UK: Poet withdraws from professorial race

The Nobel Prize-winning poet Derek Walcott has withdrawn from the election to become professor of poetry at Oxford University after "low tactics" were used to smear his campaign. Anonymous letters were sent to more than 100 Oxford professors detailing an allegation of sexual harassment made against the poet by a former student in 1982, writes Genevieve Roberts in The Independent.

Walcott, 79, who was born in St Lucia, was frontrunner for the position, considered the most prestigious in the country aside from the Laureateship. He had been backed by literary luminaries including Booker Prize-winner Alan Hollinghurst, Professor Hermione Lee and poet Jenny Joseph. He said yesterday: "I am disappointed that such low tactics have been used in this election and I do not want to get into a race for a post where it causes embarrassment to those who have chosen to support me for the role or to myself."

He told the London Evening Standard: "I already have a great many work commitments and while I was happy to be put forward for the post, if it has degenerated into a low and degrading attempt at character assassination, I do not want to be part of it."

The anonymous letters contained a photocopied page of the book The Lecherous Professor: Sexual Harassment on Campus, by Billie Wright Dziech and Linda Weiner, detailing the sexual allegations made against Walcott.
Full Independent report