Living Writers: Jaquira Diaz

Jaquira Díaz is the author of Ordinary Girls: A Memoir, winner of a Whiting Award, a Florida Book Awards Gold Medal, a Lambda Literary Awards finalist, an American Booksellers Association Indies Introduce Selection, a Barnes & Noble Discover Great New Writers Selection, an Indie Next Pick, a Library Reads pick, and finalist for the B&N Discover Prize. The recipient of a Letras Boricuas Fellowship, the Jeanne Córdova Prize for Lesbian/Queer Nonfiction, the Alonzo Davis Fellowship from VCCA, two Pushcart Prizes, an Elizabeth George Foundation grant, and fellowships from MacDowell, the Kenyon Review, the Wisconsin Institute for Creative Writing, and the Black Mountain Institute at UNLV, Díaz has written for The Atlantic, The Guardian, Time Magazine, T: The New York Times Style Magazine, and The Fader, and her stories, poems, and essays have been anthologized in The Best American Essays, The Breakbeat Poets Vol. 4: LatiNext, Best American Experimental Writing, and The Pushcart Prize anthology. Her debut novel, This Is the Only Kingdom, was longlisted for the Center for Fiction 2025 First Novel Prize. She lives in New York and teaches at Columbia University.

Diaz will visit Colgate as part of the 2026 Living Writers series. This event is co-sponsored by LGBTQ Studies.

This series is hosted by the Department of English and Creative Writing with generous support provided by the Parshley Christ Endowment for Living Writers, the Olive B. O'Connor Foundation, as well as the Offices of the Provost/Dean and the Office of the President.

If you are unable to attend the author visit, you can sign up to join virtually.

View the complete list of author visits.