Pulitzer Prize-winning author Junot Diaz has an alleged history of sexual misconduct and abuse, according to multiple personal accounts being shared on Twitter on Friday.
https://twitter.com/KaivanShroff/status/992384725187735552
Zinzi Clemmons, author of What We Lose, accused Diaz of cornering and forcibly kissing her after she invited him speak at a workshop on issues of representation in literature. In her tweet, which she posted on Friday, she said she’s “far from the only one” he’s treated that way.
https://twitter.com/zinziclemmons/status/992299032562229248
https://twitter.com/zinziclemmons/status/992301247204966400
Diaz, who penned The Brief and Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao and This Is How You Lose Her, has been widely regarded for his compelling storytelling about the Dominican-American experience. In 2008, he received a Pulitzer Prize for his writing and in 2012 he received a MacArthur Fellowship, also known as a “Genius Grant.”
Clemmons’ tweet opened up a downpour of tweets from other women, who cited a multitude of troubling situations with Diaz.
Prob 7 or 8 years ago I attended a talk by Junot Diaz followed by a Q&A. A white woman, early twenties, asked a question related to an autobiography she was writing. He looked at her, a woman he had never met or spoken to, and responded, “you don’t have a story to tell.”
— Beth (@Bethfromhere) May 4, 2018
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.
— Monica Byrne (@monicabyrne13) May 4, 2018
And I’d sat down so excited to meet one of my literary heroes.
Author Carmen Maria Machado also detailed an experience she had with Diaz while he was touring his book, This Is How You Lose Her.
“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,” Machado tweeted. “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.”
Machado said Diaz debated with her in front of a full room of people—who said nothing during the exchange—and then later vindictively read the excerpts from his book that she called attention to as troubling.
“So, Junot Díaz can talk all he wants about writing books that interrogate masculinity, but that’s all it is: talk,” she tweeted. “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).”
https://twitter.com/carmenmmachado/status/992318598398992384
https://twitter.com/carmenmmachado/status/992318600097624069
https://twitter.com/carmenmmachado/status/992318601544712192
https://twitter.com/carmenmmachado/status/992318602987520001
https://twitter.com/carmenmmachado/status/992318604514217985
https://twitter.com/carmenmmachado/status/992318606003195904
https://twitter.com/carmenmmachado/status/992318607412547584
https://twitter.com/carmenmmachado/status/992318608855388161
https://twitter.com/carmenmmachado/status/992318612118487041
https://twitter.com/carmenmmachado/status/992318613494218753
https://twitter.com/carmenmmachado/status/992318615004172288
https://twitter.com/carmenmmachado/status/992318616489017345
https://twitter.com/carmenmmachado/status/992318618032455686
Others cited an essay Diaz published in the New Yorker in April, in which he discussed abuse he experienced as a child and how it influenced relationships he had with women as an adult. Many viewed his piece as an attempt to preemptively excuse future reports of misogyny and abuse.
I hadn’t been keeping up w/ Junot Díaz recently. But to hear that he’d written some article for the New Yorker in April, confessing that “he hurt women” & finding out that it was probably a preemptive cover for the misogyny & assault he’s committed against them is reprehensible.
— Clarkisha Kent (@IWriteAllDay_) May 4, 2018
Didn’t name Junot Diaz when I first put out this tweet but had him in mind, and now I see my Twitter timeline full of the women speaking out, and we can clearly see how his New Yorker piece is both distraction and a preemptive attempt to smother criticism. https://t.co/J4qTYVmnVk
— Dr Meena Kandasamy (@meenakandasamy) May 4, 2018
In the New Yorker, Junot Díaz told us how he moved through phases of ‘hurting women’ as a result of his own considerable, awful trauma.
— Laurie Penny (@PennyRed) May 4, 2018
But trauma is no excuse for misogyny.
Women should not have to suffer so that you can heal.
When do we get to heal?
Next time a man openly says “I think about the hurt I caused”, ask for specifics. Don’t let it pass just because he’s confessing. Even if you are a fan of Junot Diaz’s work. Correction: Especially if you are a fan of Junot Diaz’s work.
— Sayantan Ghosh (@sayantansunnyg) May 4, 2018
I made the mistake of sharing that article without recognising just what Junot Diaz meant when he said “I hurt women”. I thought he was taking responsibility for cheating and hurting women emotionally. Now I realise how deeply wrong I was.
— Nikita Gill (@nktgill) May 4, 2018
The essay Diaz published was originally lauded by many as shining a light on male sexual assault. But now, more troubling aspects of the essay have been dissected, including a section of the essay in which he says he “hurt women.”
“I think about you, X—. I think about that woman from the Brattle,” he wrote. “I think about silence; I think about shame, I think about loneliness. I think about the hurt I caused. I think of all the years and all the life I lost to the hiding and to the fear and to the pain.”
The Daily Dot reached to Diaz but hasn’t heard back. So far, no official charges have been filed and he has yet to comment about the accusations.
