"Immersion in the life of the world, a willingness to be inhabited by and to speak for others, including those beyond the realm of the human, these are the practices not just of the bodhisattva but of the writer." --Jane Hirshfield

Sunday, March 24, 2013

A 'vivid' tale of underage lust

that won its author, Junot Diaz, £30,000, or $45,696 at the current exchange rate. We love Junot Diaz and we love his books, but WOW, that is a lotta money for a story. Here is Diaz on the story:
The author called "Miss Lora" a "challenging" story to write. "We tend, as a culture, to think of boys having underage sex quite differently to how we think of girls. I find that quite disturbing, and wanted to question the logic of that," he said. "If a boy has sex with his teacher, people under their breath are kind of high-fiving the kid. If a 16- or 15-year-old girl has sex with an older teacher – forget about it. No one's celebrating. That seemed really strange."
And here is the story. Miss Lora, at the New Yorker. Story of the prize at the Guardian. If the Brits take short stories more seriously than we do, well, jolly good show.

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