Author Junot Diaz has withdrawn from a writers' festival in Australia after fellow writers accused him of past sexual misconduct and misogyny, organizers said Saturday, adding that a moment of reckoning had arrived for the Pulitzer Prize winner.
Diaz was confronted Friday in a Q&A session at the Sydney Writers' Festival by author Zinzi Clemmons. She asked Diaz about his recent New Yorker essay detailing his sexual assault as an 8-year-old boy and then asked him why he had put her in a vulnerable position when she was a student six years ago.
Clemmons, who penned the coming-of-age novel What We Lose, later tweeted that when she was a 26-year-old graduate student, Diaz cornered her and forcibly kissed her after she invited him to speak at a workshop.
Subsequently, writers Carmen Maria Machado and Monica Byrne tweeted they had also been subjected to inappropriate and aggressive behavior from Diaz.
In a statement Saturday, the Sydney Writers' Festival said that following the allegations, Diaz had pulled out of his remaining scheduled appearances at the festival. It said organizers were committed to providing a "supportive and safe environment for our authors and audiences alike."
The statement added: "In his recent New Yorker essay, Mr. Diaz wrote, 'Eventually the past finds you.' As for so many in positions of power, the moment to reckon with the consequences of past behavior has arrived."
Diaz, who won the 2008 Pulitzer Prize for The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao, told the New York Times through his literary agent that he takes responsibility for his past.
"That is the reason I made the decision to tell the truth of my (childhood) rape and its damaging aftermath," he said. "This conversation is important and must continue."
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Clemmons told The Associated Press she believed she was far from being the only woman "exploited" by Diaz, a creative writing professor at Massachusetts Institute of Technology, and said she could not bear to think of the others.
"Junot Diaz has made his behavior the burden of young women — particularly women of color — for far too long, enabled by his team and the institutions that employ him," Clemmons wrote in a statement to the AP. "It is time for the burden of his bad behavior to be laid squarely at his feet, and for him to deal with the consequences of his actions."
Neither Diaz nor MIT have responded to the AP's requests for comment. Diaz is also known for his books Drown and This Is How You Lose Her.
UAE currency: the story behind the money in your pockets
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Torno Subito by Massimo Bottura
When the W Dubai – The Palm hotel opens at the end of this year, one of the highlights will be Massimo Bottura’s new restaurant, Torno Subito, which promises “to take guests on a journey back to 1960s Italy”. It is the three Michelinstarred chef’s first venture in Dubai and should be every bit as ambitious as you would expect from the man whose restaurant in Italy, Osteria Francescana, was crowned number one in this year’s list of the World’s 50 Best Restaurants.
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Another exciting opening at the W Dubai – The Palm hotel is South Korean chef Akira Back’s new restaurant, which will continue to showcase some of the finest Asian food in the world. Back, whose Seoul restaurant, Dosa, won a Michelin star last year, describes his menu as, “an innovative Japanese cuisine prepared with a Korean accent”.
Dinner by Heston Blumenthal
The highly experimental chef, whose dishes are as much about spectacle as taste, opens his first restaurant in Dubai next year. Housed at The Royal Atlantis Resort & Residences, Dinner by Heston Blumenthal will feature contemporary twists on recipes that date back to the 1300s, including goats’ milk cheesecake. Always remember with a Blumenthal dish: nothing is quite as it seems.
UAE currency: the story behind the money in your pockets
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Favourite piece of music: Verdi’s Requiem. It’s awe-inspiring.
Biggest inspiration: My father, as I grew up in a house where music was constantly played on a wind-up gramophone. I had amazing music teachers in primary and secondary school who inspired me to take my music further. They encouraged me to take up music as a profession and I follow in their footsteps, encouraging others to do the same.
Favourite book: Ian McEwan’s Atonement – the ending alone knocked me for six.
Favourite holiday destination: Italy - music and opera is so much part of the life there. I love it.
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Date started: Founded in May 2017 and operational since April 2018
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Based: Cairo, Egypt
Sector: Health-tech
Size: 22 employees
Funding: Seed funding
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Killing of Qassem Suleimani
HOW DO SIM CARD SCAMS WORK?
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The criminal can then access any online service that requires security codes to be sent to a user's mobile phone, such as banking services.
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The biog
Name: Abeer Al Bah
Born: 1972
Husband: Emirati lawyer Salem Bin Sahoo, since 1992
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Name: Dr Hassan Mohsen Elhais
Position: legal consultant with Al Rowaad Advocates and Legal Consultants.
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Directed by: Todd Haynes
Starring: Mark Ruffalo, Anne Hathaway, William Jackson Harper
Rating: ****
Red flags
- Promises of high, fixed or 'guaranteed' returns.
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Courtesy: Carol Glynn, founder of Conscious Finance Coaching
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