Steven Galloway

Steven Galloway
Steven Galloway at the Eden Mills Writers' Festival in 2014
Galloway at the Eden Mills Writers' Festival in 2014
Born (1975-07-13) July 13, 1975
Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada
Occupation Writer
Nationality Canadian
Notable works The Cellist of Sarajevo

Steven Galloway (born July 13, 1975)[1] is a Canadian novelist and a former professor at the University of British Columbia. He is the author of the award-winning novel The Cellist of Sarajevo (2008).

Early life

Galloway was born in Vancouver, and raised in Kamloops, British Columbia. He attended the University College of the Cariboo and the University of British Columbia (UBC). He lives with his wife and their four children in New Westminster.[2]

Career

Galloway taught creative writing at the University of British Columbia for many years. He also taught writing at Simon Fraser University.[3] He published his first novel, Finnie Walsh, in 2000, a second novel, Ascension, in 2003, and followed this with a third book, The Cellist of Sarajevo, in 2008.[4]

In 2013 Galloway became a tenured associate professor at UBC, and served as acting chair of the creative writing program. In 2014 he published his fourth novel, The Confabulist. In 2015 he was confirmed in the position of chair.[5]

In November 2015, UBC announced that Galloway was suspended from his position with pay because allegations, which were not specified in the announcement, had been made against him.[5] The Faculty Association of UBC criticized the institution for announcing the suspension, stating it was an invasion of privacy. In June 2016, Galloway was fired from the university after an investigation by Mary Ellen Boyd, a former B.C. Supreme Court justice. In announcing Galloway's termination, university spokesperson Philip Steenkamp cited "a record of misconduct that resulted in an irreparable breach of trust". The nature of the misconduct was not made public at the time,[6] and UBC did not officially publish Boyd's report, though quotations from it later appeared in the press.[7]

In November 2016, a large group of Canadian authors, including Margaret Atwood and Yann Martel, signed an open letter, written by Joseph Boyden, criticizing UBC for carrying out its investigation in secret and denying Galloway the right to due process. The letter caused controversy in the Canadian literary community, with some accusing the signatories of taking Galloway's side over that of his accusers.[8]

In December 2016, Galloway revealed that he had had an affair with a student, for which he apologized, and that Justice Boyd had concluded in her report that the charge of sexual assault against him could not be substantiated and had dismissed several other allegations of misconduct against him as well.[9] In 2018, UBC was forced to pay Galloway $167,000 for violating his privacy rights and damaging his reputation.[10] On July 13, 2018, Galloway published an essay in the Toronto National Post asserting that he was "not a monster," despite what he felt had been a coordinated campaign to paint him as such, and revealed that the woman who had accused him of assault was the one with whom he had had the affair.[11] Steenkamp told a local newspaper the same day, however, that the dismissal was "fully justified" and that the sexual allegations against Galloway were not the only issues the university had considered.[12]

Books

Finnie Walsh

Galloway's debut novel, Finnie Walsh (2000), was nominated for the Amazon.ca/Books in Canada First Novel Award. It was described as "a work about the love of hockey and the way two boys form a bond that carries them through life's tragedies and trials".[13] Galloway was recognized for successfully portraying a child's perspective without "giving a child an adult's perspective".[14] The ethnic and economic diversity of the characters had critics describing it as a "truly Canadian book both in content and sensibility".[14] It was noted that "The style of Galloway's early literary influences, Farley Mowat and John Irving, is apparent"[13] in this first novel.

Ascension

His second novel, Ascension (2003), was nominated for the BC Book Prizes' Ethel Wilson Fiction Prize, and has been translated into over fifteen languages. Notably different from his first novel, Ascension takes a look at the events in the life of a 66-year-old Romanian man leading up to his famous tight rope walking between the twin towers of New York's World Trade Center. "He expertly walks a very fine line, spinning the makings of what might have been a gimmicky immigrant tale into a gripping story of one man's lifelong balancing act."[15]

The Cellist of Sarajevo

Galloway's third novel, The Cellist of Sarajevo (2008), was nominated for the International IMPAC Dublin Literary Award, longlisted for the 2008 Scotiabank Giller Prize[16] and won the 2009 Evergreen Award, the George Ryga Award for Social Awareness in Literature[17] and the Borders Original Voices Award.[18] It was heralded as "the work of an expert" by The Guardian,[19] and has become an international bestseller with rights sold in over 30 countries.

The novel is set during the siege of Sarajevo in the mid-1990s and explores the dilemmas of ordinary people caught in the crisis.[1] The title references the true story of Vedran Smailović, a cellist who played Albinoni's Adagio "dressed in evening tails and perching on a fire-scorched chair" every day for 22 days, "always at the same location", to "honour the 22 people killed by a mortar bomb while they queued for bread at 10 in the morning on May 26, 1992".[20] The novel follows the lives of three fictional citizens of Sarajevo as they struggle to survive the war, including one who seeks to protect the cellist: "He has said he will do this for twenty-two days. This is the eighth. People see him. The world has seen him. We cannot allow him to be killed." The novel examines the gentleness found in humanity and the lasting and healing power of art.

