For the Season Finale of Season 2, we are running Shorts a bit differently. We're reading, “The Cheater’s Guide to Love,” by Junot Diaz published in the New Yorker in 2012. It is also the final story in Diaz’s 2012 short story collection, This is How You Lose Her, which was a finalist for the US national book award. However today, we're discussing the relationship between the reader and the writer. Today we will be focusing on the tricky and murky question of: how do the actions of a writer impact your reading of their work?

Sources for this episode:

Alcantara, Amanda. “Junot and Me (Too)” Latino USA. June 18, 2018. PRX/ Futuro Media Group. National Public Radio. https://www.latinousa.org/2018/06/22/junotdiazandmetoo/
De Leon, Aya. Reconciling Rage and Compassion: the Unfolding #MeToo Moment for Junot Diaz
Diaz, Junot. "The Silence: The Legacy of Childhood Trauma." The New Yorker. April 16, 2018.
Fassler, Joe. “How Junot Diaz Wrote a Sexist Character, but Not a Sexist Book.” The Atlantic. September 11, 2012. https://www.theatlantic.com/entertainment/archive/2012/09/how-junot-diaz-wrote-a-sexist-character-but-not-a-sexist-book/262169/
Gil’Adí, Maia. “I think about you, X—”: Re‐Reading Junot Díaz after “The Silence” Latino Studies (2020) 18:507–530; https://doi.org/10.1057/s41276-020-00280-6
Grady, Constance. A month after accusations of sexual misconduct, Junot Díaz is more or less unscathed, by Constance Grady, June 19, 2018. Vox
Heredia, Alejandro. @Heredia_Alej, twitter thread from October 15, 2021
NPR, June 20, 2018 :” MIT Clears Junot Díaz Of Sexual Misconduct Allegations.” https://www.npr.org/2018/06/20/622094905/mit-clears-junot-diaz-of-sexual-misconduct-allegations
Shapiro, Lila. “Misogyny is Boring as Hell.” Vulture. https://www.vulture.com/2018/06/misogyny-is-boring-carmen-maria-machado.html

The Gift of the Magi

Shorts.By Shorts the PodcastDec 19, 2022