[LINK] "Atwood drops Dubai"

[rfmcdonald]

Go Atwood.

A festival in Dubai, United Arab Emirates, dedicated to celebrating "the world of books in all its infinite variety" will be doing its celebrating without Margaret Atwood as a result of what Atwood calls a "censorship fracas."

The Canadian author (and vice-president of International PEN) confirmed yesterday in an e-mail that she is turning down her invitation to participate in the first Emirates Airline International Festival of Literature, set to start Feb. 26 in Dubai, after organizers declined to let British journalist and author Geraldine Bedell launch her latest novel there.

Bedell's book, The Gulf Between Us, published by Penguin Group (U.K.), reportedly contains "a minor character" who is both a sheik and gay with an English boyfriend. In a letter to Bedell published on the weekend, festival director Isobel Abulhoul also said the book's setting against the backdrop of the Iraq war "could be a minefield for us."

In a statement of "clarification" yesterday, Abulhoul said her decision to ban The Gulf Between Us was based on having lived in Dubai for 40 years and knowing what kinds of writing "would appeal to the book-reading community in the Middle East." Atwood, one of 66 authors invited to Dubai, was scheduled for an appearance on Feb. 28.