Derek Walcott Withdraws from Oxford Poetry Election Over Sexual Harassment Allegations
Posted on May 14, 2009
Derek Walcott has now withdrawn from the race to become the next Oxford Professor of Poetry. Allegations of sexual harassment against former students have followed Walcott and instigated quite the scandal.
Three days after winning the presidential election, Barack Obama was spotted in Chicago carrying the 500-page volume of Derek Walcott's collected poems. You wonder if he would let himself be seen holding that book now. Earlier this week, Walcott felt compelled to withdraw from the race to replace Christopher Ricks as the £6,901-a-year Oxford Professor of Poetry, after what one of his backers described as an "insulting smear campaign".There are two poets now up for the post: Ruth Padel, the great great granddaughter of Charles Darwin, and Indian poet Arvind Krishna Mehrotra. The election result will be announced after a vote of Oxford graduates. Walcott had this to say about Ruth Padel: "Ruth Padel is a gifted poet who will make a great Professor of Poetry. I look forward to hearing or reading her lectures if she is elected." She's the favorite now.Some 200 academics recently received a dossier detailing sexual harassment claims made against Walcott. The dossier included pages from a 1984 book, The Lecherous Professor: Sexual Harassment on Campus by Billie Wright Dziech and Linda Weiner, which details the sexual harassment claim made by a Harvard student against Walcott (upon which he has never commented). It also included a 1996 allegation made by Nicole Niemi, a Boston University student and member of Walcott's creative writing class. Niemi, now a writer using the name NM Kelby, sued Walcott for alleged sexual harassment and "offensive sexual physical contact", demanding $500,000. The case was reportedly settled out of court.