///Follow-up article to "Atwood Protests Dubai fest after British author banned..."///
Atwood questions decision to pull out of Dubai literary fest
Fri Feb. 20 2009 9:53:36 PM
The Canadian Press
LONDON — Canadian author Margaret Atwood is questioning her decision to pull out of a Dubai literary festival, saying she may have acted without knowing all the facts.
In the British newspaper the Guardian's "This Week in Books" column, she wrote Saturday that "my head is spinning." Atwood said a week before her planned departure for the literary festival, that British author Geraldine Bedell claimed her novel "The Gulf Between Us" had been "banned" and "censored" for containing "among other things - the whiff of a mention of a gay sheikh."
Atwood said she got the impression from media reports that Bedell's book had been scheduled to launch at the Dubai festival and the launch had then been cancelled and the book had been banned throughout the Gulf states.
She said she also understood Bedell had been prohibited from attending the festival and travelling in Dubai.
"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 organization concerned with the censorship of writers -- I cannot be part of the festival this year," Atwood said announcing her withdrawal in a letter, posted on her website.