Links, links, links

Junot Díaz; photo by Lily Oei from the Village Voice

- In the Village Voice, James Hannaham reviews the new Junot Díaz novel, The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao–his first book since Drown, ten years ago:

...as Zadie Smith called her White Teeth, Oscar Wao is a bit of a "hyperactive ginger-haired 10-year-old"—though Díaz's book is definitely a moreno. Its rapid-fire, profane, and hilarious voice recalls one of John Leguizamo's monologues, Mambo Mouth or Spic-O-Rama, underscored with footnotes lampooning the political and social history of the Dominican Republic under Trujillo, the DR's Latin-style Kim Jong Il.

(Small point of correction: in his opening paragraph, Hannaham describes Derek Walcott as Trinidadian. I’m sure his St. Lucian readers won’t be amused.)

- At Harriet, the Poetry Foundation blog, the energetic Kwame Dawes writes about his dislike of obscurity for its own sake in poetry; the links between truth and fiction in literature; and his memories of eating porridge in his grandfather’s house in Lome.

- Reading a book about the American Civil War leads Pamela Mordecai to contemplate the immense responsibilities of teachers.

- Tumelo Mosaka of the Brooklyn Museum talks about Infinite Island on the Leonard Lopate Show on New York Public Radio.

- And the 2007 Antigua and Barbuda Independence Homecoming Literary Arts Competition is now open, “to all published and non-published writers”, according to an article in the Antigua Sun.