Vedran Smailović did not learn of the book until after it had been published. Galloway had been advised to contact Smajlović, who had purposefully embraced a quiet, private life in Warrenpoint, Northern Ireland, but did not do so.[20] When Smailović learned of the publication, he expressed feelings of indignation and dismay, objecting to the use of his story and his personal information without permission or compensation,[21] and pointing out differences between the story and his actual life.[20] However, a meeting between the two took place in 2012, moving a step closer to conflict resolution.[22]

Galloway, who has been described as "honest and talented young man with no intentions to steal",[22] claimed that Smailović's act of playing the cello as a protest was a public act,[20] and that fiction writers were under no obligation to pay those who inspired them, and that it was unreasonable to expect that.[20] Galloway insisted that the cellist in his story, while inspired by the photos and story of Smailović, was imaginary.[23] Galloway sent the cellist a signed copy of the book.

The Confabulist

The Confabulist is a story told some time after 2010 by an elderly man named Martin Strauss who claims to have killed Harry Houdini.[24] Mostly employing flashbacks, the novel alternates between Houdini's point of view and Strauss's point of view to describe the years leading up to their 1926 encounter in Montreal. Several aspects are historically accurate including attempts to have Houdini join espionage circles, and his efforts to champion skepticism over spiritualism. However, it gradually becomes clear that Strauss is an unreliable narrator. The Confabulist was shortlisted for The Rogers Trust Fiction Prize and received favourable reviews from Marcia Kaye of The Toronto Star and Keith Donohue of The Washington Post.[25][26] Conversely, Jenny Hendrix of the New York Times criticized the narrative as heavy handed.[27]

References

  1. 1 2 "The Cellist Of Sarajevo". Sydney Morning Herald, Andrew Riemer, reviewer, February 22, 2008
  2. ↑ "Writers' Rooms: Steven Galloway". The Vancouver Writers Fest. Retrieved March 13, 2014.
  3. ↑ "2009 BC Book Prizes Short Lists & Winners". BC Book Prizes website accessed December 3, 2016.
  4. ↑ Rinehart, Dianne (2014-03-13). "Steven Galloway and the lessons of The Cellist of Sarajevo". The Toronto Star. Retrieved 2017-10-29.
  5. 1 2 "Under a cloud: How UBC’s Steven Galloway affair has haunted a campus and changed lives". The Globe and MailNov. 21, 2016 Marsha Lederman
  6. ↑ "Author Steven Galloway no longer employed at UBC following 'record of misconduct'". CBC. Retrieved June 28, 2016.
  7. ↑ Cran, Brad (June 21, 2018). "A Literary Inquisition: How Novelist Steven Galloway Was Smeared as a Rapist, Even as the Case Against Him Collapsed". Quillette. Retrieved July 19, 2018.
  8. ↑ Kane, Laura (November 16, 2016). "Prominent authors face backlash over letter to UBC over Steven Galloway firing". The Canadian Press.
  9. ↑ "Author Steve Galloway apologizes in first statement since being fired by UBC". Toronto Star, Laura Kane of The Canadian Press. Nov. 23, 2016 page A16.
  10. ↑ UBC must pay fired author Steven Galloway $167,000 for privacy violation
  11. ↑ Galloway, Steven (July 13, 2018). "Steven Galloway in his own words: I'm not a monster. I won't let false allegations define me". National Post. Toronto. Retrieved July 19, 2018.
  12. ↑ Luymes, Glenda (July 13, 2018). "UBC responds to Steven Galloway's first-person account of the sexual allegations that derailed his career". Vancouver Sun. Retrieved July 19, 2018.
  13. 1 2 Davis, Charlene. "Galloway, Steven." The Canadian Encyclopedia. Historica Foundation, 1 Sep 2007.
  14. 1 2 Fraser, Lynn. "Finnie Walsh." CM: an Electronic Reviewing Journal of Canadian Materials for Young People. Winnipeg: Mar 31, 2006. Vol. 12, Iss. 15; 1 pgs
  15. ↑ "Ascension Reviewed on Quill and Quire". Quill and Quire. Retrieved 2016-05-21.
  16. ↑ "The 2008 Scotiabank Giller Prize Announces its Longlist". Scotiabank. 2008-09-15. Archived from the original on 2011-07-06. Retrieved 2016-05-21.
  17. ↑ "George Ryga Award Winners". BC Book Awards. Retrieved 2016-05-21.
  18. ↑ "Galloway nominated". Surrey International Writers' Conference. 2008-11-25. Retrieved 2016-05-21.
  19. ↑ Green, Zoe. "War notes." The Observer. Guardian.co.uk, 29 June. 2008.
  20. 1 2 3 4 5 Sharrock, David (17 June 2008). "Out of the war into a book and into a rage". The Australian. Retrieved 31 January 2012.
  21. ↑ Elina Penttinen (2 September 2013). Joy and International Relations: A New Methodology. Routledge. pp. 122–. ISBN 978-1-136-73840-1.
  22. 1 2 Deryk Houston (January 27, 2012). "Vedran Smailović – "The Cellist of Sarajevo"". Economic Voice.
  23. ↑ "The Cellist of Sarajevo". One Maryland One Book. 2013. Archived from the original on 2015-01-20.
  24. ↑ "Book Talk: Steven Galloway on magic, memories and Houdini". Chicago Tribune, June 19, 2014, By Nicholas P. Brown
  25. ↑ Kaye, Marcia (2014-05-02). "The Confabulist by Steven Galloway: Review". The Toronto Star. Retrieved 2016-05-22.
  26. ↑ Donohue, Keith (2014-05-27). "'The Confabulist', a novel by Steven Galloway". The Washington Post. Retrieved 2016-05-22.
  27. ↑ Hendrix, Jenny (2014-06-01). "Illusion". The New York Times. Retrieved 2016-05-22.
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