Galloway agent tells of impact of sexual assault allegations on author’s career

VANCOUVER — The literary agent for Steven Galloway has described what he views as the detrimental impact that unproven allegations of rape and sexual assault had on the author at the height of his “promising” career a decade ago.

Henry Dunow told a British Columbia Supreme Court hearing in Galloway’s defamation lawsuit against the accuser and other defendants that he thought of Galloway as a literary “star” with a bright future ahead of him.

But Dunow says the former student’s allegations, which emerged in 2015, would have made it “impossible” to sell any new work by Galloway in the ensuing years, as an author’s “social capital” and platform carry great importance in the industry.

Galloway, the former chair of creative writing at the University of B.C., denies the allegations and is suing the former student, whose claims of rape and sexual assault were found unsubstantiated by a former judge hired by the university.

Galloway was never charged and his accuser, known as A.B., is not asserting in her defence that her allegations are true, although she has not said she lied.

Dunow told the court the allegations resulted in the cancellation of a $100,000 contract for a three-novel series Galloway planned to write about a ventriloquist detective, meant to be a playful departure from his earlier, serious works.

The author of “The Cellist of Sarajevo” and “The Confabulist” was fired by the university and says his career was destroyed by the allegations.

Several people originally named as defendants have settled with Galloway and offered public apologies, while A.B., whose name is under a publication ban, is not testifying in the case due to mental health struggles related to the lawsuit.

The court has previously heard that Galloway and A.B. had a two-year affair.

The former husband of A.B. testified last week, called as a witness by Galloway’s lawyers.

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.

Atwood has recently penned opinion articles supporting Galloway, writing in The Globe And Mail last week 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.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Oct. 26, 2026.

Brenna Owen, The Canadian Press