Queen of Queen’s

It’s always the chance word, unthinkinggesture that unlocks the face before you.Reveals the intricate countriesdeep within the eyes. The hiddenlives, like sudden miracles,that breathe there.— Bronwen Wallace

At the end of the current ­academic year, one of Canada’s most quietly effective creative writing programs is losing its heart. Carolyn Smart has run the undergraduate courses at Queen’s University — coded CWRI — since she took over from Bronwen Wallace in 1989, following Wallace’s death from cancer at forty-four. I was Carolyn Smart’s student in the early 2000s, and, for a time, I thought she had offered me terrible advice.

As I was finishing up my English degree and thinking about my future as a writer, I asked if I should pursue a master of fine arts degree. She advised against it. “There used to be teaching jobs,” she explained, “but there are no jobs anymore.” If I couldn’t teach, the...