Oscar Hijuelos

**Oscar Jerome Hijuelos** (August 24, 1951 – October 12, 2013) was an American novelist. He is the first Hispanic to win a Pulitzer Prize for Fiction.

## Early life and education

Hijuelos was born in New York City, in Morningside Heights, Manhattan. His parents were Cuban immigrants. He studied at the Corpus Christi School in Morningside Heights. Later, he attended Bronx Community College, Lehman College, and Manhattan Community College. He studied writing at the City College of New York and earned two degrees in Creative Writing there: his B.A. in1975 and M.A. in 1976. He had several jobs before becoming a full-time writer.

## Writing career

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.

## Teaching career

Hijuelos has taught at Hofstra University. He is a faculty member in the Department of English at Duke University.

## Death

Hijuelos collapsed due to a heart attack while playing tennis in Manhattan and never regained consciousness. He was 62 and is survived by his wife Lori Marie Carlson.

### 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)
- _Beautiful Maria of my Soul_ (2010)

### 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.

## Other websites

- Perales, Contreras Jaime and Lozano, Tovar Wendolyn. "Two Pulitzer Prize (Junot Diaz and Oscar Hijuelos) Talk to Literal Magazine"
- Oscar Hijuelos Papers at the Rare Book & Manuscript Library at Columbia University
- Oscar Hijuelos's page  at HarperCollins
- Biography of Oscar Hijuelos from Thomson Gale
- 1990 Real Audio interview with Oscar Hijuelos at Wired for Books.org  by Don Swaim

## Infobox (writer)

- **image**: Hijuelos.jpg
- **imagesize**: 250px
- **name**: Oscar Jerome Hijuelos
- **birth date**: August 24, 1951
- **birth place**: New York City, United States
- **death place**: New York City, United States
- **occupation**: Novelist
- **nationality**: American
- **alma mater**: City College of New York
- **education**: B.A.; M.A. English
- **period**: 1983–2013
- **genre**: Cuban/American, Hispanic and Latino Americans, Latino: fiction and memoirs
- **language**: English
- **notableworks**: _The Mambo Kings Play Songs of Love_ (1989)
- **spouse**: Lori Marie Carlson
- **awards**: Rome Prize (American Academy in Rome) (1985)
- Pulitzer Prize (1990)
- Hispanic Heritage Award for Literature (2000)