UBC says Montreal-born author Alix Ohlin will take over the program beginning Jan. 1, 2018.Chuck Zovko
With a grievance still to be settled in the firing of Steven Galloway, the University of British Columbia has announced the hiring of a new chair for its creative writing program. Alix Ohlin – a Montreal-born, Harvard-educated fiction writer – will take over the position Jan. 1, 2018.
Ms. Ohlin, an English professor at Lafayette College in Easton, Penn., since 2004, is also a faculty member in the Warren Wilson MFA Program for Writers in North Carolina. She was the Mordecai Richler Writer-in-Residence at McGill University for 2016-17.
Her 2012 novel Inside was a finalist for the Scotiabank Giller Prize and the Rogers Writers' Trust Fiction Prize. Her first novel, The Missing Person, was published in 2005 and she has also published two short story collections, Signs and Wonders and Babylon and Other Stories.
"It's a wonderful opportunity to join a program with such talented faculty and students," Ms. Ohlin said in a statement released by UBC Tuesday. "I look forward to working with the entire literary community there and building on the program's rich history." (Ms. Ohlin did not respond to a request for an interview Tuesday afternoon.)
The program, the largest and oldest creative writing program in Canada according to the media release, has been mired in an explosive scandal for nearly two years. Mr. Galloway, a bestselling novelist, was abruptly suspended from his position as program chair in late 2015 and fired without severance months later, following an investigation. He has been accused of sexual assault and sexual harassment. In a statement, Mr. Galloway said he was having an affair with the main complainant in the case, a former student. In a statement of her own, the main complainant has said that her accusation was not about an affair. Mr. Galloway is fighting his dismissal. The arbitration process is still under way.
Linda Svendsen, who was named acting co-chair with Annabel Lyon when Mr. Galloway was suspended, will continue as acting chair until Dec. 31, 2017.
Marsha Lederman