Harvard Sophomore Accused of Plagiarism in Debut Novel
BOSTON
The publisher of a 19-year-old Harvard University sophomore’s debut novel is investigating the work because it includes several passages that are similar to a book by another author published in 2001.
Kaavya Viswanathan’s How Opal Mehta Got Kissed, Got Wild, and Got a Life was published in March by Little, Brown and Co., which signed her to a two-book deal when she was 17.
On Sunday, the Harvard Crimson reported the similarities on its Web site, citing seven passages in Viswanathan’s book that parallel the style and language of Sloppy Firsts, a novel by Megan McCafferty that Random House published. Viswanathan told The New York Times that any copying in her novel, which hit 32nd on the Times’ hardcover fiction best seller list this week, was “unintentional and unconscious.”
Calling herself a “huge fan” of McCafferty’s work, Viswanathan said, “I wasn’t aware of how much I may have internalized Ms. McCafferty’s words.” She also apologized to McCafferty and said that future printings of the novel would be revised to “eliminate any inappropriate similarities.”
Michael Pietsch, the publisher of Little, Brown, said Sunday that the company will investigate the similarities.
