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On May 4, 2018, Junot Díaz was trending on Twitter. The celebrated novelist and MIT professor had been on a panel that day at a writers’ conference in Sydney, Australia. Weeks earlier he had stunned readers with an essay in The New Yorker — revealing his rape at age 8, his struggles with suicidal depression, his regrets for cheating on girlfriends and hurting them with “my lies” and “my choices,” and his efforts to do better.