Western University takes step toward cutting ties with author Alice Munro

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Western University has paused the research chair named in honour of local Nobel laureate Alice Munro, perhaps the first tangible sign her legacy will be affected after her adult daughter revealed a dark family secret.

The Alice Munro Chair in Creativity, established after the Huron County writer’s 2013 Nobel Prize win, was designed to “lead the creative culture” in the faculty of arts, teach and serve as a link between the university and the local creative community, school officials have said.

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But they confirm they have “paused” the position and cancelled the fall 2024 class the appointee was set to teach amid the shockwaves unleashed when the late writer’s daughter, Andrea Robin Skinner, wrote in the Toronto Star that her stepfather, Gerald Fremlin, sexually abused her over several years beginning at age nine in the 1970s.

The abuse occurred when Skinner visited her mother in Clinton from British Columbia, where the child lived with her father. Skinner wrote her mother remained married to Fremlin even after learning of the abuse that Fremlin in letters shockingly blamed on the child.

“We were deeply troubled to learn of Andrea Robin Skinner’s experience of childhood sexual abuse,” Ileana Paul, Western’s acting dean of the faculty of arts and humanities, said in a statement. “Ms. Skinner has our unwavering support and our thoughts are with her.

“At this time we are pausing the Alice Munro Chair in Creativity appointment as we carefully consider Munro’s legacy and her ties to Western.”

Munro received an honorary degree from Western in 1976 and was awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature in 2013, after which the chair in her name was established. Authors appointed to the chair teach and work with English and writing students at the university.

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Previous chairs were Sheila Heti, Ivan Coyote and Nino Ricci. Free Press attempts to reach each of them this week were unsuccessful.

Bryce Traister is the former chair of Western’s English department and helped established the Munro chair. He said he supports pausing it.

“I’d say first and foremost that Western should be seeking and following the wishes of the family,” Traister said, “and with respect to the continuation of the chair, I think that it would be inappropriate for any decision to be made that is not in accordance with the family’s wishes.”

He added: “I’d still say today Munro remains one of the most accomplished practitioners of the genre of the short story in the English-speaking world. I don’t think that that has changed given the recent revelations regarding the sexual abuse allegations from her daughter.”

In 2005, Fremlin was convicted in a Goderich court of indecent assault against Skinner. Munro remained married to him, and she and her daughter never reconciled, Skinner wrote.

Fremlin died in 2013 at age 88. His obituary stated: “He will be sorely missed by his wife Alice, and by family and friends too numerous to mention.”

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Munro died in May at age 92. Skinner wrote that she is speaking out now because she and her siblings want Canadians to have a more full understanding of Munro.

A literary icon, Munro was born in Wingham but lived in Clinton as she gained acclaim for stories often inspired by life in Huron County. She became a star after winning the Nobel Prize, and a local legend: There’s a Clinton library monument and a Wingham reading garden named in her honour.

At the edge of Wingham sits a sign that reads: “Birth Place of Alice Munro.”

The community’s top politician said he would “consider” pulling Munro’s name from public places if there was significant public support for doing so. But many residents who spoke with The Free Press appeared unmoved by Munro’s reaction to her daughter’s abuse.

Traister, Western’s former English department head, spoke to the reality that celebrated artists and their ugly personal lives can make for a difficult mix for fans and admirers.

“This is not the first time that a famous author turns out (to have) something about their personal history that is unsavoury (and) difficult,” he said. “I’ll say Alice Munro now joins a very long list whose personal lives makes one’s reverence for that work much more complicated.”

bbaleeiro@postmedia.com

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