Margaret Atwood, VIP

It’s an international incident and a fantastic book launch all rolled into one!

Here’s the latest on the Dubai Book Fair book-banning brouhaha. (For the backstory see MobyLives, here.) Margaret Atwood, Booker-winning author and PEN International VP, writes in the Guardian that basically, she was suckered. She now regrets canceling her appearance at the Fair because of accusations of the censorious behavior of Fair organizers. Atwood says, “a week before my planned departure, a nasty storm broke out. [Author] Geraldine Bedell claimed that 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. From reading the press, I got the impression that her book had been scheduled to launch at the festival, and that the launch had then been cancelled, for whiff-o’gay-sheikh reasons; and that, furthermore, it had been banned throughout the Gulf states; and that furthermore, Bedell herself had been prohibited from attending the festival, and also from travelling in Dubai.”

Atwood says she was embarrassed to learn belatedly that Observer journalist Beddell’s book, The Gulf Between Us, was not “banned” from the Dubai Fair, nor was the author herself banned from attending the fair. After speaking with the festival’s director, Isobel Abulhoul, Atwood writes, “This is what I understand her to have said: Bedell’s book was not poised to be launched at the festival; thus no launch had been cancelled. Penguin had asked for the launch, and Abulhoul had commented that this was a little-known writer who would not ordinarily be accorded that kind of slot. But she asked to see the manuscript. On the basis of that, she passed. This happens every day at every festival in the world. Publishers always want to launch or feature their authors, and all festivals pick and choose.”

The Guardian reported on an email from Abulhoul to Penguin, dated the 19th of September 2008, politely rejecting the book, saying “the novel was ‘extremely well written and should sell well’ but continues: ‘However it is definitely not a book that we can launch at EAIFL for the following reasons: one of the Sheikhs is gay and has an English boyfriend; it talks about Islam and queries what is said; it is set in the Gulf and focuses on the Iraq war and could be a minefield for us.”

Queried by the Guardian, Bedell “expressed regret that the row had escalated, saying she would prefer to “take the heat” out of the discussion. “The point is that the organisers didn’t want it at the festival because it was too controversial.” As for her use of the word “ban”, she said: “I think that word was appropriate based on my understanding of what the situation was at the time.”

Regarding the “banning,” Juliet Annan, publishing director of Penguin Books UK, said they had no “direct contact with the censor’s office on these matters, we rely on information from the booksellers and they told us it was banned. That is why the story broke now – not because Bedell ‘saved it up’ for publication.”

Despite such protestations of innocence, it might be fair to ask all and sundry, with UAE’s other than stellar track record on human rights issues, why was everyone in such a hurry to head over to Dubai in the first place?