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In 2017 Clemmons announced via Twitter that she would no longer be writing for ''[[Lenny Letter]]'', the online publication created by actress, writer and director [[Lena Dunham]]. She asked other women of color to "divest" from the publication.<ref>{{cite web|title=US writer Zinzi Clemmons accuses Girls star Lena Dunham of 'hipster racism'|url=http://www.bbc.co.uk/newsbeat/article/42052036/us-writer-zinzi-clemmons-accuses-girls-star-lena-dunham-of-hipster-racism|publisher=[[BBC]]|work=Newsbeat|date=November 20, 2017|accessdate=January 13, 2018}}</ref> The move came after Dunham wrote a statement in support of her friend and co-worker [[Murray Miller]], who had been accused of rape by actress [[Aurora Perrineau]]. Dunham had implied she had insider knowledge of the rape, and that Perrineau was lying.
In 2017 Clemmons announced via Twitter that she would no longer be writing for ''[[Lenny Letter]]'', the online publication created by actress, writer and director [[Lena Dunham]]. She asked other women of color to "divest" from the publication.<ref>{{cite web|title=US writer Zinzi Clemmons accuses Girls star Lena Dunham of 'hipster racism'|url=http://www.bbc.co.uk/newsbeat/article/42052036/us-writer-zinzi-clemmons-accuses-girls-star-lena-dunham-of-hipster-racism|publisher=[[BBC]]|work=Newsbeat|date=November 20, 2017|accessdate=January 13, 2018}}</ref> The move came after Dunham wrote a statement in support of her friend and co-worker [[Murray Miller]], who had been accused of rape by actress [[Aurora Perrineau]]. Dunham had implied she had insider knowledge of the rape, and that Perrineau was lying.


In May 2018, Clemmons confronted [[Junot Diaz]] at the [[Sydney Writers' Festival]]<ref>{{cite web|title=Junot Díaz Has Withdrawn From A Writers Festival After Being Accused Of Forcibly Kissing Zinzi Clemmons|url=https://www.buzzfeednews.com/article/amberjamieson/junot-diaz-zinzi-clemmons|publisher=[[BuzzFeed]]|date=May 4, 2018|accessdate=July 31, 2018}}</ref> about how he had treated her six years prior in an encounter when she was a graduate student; she later tweeted he had "forcibly" kissed her,<ref>{{cite web|title=The Writer Zinzi Clemmons Accuses Junot Díaz of Forcibly Kissing Her|url=https://www.nytimes.com/2018/05/04/books/junot-diaz-accusations.html|publisher=[[The New York Times]]|date=May 4, 2018|accessdate=July 31, 2018}}</ref> which Diaz denied.<ref>{{cite web|title=Junot Díaz case may be a #MeToo turning point|url=https://www.bostonglobe.com/metro/2018/06/30/junot-diaz-case-may-metoo-turning-point/3TMFseenE4Go1eVsqbFSxM/story.html|publisher=[[The Boston Globe]]|date=June 30, 2018|accessdate=July 31, 2018}}</ref>
In May 2018, Zinzi Clemmons confronted Dominican-American writer [[Junot Diaz]] during a Q&A at the [[Sydney Writers' Festival]], stating that many felt that an essay he had published in April in ''[[ The New Yorker]]'', about an abuse he had suffered as a child, was a preemptive move against forthcoming accusations of misconduct.<ref>{{cite web|title=Junot Díaz Has Withdrawn From A Writers Festival After Being Accused Of Forcibly Kissing Zinzi Clemmons|url=https://www.buzzfeednews.com/article/amberjamieson/junot-diaz-zinzi-clemmons|publisher=[[BuzzFeed]]|date=May 4, 2018|accessdate=July 31, 2018}}</ref> She then asked Junot Diaz "why he had treated her the way he had six years prior, when she was a graduate student at Columbia," before revealing in a series of tweets, that Junot Diaz had "forcibly" kissed her when she was just a "wide-eyed 26-year-old" graduate student.<ref>{{cite web|title=The Writer Zinzi Clemmons Accuses Junot Díaz of Forcibly Kissing Her|url=https://www.nytimes.com/2018/05/04/books/junot-diaz-accusations.html|publisher=[[The New York Times]]|date=May 4, 2018|accessdate=July 31, 2018}}</ref> Junot Diaz "categorically denied" her accussation in June of the same year; "I did not forcibly kiss Zinzi Clemmons," the writer told Stephanie Ebbert of ''[[The Boston Globe]],'' after showing her a cordial e-mail Zinzi had sent him the day after the alleged incident "that made no mention of a kiss." Zinzi Clemmons also declined to tell Stephanie Ebbert where exactly Junot Diaz had kissed her.<ref>{{cite web|title=Junot Díaz case may be a #MeToo turning point|url=https://www.bostonglobe.com/metro/2018/06/30/junot-diaz-case-may-metoo-turning-point/3TMFseenE4Go1eVsqbFSxM/story.html|publisher=[[The Boston Globe]]|date=June 30, 2018|accessdate=July 31, 2018}}</ref>


==Personal life==
==Personal life==

Revision as of 06:42, 31 July 2018

Zinzi Clemmons
Born1985 (age 38–39)
NationalityAmerican
Alma materBrown University
Columbia University
OccupationAuthor
Notable workWhat We Lose (2017)
RelativesPhife Dawg
Websitewww.zinziclemmons.com

Zinzi Clemmons is an American writer. She is best known for her 2017 debut novel What We Lose.

