Events › 2023 Pulitzer Prize Winner Hernan Diaz

Chicago Public Library is pleased to present a conversation with Hernan Diaz, author the 2023 Pulitzer Prize winner for Fiction, Trust. 

Hernan Diaz is the Pulitzer Prize-winning author of two novels translated into thirty-four languages. He is the recipient of the John Updike award from the American Academy of Arts & Letters, given to “a writer whose contributions to American literature have demonstrated consistent excellence.”

His first novel, In the Distance, was a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize and the PEN/Faulkner Award, and it was the winner of the Saroyan International Prize, the Cabell Award, the Prix Page America, and the New American Voices Award, among other distinctions. It was also a Publishers Weekly Top 10 Book of the Year and one of Lit Hub’s 20 Best Novels of the Decade.

Trust, his second novel, received the Pulitzer Prize for fiction and was a New York Times bestseller, the winner of the Kirkus Prize, and longlisted for the Booker Prize, among other nominations. It was listed as a best book of the year by over thirty publications and named one of the 10 Best Books of the Year by The New York Times, The Washington Post, NPR, and Time magazine, and it was one of The New Yorker’s 12 Essential Reads of the Year. One of Barack Obama’s Favorite Books of 2022, Trust is currently being developed as a limited series for HBO.

Hernan Diaz’s stories and essays have appeared in The Paris Review, Harper’s, The Atlantic, Granta, The Yale Review, Playboy, McSweeney’s, and elsewhere. He has been awarded a Guggenheim Fellowship, a Whiting Award, and fellowships from the New York Public Library’s Cullman Center for Scholars and Writers, and The Rockefeller Foundation Bellagio Center.

Diaz holds a PhD from NYU, edits an academic journal at Columbia University, and is also the author of Borges, Between History and Eternity.

Hernan will be in conversation with Bill Johnson González. González is an Associate Professor in the English Department, Director of the Center for Latino Research at DePaul University, and the Editor in Chief of Diálogo, a peer reviewed journal of Latinx and Latin American Studies. His teaching and research interests include multilingualism in Latinx literature, Latinx film, and contemporary queer cultural production. He has published work on multilingualism in the Chicana novel in differences: a feminist journal, and on queer Chicano film in GLQ. He is the co-editor of Passing Lines: Sexuality and Immigration as well as of The Surprise of Otherness: A Barbara Johnson Reader, and is currently completing a translation of Aventuras de un bracero, the only novel known to have been written by a bracero.

How to Attend - In Person:

Doors to the Auditorium open at 5:30 p.m., and seating is first come, first served (350 capacity). Books are available for purchase, and the author will autograph books at the conclusion of the program.

Masks are strongly encouraged in all CPL locations. Questions about visiting the library? Check out our Using the Library FAQ.

How to Attend - Virtual:
This event will also take place live on CPL's YouTube channel and CPL's Facebook page. You'll be able to ask questions during the event as well! Can't make it to the live stream? We'll archive the video on YouTube to watch later.

Accessibility

Automatic captioning is available via Facebook and YouTube's closed captioning setting. Need sign language interpretation or other accessibility assistance for this event? Please call (312) 747-8184 or email access@chipublib.org to request accommodations. Requests must be made at least 14 business days before the event.