Since Clemmons' accusation, MIT, where Díaz is a writing professor, has begun looking into allegations of sexual misconduct.

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The board's most recent previous chairman, Washington Post columnist Eugene Robinson, has resumed the role on an interim basis. Like Díaz, who is himself a Pulitzer Prize winner for his best-selling first novel, The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao, Robinson was elected to the board in 2010.

Others on the board include Stephen Engelberg, editor-in-chief of ProPublica; Lee C. Bollinger, president of Columbia University; and Nancy Barnes, editor of The Houston Chronicle.

The body's most high-profile duty is presiding over the judging process by which Pulitzer Prizes are awarded to the year's best works of reporting, photography, fiction, history, poetry, music and drama.