Early life and education

Born in 1985 to a South African mother from an upper-middle-class family in Johannesburg[1] and African-American father raised in Jamaica, Queens, Zinzi Clemmons grew up in Swarthmore, Pennsylvania[2] and spent summers in South Africa.[3] Rapper Phife Dawg, of the group A Tribe Called Quest, was her cousin.[4]

Clemmons attended Brown University as an undergraduate, studying critical theory, then earned an MFA in fiction at Columbia University, where she worked wtih Paul Beatty.[1] In 2012 she moved home and paused the novel she was working on to care for her mother who was dying of cancer.[3] She began keeping a diary of the experience, which later served as some of the source material for her first novel.[3]

Career

While still at Columbia, Clemmons founded Apogee, an online magazine focused on art engaged with issues of identity.[3]

Clemmons' debut novel What We Lose was published by Viking in 2017.[3][1][5][6] The book was loosely based on Clemmons' own experience being the primary caregiver for her mother when she died of cancer, and was described by The Guardian as "highly experimental, told in intimate vignettes including blogposts, photos, hand-drawn charts and hip-hop lyrics".[7] It received broad critical acclaim, with Vogue calling What We Lose the best debut novel of the year.[1]

In 2017, the National Book Foundation named Clemmons to its annual "5 under 35" list, selected by Angela Flournoy.[8]

In 2017 Clemmons announced via Twitter that she would no longer be writing for Lenny Letter, the online publication created by actress, writer and director Lena Dunham. She asked other women of color to "divest" from the publication.[9] The move came after Dunham wrote a statement in support of her friend and co-worker Murray Miller, who had been accused of rape by actress Aurora Perrineau. Dunham had implied she had insider knowledge of the rape, and that Perrineau was lying.

In May 2018, Zinzi Clemmons confronted Dominican-American writer Junot Diaz during a Q&A at the Sydney Writers' Festival, stating that many felt that an essay he had published in April in The New Yorker, about an abuse he had suffered as a child, was a preemptive move against forthcoming accusations of misconduct.[10] She then asked Junot Diaz "why he had treated her the way he had six years prior, when she was a graduate student at Columbia," before revealing in a series of tweets, that Junot Diaz had "forcibly" kissed her when she was just a "wide-eyed 26-year-old" graduate student.[11] Junot Diaz "categorically denied" her accussation in June of the same year; "I did not forcibly kiss Zinzi Clemmons," the writer told Stephanie Ebbert of The Boston Globe, after showing her a cordial e-mail Zinzi had sent him the day after the alleged incident "that made no mention of a kiss." Zinzi Clemmons also declined to tell Stephanie Ebbert where exactly Junot Diaz had kissed her.[12]

Personal life

Clemmons is married to poet and translator André Naffis-Sahely.[3] They live in Culver City, near Los Angeles.[1]

References

  1. ^ a b c d e O'Grady, Megan (July 20, 2017). "Zinzi Clemmons Has Written the Debut Novel of the Year". Vogue. Retrieved May 9, 2018.
  2. ^ Derakhshani, Tirdad, "Swarthmore native Zinzi Clemmons on her debut novel about 'sex and death'", Philadelphia Inquirer, July 11, 2017.
  3. ^ a b c d e f French, Agatha (July 20, 2017). "Debut novelist Zinzi Clemmons is frank and experimental in 'What We Lose'". Los Angeles Times. Retrieved May 9, 2018. {{cite web}}: Cite has empty unknown parameter: |dead-url= (help)
  4. ^ Clemmons, Zinzi, "A Gritty Little Something on the New York Street", The Paris Review, March 25, 2016.
  5. ^ Crosley, Sloane (July 18, 2017). "What to Read Right Now: Al Gore's An Inconvenient Sequel, Zinzi Clemmons's Powerful Debut, and More". Vanity Fair. Retrieved May 9, 2018.
  6. ^ Weiss-Meyer, Amy (August 1, 2017). "'What We Lose' Is a Striking Debut Novel About Familial Loss". The Atlantic. Retrieved May 9, 2018.
  7. ^ Bausells, Marta (August 10, 2017). "Zinzi Clemmons on her first novel: 'I'm proud of it, because I didn't hold anything back'". The Guardian. Retrieved January 13, 2018.
  8. ^ Silman, Anna (September 25, 2017). "The National Book Foundation's '5 Under 35' Are All Women This Year". The Cut. New York Magazine. Retrieved May 10, 2018.
  9. ^ "US writer Zinzi Clemmons accuses Girls star Lena Dunham of 'hipster racism'". Newsbeat. BBC. November 20, 2017. Retrieved January 13, 2018.
  10. ^ "Junot Díaz Has Withdrawn From A Writers Festival After Being Accused Of Forcibly Kissing Zinzi Clemmons". BuzzFeed. May 4, 2018. Retrieved July 31, 2018.
  11. ^ "The Writer Zinzi Clemmons Accuses Junot Díaz of Forcibly Kissing Her". The New York Times. May 4, 2018. Retrieved July 31, 2018.
  12. ^ "Junot Díaz case may be a #MeToo turning point". The Boston Globe. June 30, 2018. Retrieved July 31, 2018.
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