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| Headline | poets back walcott |
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scaaty
Jun-14-2009, 10:34 GMT
Ireland
 | Irish Times 13th June 2009
Poets back Walcott
Seamus Heaney, Bernard O?Donoghue, Al Alvarez and Jon Stallworthy are among the poets who nominated Derek Walcott (above) as Oxford professor of poetry who have written to him to express their ?dismay and disgust at the cowardly smear campaign? against his candidacy. The Nobel prize-winning Walcott withdrew from the race following an anonymous letter campaign in which Oxford academics were sent photocopied pages from a book detailing a sexual harassment claim against him by a Harvard student in 1982. The 19 signatories of the letter to Walcott said they had little doubt that their colleague Ursula Fanthorpe would have been as anxious to sign their letter as she was to sign his nomination form had she not died on April 28th.
In their letter, published in full in the Times Literary Supplement (issue 5540), the poets said they considered the campaign against Walcott to have dishonoured their calling. ?We affirm our undiminished admiration for all that you have done ? and continue to do ? for poetry and drama.?
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Nikki
Jun-14-2009, 14:04 GMT
Australia
 | What a shame... did Walcott withdraw from the candidacy voluntarily or was he forced to do it? |
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Scaaty
Jun-15-2009, 10:39 GMT
Ireland
| I think he withdrew, I´m not sure. The original letter referred to can be found here, but doesn´t say much more
http://entertainment.timesonline.co.uk/tol/arts_an
d_entertainment/the_tls/article6422065.ece
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Nikki
Jun-16-2009, 13:34 GMT
Australia
| Hmm why would you withdraw though... wouldn´t it be better just to be defiant and stay on to make a statement?
What´s your PhD on by the way Scaaty? Good luck with it! |
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Nikki
Jun-16-2009, 13:40 GMT
Australia
| And the new professor soon resigned over her involvement in the whole fiasco... http://www.abc.net.au/am/content/2009/s2581787.htm
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Scaaty
Jun-16-2009, 14:38 GMT
Ireland
| Very interesting article, thanks Nikki.
My thesis is on the use of nanoparticles in biology.. a bit like science fiction really.. The Boy In The Bubble and the baby with the baboon heart!
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DannyJ
Jun-16-2009, 15:12 GMT
United Kingdom
 | This story was covered extensively in the UK press at the time - It was almost a mini national outrage! I had my own personal rant about it on facebook, & posted this link:
http://entertainment.timesonline.co.uk/tol/arts_an
d_entertainment/books/poetry/article6360730.ece |
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