Pulitzer Board tells Junot Diaz he is ‘welcome’ to remain

NEW YORK – The Pulitzer Prize Board has decided not to remove fiction writer Junot Diaz over sexual harassment allegations.

The board announced Friday that an independent review “did not find evidence warranting” Diaz’s departure and that the author would be “welcome” to complete his term, which ends in April. The monthslong review was conducted by the Washington D.C. law firm Williams & Connolly. It followed an allegation by writer Zinzi Clemmons that Diaz had forcibly kissed her. Other female writers on social media shared their encounters with Diaz.

Diaz won the Pulitzer for fiction in 2008 for his novel “The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao.”

He currently teaches at Massachusetts Institute of Technology. MIT announced in June that it had completed a review and found no evidence of misconduct.