Margaret Atwood has pulled out of the inauguraul Emirates Airline international festival of literature in the wake of a novelist being blacklisted for potential offence to "cultural sensitivities". Other authors due to appear at the festival, including bestselling children's authors Anthony Horowitz and Lauren Child, are now also reconsidering whether to attend.
Atwood, a vice president of writers' group International Pen, has written to the festival's director about the "regrettable turn of events" surrounding Geraldine Bedell's The Gulf Between Us. "I was greatly looking forward to the festival, and to the chance to meet readers there; but, as an international vice president of Pen – an organisation concerned with the censorship of writers – I cannot be part of the festival this year," she wrote in a letter posted on her official site.
"I know you have put an enormous amount of work into it, I can imagine how many difficulties have had to be overcome, and I am very sad about the regrettable turn of events surrounding The Gulf Between Us."
Bedell's book is a romantic comedy set in a fictional Gulf emirate, and was due to receive its official launch during the festival. According to Bedell, the organisers of the festival were initially keen to feature it, but then produced a list of reasons why they couldn't launch it there, citing its Gulf setting, its discussion of Islam and its focus on the Iraq war, as well as the fact that a minor character is a gay sheikh with an English boyfriend.
Writing on the Guardian's books blog yesterday, Bedell said that she didn't believe the blacklisting of the book, which is now banned from sale in the United Arab Emirates, reflected public opinion in the Gulf states. "The organisers claimed to be worried that if they launched the book 'and a journalist happened to read it, then you could imagine the political fallout that would follow'. I've worked as a journalist in the Gulf, and I recognise what's happening here: it's a kind of self-censorship that's terrified someone else – other people – might be offended, regardless of whether the material in question is really offensive at all," she wrote. "Gulf Arabs are far more tolerant and accepting, diverse and argumentative than we in Britain (and their protectors in Ministries of Information) are inclined to give them credit for."
The festival's director Isobel Abulhoul described Atwood's decision to withdraw, "especially at such late notice", as "regrettable", adding that she had tried to contact the author directly to ask her to reconsider. "We are very disappointed and not a little surprised that it has taken so long for anyone to reconsider their position – particularly if this reconsideration is linked to Geraldine Bedell's position which, while communicated to her last September, has come to the public's attention only now and around the publication of her novel," she said.
Abulhoul said the decision not to include Bedell's book in the programme was taken based on her knowledge of the Middle Eastern book-reading community after living in Dubai for 40 years. Having read 150 pages of the
manuscript, she knew the work "could offend certain cultural sensitivities", and that it was not in the festival's "long-term interests" to launch it.
"In organising any literary festival, wherever it is in the world, one has to take decisions regarding the target audience," she said. "I would hope
that anyone informed and interested in the differing cultures around the
world would both understand and respect the path we tread in setting up the
first festival of this nature in the Middle East."
Jonathan Heawood, director of English Pen, praised Atwood for making what he said was "a difficult decision for any author to take". But he avoided urging other authors to pull out of the festival, saying it was "a decision for individual authors to take and we would never put any pressure on any author to pull out of a festival".
"Ideally a festival like this should be a chance for authors from all cultures and different backgrounds to come together, share work and exchange experiences," he added. "A literary festival should be about cultural exchange, and clearly this one isn't."
Bestselling children's author Anthony Horowitz, a key speaker at the festival, is also "deeply concerned" and is "seriously consider[ing]" pulling out of the event. He is currently deciding whether he would have more of an effect by bowing out of the event, or attending and protesting there, and has written a strongly-worded email to the festival's organiser setting out his position.
"The issue here is not sexuality – but you must understand that as both a children's author and a member of Pen, I cannot be associated with a literary festival that opposes freedom of speech and which attempts to censor other writers," he wrote. "I must ask you to let me know, with some urgency, quite how this situation has arisen and where exactly you stand. It doesn't help that my name is being used constantly to promote the festival … in truth, I should have known about this earlier." He is awaiting a response.
Children's author, illustrator and creator of Charlie and Lola, Lauren Child, who has just taken up a new role as a Unesco Artist for Peace, is also considering her position, her publicist said this morning.
Former children's laureate Anne Fine, who still plans to attend the festival, said: "I'm very surprised that these problems are coming up at such short notice. Authors notoriously write with great freedom and are outspoken. It surprises me that this is coming as a surprise to an international festival of literature."
The Orange prize-winning novelist Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie said she was still planning to attend the festival but would be talking to the organisers about their decision to blacklist Bedell's book. "I'm just hearing about this now and I am troubled by it," she said. "I fiercely disagree with the censorship of any work of fiction; it is ethically wrong. The best way to deal with concerns about speech is more speech."
Other authors scheduled to attend the fair include Kate Adie, Jung Chang, Louis de Bernières, Philippa Gregory and Karin Slaughter, among many others.