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Sarah Sunfire's avatar

Office Hours Question: You write engagingly about depression. How do you do that? Depression is brutally BORING to experience and hardly leaves one with much to report when in the grip of it, but when I read your descriptions of depression in fiction or nonfiction I feel invested. Is there a secret to writing depression in a way that leaves readers with something to grasp?

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Junot Díaz's avatar

sarah, thank you for your kind question. my awkward attempt to answer is incoming. please forgive any missteps.

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Sarah Sunfire's avatar

No forgiveness necessary! It's a beautiful piece and I'm grateful to have had a part in its existence.

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Daniela Clemens's avatar

God, that Imani Perry quote. How do office hours work? Is it zoom thing?

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Junot Díaz's avatar

you just post your question here in the comments or send me a substack message...

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Stephanie Thomas Montero's avatar

Thanks for sharing all that, particularly Toni Morrison's words. And as Bob Dylan said "you know and I know, the sun will always shine."

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Dean Drouchard's avatar

Hi there - Office Hours request! I am wondering if you wouldn’t mind doing a little deep dive on the Black Mirror episode “Nosedive” from Season 3? I have so much enjoyed your film and TV recommendations, and can’t help watching each of them and running them through the craft concepts you write about here. I feel as though Nosedive holds up in a lot of ways to the concepts you write about in here, and I would be curious as to your take? I am a creative writing teacher myself and I feel like this episode would be a worthy investigation in the classroom. My own instruction has benefited immensely from this Substack, and for that I would like to thank you! Thanks for considering this request too!

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Anna Schott's avatar

My Beautiful Laundrette is one of my favorite movies ever. Was so stoked to find Hanif Kureishi's writing on Substack.

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Julieta Holman's avatar

Genial. Gracias.

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