In this episode, we speak with novelist Phillippe Diederich about his coming-of-age book Diamond Park, published by Penguin Random House. The young adult novel contemplates fathers, agency, and escape.
Four Houston teens, Flaco, Tiny, Susi, and Magaña travel to the fictional Texas town of Diamond Park to purchase a dream car. Magaña has a lead that the used car is for sale for only $1,000. But this day would change their lives forever.
Diederich writes:
"Magaña says, 'I found a car. No. No. No. I found the car. 1959 Chevy Impala Convertible.'
A 1959 Impala is a one-off model. The most unique Chevy ever built. Car looks like a spaceship. It was the only year it came with the tear-drop lights under the folded tail fins. And convertible?
'My old man said my godfather's got one in a barn in Diamond Park.'"
Phillippe Diederich is the author of the MG novel, Lalo Lespérance Never Forgot; the YA novels, Diamond Park and Playing for the Devil’s Fire, which was named the 2017 Best Young Adult novel by the Texas Institute of Letters, and 2017 Young Adult Library Services Association Best Fiction for Young Adults. He is also the author of the adult novel, Sofrito, published by Cinco Puntos Press.
The son of Haitian exiles, Diederich was born in the Dominican Republic and raised in Mexico City and Miami. Before turning to fiction, he worked as a photojournalist covering news and feature assignments in the U.S. and Latin America for national publications. He received his MFA in Creative Writing from the University of Florida in 2015.
In 2017 he was awarded the PEN Phyllis Naylor Working Writer Fellowship. His short fiction has been nominated for four Pushcart Prizes and is the recipient of the Chris O’Malley Prize for Fiction from the Madison Review, an Elizabeth George Foundation Grant, and a Florida Individual Artist Fellowship in Literature from the Florida Department of Cultural Affairs.
Thank you to actors Nishna Esparza and Hector Balda Jaime for sharing their voices.
Thank you to Jaime Barreto for the background music and to Ancient River for the song "Fugitive" shared with this episode.
Ancient River is the sonic brainchild of Jaime Barreto. Founded in Gainesville, Florida in 2007. Ancient River has released 13 albums ranging in styles from Americana to loud psychedelic rock and has recorded for multiple different labels including Sony and EMI. Ancient River is currently based out of Los Angeles, California.
In addition, a special thanks to Apache O'Raspi for sharing a song.
Generous funding for Arts & Letters Radio is provided by Arkansas Humanities Council and the National Endowment for the Humanities, and from listeners like you.
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Executive Producer and Host: J. Bradley Minnick
Senior Producer: Mary Ellen Kubit
Episode Producer: Jaime Barreto
Master: Mike Montegomery, Candyland Studios
Music by: Ancient River and Apache O'Raspi
