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Oscar Hijuelos

 
American Author: Oscar Hijuelos
Home > Library > Literature & Language > American Authors

  • Born: August 24, 1951
  • Birthplace: New York, NY

Oscar Hijuelos was the first Hispanic American author to win the Pulitzer Prize for fiction for his second novel, Mambo Kings Play Songs of Love (1989). His first novel, Our House in the Last World, had already won several awards including the American Academy of Arts and Letters' Rome Prize, a fellowship from the National Endowment for the Arts and an Ingram-Merrill fellowship.

Hijuelos received both his bachelor's and master's degrees from the City University of New York and worked in an advertising agency at the same time as he began writing short stories. Some of the stories were eventually published in the Best of Pushcart Press III anthology in 1978. One of his first professional works, "Columbus Discovering America," received an outstanding writer citation from Pushcart Pressthat same year.

Mambo Kings Play Songs of Love, which was also nominated for a National Book Critics Circle Award in 1989, as well as the National Book Award from the National Book Foundation, was made into a movie starring Antonio Banderas and Armand Assante. In early September 2000, Hijuelos was honored at the Kennedy Center in Washington, D.C. as part of the National Hispanic Heritage Awards.

Most Famous Works

  • Our House in the Last World (1983)
  • The Mambo Kings Play Songs of Love (1989)
  • The Fourteen Sisters of Emilio Montez O'Brien (1993)
  • Empress of the Splendid Season (1999)
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Works: Works by Oscar Hijuelos
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(b. 1951)

1989The Mambo Kings Play Songs of Love. This novel pivots between the Cuban music scene of the 1940s and 1950s and its transplantation to New York City. Two brothers--the Mambo Kings--swing from their quest for stardom to adventures in love. Flamboyant and macho, they leave a legacy to the generation of the 1980s in the form of Eugenio, who carries on their cultural and musical mission. The author's stunning command of both English and Spanish and his narrative perspective make this an ambitious and challenging work, which earns the Pulitzer Prize and would be made into a motion picture. Born in New York City, Hijuelos published his first novel, Our House in the Last World (1983), about the assimilation challenges faced by a Cuban American family.
1993The Fourteen Sisters of Emilio Montez O'Brien. A succession of female narrators provides a wide-ranging history of an Irish Cuban family in Pennsylvania over the course of the twentieth century. It would be followed by Mr. Ives' Christmas (1995).
1999Empress of the Splendid Season. Hijuelos's fifth novel treats the life of Lydia España who is forced by her family to leave Cuba for New York City, where the former "queen of the conga line" finds herself a cleaning lady. She meets life's challenges with dignity and fortitude.

Wikipedia: Oscar Hijuelos
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Oscar Hijuelos

Born August 24, 1951
New York City
Occupation novelist
Nationality USA
Ethnicity Cuban American
Notable work(s) The Mambo Kings Play Songs of Love
Notable award(s) Pulitzer

Oscar Hijuelos (born August 24, 1951) is an American novelist. He is the first Hispanic to win a Pulitzer Prize for Fiction.

Hijuelos was born in New York City, in Morningside Heights, Manhattan, to Cuban immigrant parents. He attended the Corpus Christi School [1], public schools, and later attended Bronx Community College, Lehman College, and Manhattan Community College before matriculating into and studying writing at the City College of New York (B.A., 1975; M.A. in Creative Writing, 1976).[1] He then practiced various professions before taking up writing full time. His first novel, Our House in the Last World, was published in 1983 and received the 1985 Rome Prize, awarded by the American Academy in Rome. His second novel, The Mambo Kings Play Songs of Love, received the 1990 Pulitzer Prize for Fiction. It was adapted for the film The Mambo Kings in 1992 and as a Broadway musical in 2005.

Hijuelos has taught at Hofstra University and is currently affiliated with Duke University, where he is a member of the faculty of the Department of English.[2]

Contents

Bibliography

Major works

  • Our House in the Last World (1983)
  • The Mambo Kings Play Songs of Love (1990)
  • The Fourteen Sisters of Emilio Montez O'Brien (1993)
  • Mr. Ives' Christmas (1995)
  • Empress of the Splendid Season (1999)
  • A Simple Habana Melody (from when the world was good) (2002)
  • Dark Dude (2008)

Contributions

  • Preface, Iguana Dreams: New Latino Fiction, edited by Delia Poey and Virgil Suarez. New York, HarperPerennial, 1992.
  • Introduction, Cool Salsa: Bilingual Poems on Growing up Latino in the United States, edited by Lori M. Carlson. New York, Holt, 1994.
  • Introduction, The Cuban American Family Album by Dorothy and Thomas Hoobler. New York, Oxford University Press, 1996.
  • Contributor, Best of Pushcart Press III. Pushcart, 1978.
  • Contributor, You're On!: Seven Plans in English and Spanish, edited by Lori M. Carlson. New York, Morrow Junior Books, 1999.

Preceded by: Breathing Lessons by Anne Tyler (1989 winner)

Pulitzer Prize Winners for Fiction

Succeeded by: Rabbit At Rest by John Updike (1991 winner)

Notes

  1. ^ a b Carlson, Lori M.; and Hijuelos, Oscar, Red Hot Salsa : Bilingual Poems on Being Young and Latino in the United States, Macmillan, 2005. ISBN 0805076166. Cf. Introduction, p.xvi. "Once, while in the fourth grade at Corpus Christi School, I received a Valentine's card that said 'I think you're cute'. ..."
  2. ^ http://fds.duke.edu/db/aas/English/faculty/oh8

See also

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