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Pulitzer Prize Board Investigating Misconduct Claims Against Junot Diaz

Award-winning author steps down as chairman after accusations of misogyny, inappropriate behavior.

The Pulitzer Prize Board announced Thursday it will be conducting an independent review of sexual misconduct and abuse claims against award-winning author Junot Diaz, who was elected chairman of the board last month. Diaz was publicly confronted with misconduct allegations during a Q&A session at the Sydney Writers’ Festival last week, and several other accusations against him followed on Twitter. Writer Zinzi Clemmons alleged that Diaz forcibly kissed her when she was a graduate student, and two other writers accused him of misogyny and inappropriate behavior. Diaz, who won acclaim just weeks before the accusations became public for penning a New Yorker essay detailing his own sexual abuse as a child, has stepped down as chairman of the Pulitzer Prize Board and pledged to cooperate with the investigation.