Author Junot Diaz Accused Of Sexual Misconduct
May 4, 2018, 3:58 p.m.
Several women have come forward to accuse Pulitzer Prize-winning author Junot Diaz of sexual misconduct and verbal abuse.
via <a href="http://www.junotdiaz.com/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">his website</a>
Several women have come forward to accuse Pulitzer Prize-winning author Junot Diaz of sexual misconduct and verbal abuse.
Those women include author Zinzi Clemmons, whose 2017 debut novel What We Lose landed her on the National Book Foundation's "5 Under 35" list. Clemmons wrote in a series of tweets last night about her experience with Diaz: "As a grad student, I invited Junot Diaz 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..."
Clemmons, who teaches writing at Occidental College, wrote. She continued:
As a grad student, I invited Junot Diaz 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.
— zinziclemmons (@zinziclemmons) May 4, 2018
I told several people this story at the time, I have emails he sent me afterward (*barf*). This happened and I have receipts.
— zinziclemmons (@zinziclemmons) May 4, 2018
I've basically avoided literary functions and posted no photos of myself online in order to avoid people like Diaz and Stein (who I have my own set of terrible stories about as well). I'm sick of these talentless assholes dictating my life. No more.
— zinziclemmons (@zinziclemmons) May 4, 2018
Clemmons's tweets prompted other female authors to come forward about Diaz's behavior, including Monica Byrne, who described her encounter with him:
I was 32 and my first novel hadn’t come out yet. I was invited to a dinner and sat next to him. I disagreed with him on a minor point. He shouted the word “rape” in my face to prove his. It was completely bizarre, disproportionate, and violent. https://t.co/WQr0hLW8Z5
— Monica Byrne (@monicabyrne13) May 4, 2018
The dinner just got worse from there. I’ve never experienced such virulent misogyny. Every point I made—ABOUT issues women face in publishing—he made a point of talking over me, cutting me off, ignoring me to talk to the other (male) scifi writer at the table, who played along.
— Monica Byrne (@monicabyrne13) May 4, 2018
He didn’t physically assault me. But shouting the word “rape” in my face after knowing me for maybe ten minutes is absolutely verbal sexual assault. I left that dinner halfway through.
And I’d sat down so excited to meet one of my literary heroes.— Monica Byrne (@monicabyrne13) May 4, 2018
Author Carmen Maria Machado, whose novel Her Body and Other Parties was a National Book Award finalist, shared a similar story about her run-in with him during a book tour Q&A: "What really struck me was how quickly his veneer of progressivism and geniality fell away; how easily he slid into bullying and misogyny when the endless waves of praise and adoration ceased for a second."
During his tour for THIS IS HOW YOU LOSE HER, Junot Díaz did a Q&A at the grad program I'd just graduated from. When I made the mistake of asking him a question about his protagonist's unhealthy, pathological relationship with women, he went off for me for twenty minutes. https://t.co/7wuQOarBIJ
— Carmen Maria Machado (@carmenmmachado) May 4, 2018
When I suggested that maybe my question had been answered, and he move on to someone else's question, he refused. He told me he was leaning on me to explain myself, which is what he did with his students. (Never mind that I wasn't his student, or a student at all.)
— Carmen Maria Machado (@carmenmmachado) May 4, 2018
And this happened in a room full of people! There's a recording! He was not embarrassed about his behavior at all. A friend of mine was so stressed out from the whole interaction that she texted me saying she'd have to leave so she could go home and take a Xanax.
— Carmen Maria Machado (@carmenmmachado) May 4, 2018
I'd obviously struck a nerve, though I didn't understand precisely how. Because even if his book contained autobiographical material, I knew that reacting to a reader's criticism this way—confusing yourself for the character—was amateur hour. I knew it even then.
— Carmen Maria Machado (@carmenmmachado) May 4, 2018
And, like, I was raised with weird Latinx gender shit that I'm still trying to unload and unpack. I know what it looks like. Nothing that I'm describing is particularly novel or unusual. It's just how certain men assert their power.
— Carmen Maria Machado (@carmenmmachado) May 4, 2018
So, Junot Díaz can talk all he wants about writing books that interrogate masculinity, but that's all it is: talk. His books are misogynist trash and folks either don't see it (which disturbs me) or won't acknowledge it (which disturbs me for different reasons).
— Carmen Maria Machado (@carmenmmachado) May 4, 2018
Junot Díaz is a widely lauded, utterly beloved misogynist. His books are regressive and sexist. He has treated women horrifically in every way possible. And the #MeToo stories are just starting. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
— Carmen Maria Machado (@carmenmmachado) May 4, 2018
The accusations come a month after Diaz—who is the author of books including The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao, the short story collection This Is How You Lose Her and the recent children's book, Islandborn—wrote a personal piece for The New Yorker about being sexually abused as a child. "I was raped when I was eight years old," he wrote in that piece. "By a grownup that I truly trusted. After he raped me, he told me I had to return the next day or I would be ‘in trouble.’ And because I was terrified, and confused, I went back the next day and was raped again." In that piece, he talked obliquely about how the legacy of that abuse got passed down into his adult relationships, noting, "I think about the hurt I caused."
His accusers believe he may have been trying to cynically get in front of the narrative about his behavior, much like Kevin Spacey came out of the closet as part of his sexual misconduct apology.
I read that piece and thought: Did no one at @NewYorker think to ask him what “I hurt people” might mean? Fucking really? In this era?
— Monica Byrne (@monicabyrne13) May 4, 2018
Yes. And so do many of my colleagues. https://t.co/iEzXb1YYy0
— zinziclemmons (@zinziclemmons) May 4, 2018
Byrne also told New York magazine's The Cut, “Is it my opinion that he knew that this was coming for him and he wanted to get out ahead of it? Absolutely."
In a statement to the NY Times, sent through his literary agent Nicole Aragi, Diaz didn't go into detail about the allegations, but said, "I take responsibility for my past. That is the reason I made the decision to tell the truth of my rape and its damaging aftermath. This conversation is important and must continue. I am listening to and learning from women’s stories in this essential and overdue cultural movement. We must continue to teach all men about consent and boundaries."
