Calls for Oxford Poet to Resign

Even successful poets lead complicated lives. The first female Oxford professor of poetry is under pressure to resign from the post, the Times of London reports. Poet Ruth Padel won the appointment earlier this month after her chief adversary, Derek Walcott, 79, withdrew his name from consideration as two sexual harassment allegations from the 1980s and 1990s surfaced. Padel denied mentioning the harassment claims to reporters, but apparently in April she tipped off journalists to the harassment claims in an email. Several weeks later, relevant pages from the book The Lecherous Professor, which detailed the claims, were anonymously sent to journalists. Padel said, "I deeply admire [Walcott’s] work and dissociate myself completely from any clandestine operations against his candidature."