Junot Diaz accused of sexual harassment during live Q&A at Sydney Writers' festival

Author Zinzi Clemmons later detailed the allegations against Diaz on social media

(Claudio Onorati / Epa/REX/Shutterstock)

Pulitzer Prize-winning author Junot Diaz has stepped down from the Sydney Writers' festival after being accused of sexual harassment during a Q&A by writer Zinzi Clemmons.

Ahead of detailing allegations against Diaz on social media, Clemmons confronted him during a panel discussion in which the author shared the stage with four others.

As What We Lose author Clemmons began to ask her question “with much emotion and what seemed like anger,” Diaz reportedly replied “Oh s**t.” A source told Vulture that Clemmons went on to claim Diaz had “harmed” her at a Columbia University workshop six years earlier and wanted to know “why you treated me that way?”.

Diaz is said to have asked Clemmons to stay so she could hear his full answer, but she reportedly dropped the microphone and left. Hours later, the author detailed further allegations on Twitter.

“As a grad student, I invited Junot Díaz to speak to a workshop on issues of representation in literature,” Clemmons wrote. “I was an unknown wide-eyed 26-year-old, and he used it as an opportunity to corner and forcibly kiss me. I’m far from the only one he’s done this to, I refuse to be silent anymore.”

Clemmons' allegations were backed up by two other women who came forward with their alleged encounters with the This Is How You Lose Her author with 2017 National Book Award finalist Carmen Maria Machado claiming he “has treated women horrifically in every way possible.”

Monica Byrne posted a message to Facebook in which she alleged that she was the subject of “verbal sexual assault” by Diaz at a literary festival in 2014.

Festival organisers confirmed Diaz has withdrawn from further panels with one titled 'The Politics of Empathy' being cancelled.

“Sydney Writers’ festival is a platform for the sharing of powerful stories: urgent, necessary and sometimes difficult,” the festival's statement read. “Such conversations have never been more timely. We remain committed to ensuring they occur in a supportive and safe environment for our authors and audiences.”