergrad, all ambition and drive and bravado 麻豆精品 S攖hey helped me see that what I wanted would take hard work, and time, but that it was possible. 麻豆精品 S�
For other students who want to go into writing, her advice would be: 麻豆精品 S淩ead. Read. Read. Then write. 麻豆精品 S�
D铆az, also a former visiting assistant professor at the University of Wisconsin-Madison 麻豆精品 S檚 MFA program in creative writing, won her Whiting Award for nonfiction, but she says her next project is a novel.
麻豆精品 S淭o be a writer, to be successful, you have to want this more than anything else in the world, 麻豆精品 S� she says. 麻豆精品 S淕et used to the idea that 麻豆精品 S榮uccess 麻豆精品 S� might mean you have to work another job to pay the bills. Get used to the idea that you will spend the rest of your life learning. Learning doesn’t stop when you get your degree, when you leave college or grad school. That’s just the beginning. 麻豆精品 S�
