May 16th, 2009
Ruth Padel has been elected the new Oxford professor of poetry and will be the first women to hold the post since it was established in 1708. Last week Nobel-Prize-winning poet Derek Walcott withdrew from consideration for the post as news surfaced about a sexual harassment claim made against him by a Harvard student in 1982, reported The New York Times. That left Padel and Indian poet and critic Arvid Mehrotra. Padel has published seven poetry collections as well as a wide range of non-fiction. She writes and broadcasts on literature, music and conservation; was chair of the UK Poetry Society; and is a Fellow of both the Royal Society of Literature and Zoological Society of London.
Does anyone else find it interesting and disappointing that The New York Times failed to mention any of Padel’s writing accomplishments in a recent article but did mention, first and foremost, that she is the great-great-granddaughter of Charles Darwin. Congrats to Padel and death to the streak.
