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Author and former University of British Columbia professor Steven Galloway leaves B.C. Supreme Court during a lunch break at his defamation lawsuit in Vancouver on Oct. 6.DARRYL DYCK/The Canadian Press
A publisher for Steven Galloway’s books has testified that the author became persona non grata in the literary community, with speaking engagements and sales potential disappearing “almost overnight,” following unproven allegations of sexual assault.
“It was extraordinary and I had not seen that before ever,” said Louise Dennys, a high-profile figure in the publishing industry who served as executive vice-president at Penguin Random House Canada and helped edit and promote Galloway’s work.
Her testimony via video conference on Tuesday came midway through the hearing of Galloway’s defamation lawsuit against his accuser, a former student at the University of British Columbia, and other defendants in a Vancouver B.C. Supreme Court.
Dennys said Galloway’s third book, The Cellist of Sarajevo, was met with “spectacular” success in Canada and internationally, and while his subsequent book, The Confabulist, didn’t initially reach those heights, the assault allegations forced the publisher to shelve the marketing campaign for its paperback run.
Galloway, the former chair of creative writing at the university in Vancouver, denies the allegations, which emerged in late 2015.
He is suing his accuser, known as A.B., whose assault claims were found unsubstantiated by a former judge, and other defendants, alleging they defamed him by publishing the unproven allegations online and elsewhere.
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The court has previously heard from Galloway’s literary agent, Henry Dunow, who testified the allegations resulted in the cancellation of a $100,000 contract for a three-novel series Galloway pitched about a ventriloquist detective.
Dennys said Tuesday the publisher had signed the contract after Mary Ellen Boyd, the retired judged hired by the university to look into the allegations against Galloway, completed her probe and found the assault claims unsubstantiated.
Boyd’s report, which wasn’t made public, gave the publisher “the hope that the thing would die away completely now, because (Boyd) had indicated that there were no grounds for substantiating a rape,” Dennys said.
But the allegations didn’t cease, she said.
“We held in for two years waiting for things to pass, but in 2018, we eventually put it on hold, the (detective) series, because Steven indicated to us that he simply did not, trauma had been so great, that he certainly didn’t have the ability to write.”
Dennys said it was “one of the most heartbreaking things” she’d heard as a publisher.
Several people originally named as defendants in the lawsuit filed in 2018 have settled with Galloway and offered public apologies.
The court learned earlier this month that A.B. was no longer asserting in her defence that Galloway assaulted her, rather that she reported he had done so.
The woman, whose name is under a publication ban, is not testifying in the case, citing mental health struggles.
Galloway was fired by the university and has said the claims destroyed his career.
His lawyer, Dan Burnett, has sought to establish Galloway as a young author who was just getting started on the heels of the success of The Cellist of Sarajevo, when the allegations derailed that trajectory and destroyed his earning potential.
The case has drawn intense attention in the Canadian literary scene.
A group of authors, including Margaret Atwood, signed an open letter in November 2016 calling for an investigation into how the university handled Galloway’s case.
Ex-husband of Steven Galloway’s accuser testifies in defamation trial
The court has previously heard A.B. was a former student who was older than Galloway and they had a two-year affair, which he has said ended in 2013.
A.B.’s former husband testified last week, called as a witness by Galloway’s lawyers.
Atwood has recently penned opinion articles supporting Galloway, writing in The Globe and Mail that testimony from A.B.’s ex-husband saying he was exchanging text messages with A.B. about a hockey game at the time of her alleged 2011 rape in Galloway’s office, was like the “Aha!” moment in a Sherlock Holmes novel.