PWAC executive director Degen named literature officer of the Ontario Arts Council

[This post has been updated] John Degen, the executive director of the Professional Writers Association of Canada (PWAC) is leaving the organization to become the literature officer of the Ontario Arts Council. He replaces the retiring Lorraine Filyer.

We read about it in a posting on the Creators' Copyright Coalition website (which is somehow fitting, since Degen has been an outspoken champion of copyright issues* on behalf of Canadian writers). As far as I know, the OAC has not officially announced the appointment.

The OAC position is one of the lynchpin positions in the cultural arts, not least because the literature office ministers to the majority of literary and cultural magaiznes in the country and dispenses some $450,000 annually in grant support.

[Disclosure: I recently completed a review of the grants to periodicals program on behalf of the OAC.]

PWAC will certainly miss the good-humoured management of Degen who is also a poet and novelist of some note and, before joining PWAC, was a staffer with Magazines Canada.

*In fact Degan gave a hint about his new position yesterday with a post on his website in which he said he would be pulling back from the copyright wars somewhat.

Not only am I tired of the struggle over copyright in this country, but I have a need to officially pull back from the debate. My opinions about reform have not changed, but I am going to be working for creators in what I hope is a much more effective and meaningful way.

Degen is the author of a novel The Uninvited Guest (Nightwood Editions) and two books of poetry: Killing Things and Animal Life in Bucharest. He has published work in Taddle Creek, blood + aphorisms, The Fiddlehead, Queen Street Quarterly and The Walrus, and is a frequent reviewer for THIS Magazine.

[UPDATE: The Ontario Arts Council has officially announced Degen's appointment, freeing him to make his own announcement on his website.]

Related stories:

• John Degen to take over for Filyer at OAC (Quill & Quire)