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Author Junot Diaz has enjoyed a celebrated career that first began back in the mid-90’s and has culminated in countless awards and a position as a professor at MIT. However, Diaz has been dogged by allegations of sexual misconduct and harassment after several women have come forward in the past week.
Deadline reports:
Junot Díaz was appearing at the Sydney Writers Festival when he was confronted by one of his alleged victims, author Zinzi Clemmons. She later posted her account on Twitter.
The festival later announced that Diaz withdrew from his remaining sessions at the event. He sent a note to the New York Times through his literary agent Nicole Aragi, and said, “I take responsibility for my past.”
Clemmons said in her Twitter post that Díaz, who won the 2008 Pulitzer for The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao, kissed her without consent.
“As a grad student, I invited Junot Díaz to speak to a workshop on issues of representation in literature. I was an unknown wide-eyed 26 yo, and he used it as an opportunity to corner and forcibly kiss me. I’m far from the only one he’s done this 2, I refuse to be silent anymore,” Clemmons said in the tweet.
Diaz has yet to publicly comment on the allegations. MIT has announced that it will investigate Diaz’s conduct at the institution along with the allegations.
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