Editor’s note
Scrolling through Twitter, it’s easy to believe there is no agreement to be found on any subject, regardless how small or inconsequential it may seem. (I recently read a rather heated thread about the best peanut-butter brands.) Opposing factions often run deep and are needlessly cruel, as anyone on the social-media app can attest, and this year the CanLit community proved it is not immune.
The first sign of the split was the #UBCaccountable campaign, the result of an open letter admonishing the University of British Columbia for the way it handled the dismissal of creative-writing chair Steven Galloway amidst an undisclosed allegation. Margaret Atwood faced off against many authors and activists of lesser profile who continue to accuse the iconic writer of online bullying – though it seems the charge didn’t affect Atwood’s Hollywood presence this year. Then there was the #AppropriationPrize scandal, which saw several established media figures make light of an editorial that appeared in the Writers’ Union of Canada members’ magazine. The fallout resulted in shakeups at several news outlets (more on those stories in our Year in Review, starting on page 12).