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Press release of the week: UBC’s Steven Galloway hires Raziel Reid; zings Barbara Kay

UBC letter-090215 (1)The University of British Columbia’s creative-writing program has hired Vancouver author Raziel Reid as an adjunct professor. Reid – who took home the 2014 Governor General’s Literary Award for children’s literature for his novel When Everything Feels Like the Movies (Arsenal Pulp Press) – will be teaching a workshop course on writing for young adults.

Reid’s GG win didn’t sit well with National Post columnist Barbara Kay, who wrote, “I’d not have wasted tax dollars on this values-void novel.” Kay’s column incited an unsuccessful petition to revoke the honour. In the zinger of a press release announcing Reid’s hire, UBC creative-writing program chair Stephen Galloway concludes by saying, “We would like to thank Barbara Kay and everyone who petitioned the Canada Council for the Arts to censor his work for the recommendation.”