Novelist Junot Diaz elected to Pulitzer board

[May 22, 2010]  NEW YORK (AP) -- Dominican-American novelist Junot Diaz (JOO'-noht DEE'-ahz) has been elected to serve on the Pulitzer board, which awards the most prestigious prizes in journalism.

Columbia University, which administers the prizes, made the announcement Thursday.

Diaz won the 2008 Pulitzer Prize for Fiction for "The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao." He teaches creative writing at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

Diaz was born in Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic, and immigrated to New Jersey as a child. He graduated with a degree in English from Rutgers University.

Pulitzer board members serve three-year terms. The board has 20 members - 18 voting and two nonvoting members.

Diaz is expected to judge in all Pulitzer categories, which include journalism, poetry, nonfiction and music.

[Associated Press]

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