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One of the coolest things that ever happened to me was I got to participate in a creative writing workshop with Junot Diaz. My girlfriend was in the class also, which was the first time we had a class together. We had been living together for a little while, and even though we were very much in love at the time, whe would do certain shit that really got on my nerves, like for example always being late (as in over an hour late!) for everything. So on the first day of class, she came in (predictably) late, and he said something, I forget what, and made her cry. I remember being bummed because I was going to have to deal with the emotional fallout of this after class, but at the same time vindicated, because he finally said what I never had the guys to say.

My favorite memories of Junot are of him pleading with students to see a particular point of view, to demonstate it, cries of exultation when they did, his cursing, frustrated stammering, or a telling smile and tilt of the head while he was waiting for someone to finish saying something really stupid. To him, writing was as alive as the most current trend in street art, and that energy was -- out of all his lessons -- the one I took to heart the most.

I taught several of the stories from "Drown" in my 10th and 11th grade English classes over at Garfield, and remember them as being some of the more successful experients I undertook while working there. Although they're all connected (and I think "Fiesta, 1980" is the one for which he won the most honors), the story "Ysrael" is my favorite.