Junot Díaz, winner of the 2008 Pulitzer Prize for Fiction for his debut novel,
The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao, and Rawi Hage, whose second novel
Cockroach is currently shortlisted for both the Rogers Writers' Trust and Scotiabank Giller Prize, are interviewed by Rachel Giese. Catherine Belyea hosts.
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Catherine Belyea is a broadcaster whose career in private radio and at the CBC has centred on music and the arts. This is the 13th year she has hosted readings and interviews at the IFOA.
2008 Pulitzer Prize-winner Junot Díaz’s fiction has been published in the New Yorker, the Paris Review, and The Best American Short Stories.
Rachel Giese has worked as a host on BookTelevision and as a producer for CBC Arts Online. She has interviewed dozens of authors for print and broadcast, including Ian McEwan, David Bezmozgis, Jeanette Winterson, Joseph Boyden, P.D. James, Barbara Gowdy and David Mitchell. Currently, she is a senior editor at Chatelaine magazine.
Rawi Hage was born in Beirut, Lebanon, and later immigrated to Canada. His first book, De Niro’s Game, recently won the International IMPAC Dublin Literary Award, the world’s richest literary prize. Hage presents Cockroach. Set in Montreal, it follows a self-described “thief” who has just tried but failed to commit suicide. Rescued against his will, he is obliged to attend sessions with a well-intentioned but naïve therapist who leads him to recount his violent childhood in a war-torn country.
