Late December, two years ago, in a joint effort by the University of Copenhagen and the literary/cultural venue Literaturhaus, three American authors were slated to perform a reading followed by a Q&A at the University. Emmy Perez, Rick Moody, and finally Junot Díaz, the rather unknown (at least in Denmark) author of Drown, a collection of short stories published to great acclaim in 1996. The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao, his debut novel, had just been published, but Díaz was not yet a heavy figure within the literary world. Rather, he was a respected professor of creative writing at MIT. He was born in the Dominican Republic and moved to New Jersey at an early age. His writing mixes pop culture with social awareness in a somewhat diasporic context, all very hip, readable and entertaining.
I had heard of him but had yet to read any of his works, though both came highly recommended from several friends and fellow students. I was intrigued by the fact that a “new” author, one that I had heard of and wanted to read, was visiting the university, so I decided to go. When I got there only to find I was alone in waiting outside the auditorium, I started to get nervous. When a couple of girls showed up I started to relax again, only to find a man coming towards us, announcing that the whole thing had been called off. Too bad.
When I got home, I noticed one of my teachers commenting on the “Moody, Perez, Díaz” event on Facebook, and was fairly puzzled. Turns out the girls I was waiting with had shown up for some other event, which had been scheduled for the same time at the same place, and that it was that event that had been cancelled. Blame this on my gullibility, and on the guy not letting me know. Turns out the event went off well and everyone had a good time.
Fast forward, March 2009, Junot Díaz has won the Pulitzer Prize for The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao, which has now been translated into Danish. He is to give a reading at Louisiana, free entrance, reservations 10 DKR. I decide to take my younger brother, who has also read and liked both of Díaz’s outings. On the day of the reading, an email from Louisiana: Díaz is stuck in New York’s JFK due to a freak blizzard.
Two points here. One: Not enough literary things are happening within American literature in Denmark, since a public reading of a single author can get one (me) so worked up. Maybe these things are happening and I’m just not aware. Either way, info is sparse. Even at Literaturhaus, a literary venue at Nørrebro, they’ve had but two events on American literature. One was on the Beat Generation as part of the release of a Danish book on said subject, tied to a documentary on William S. Burrough’s visit to Copenhagen many years ago. This whole event was in Danish. The other event I did not attend: I didn’t know it was happening. One of my professors went. How he knew I never found out.
Two, and the reason I’m writing this: Let’s make something happen. The network here is an excellent opportunity to spread the word about events and ideas and opinions, and anything else. I will do what I can to scourge out interesting stuff, and I hope some of you will point me in the direction of something interesting and new as well.
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