Pulitzer winner who backs Palestinians says talk canceled by NY Jewish institution
2023.10.21 13:22
(Reuters) – Pulitzer Prize-winning author Viet Thanh Nguyen said on Saturday a Jewish organization in New York City canceled a reading he was due to give on Friday without explanation, a day after he said he signed an open letter condemning Israel’s “indiscriminate violence” against Palestinian in Gaza.
Nguyen, a Vietnamese-American professor and writer whose novel “The Sympathizer” won the 2016 Pulitzer Prize for Fiction, was scheduled to speak at the 92nd Street Y literary center in Manhattan at 8 p.m.
Writing on Instagram, Nguyen said he learned at 3 p.m. that the event had been canceled by the 92NY. The center describes itself on its website as “a proudly Jewish organization.”
“Their language was ‘postponement,’ but no reason was given, no other date was offered, and I was never asked,” Nguyen wrote. “So, in effect, cancellation. Some people in social media comments say they heard it was a bomb threat. I’ve heard no such thing from 92Y staff.”
Spokespeople for 92NY did not respond to emails from Reuters requesting comment. Nguyen’s representatives did not respond to messages seeking more details.
After militants of the Palestine Islamist group Hamas launched an unprecedented attack into southern Israel on Oct. 7, killing 1,400 people, Israel imposed a “total siege” of Gaza that has left the enclave’s 2.3 million people running out of food, water, medicines and fuel.
In an Instagram post on Thursday, Nguyen said he signed the open letter along with other authors because the effect of Israel’s policy was the inevitable death of civilians.
“That is wrong and it must stop,” he wrote, saying he remained a strong supporter of the Boycott, Divestment, Sanctions movement that calls for economic pressure on Israel to end the occupation of Palestinian land.
Nguyen said the organizers of Friday night’s event switched it to an independent bookshop.
“I spoke about my book, yes, but also about how art is silenced in times of war and division because some people only want to see the world as us vs them,” Nguyen wrote on Saturday. “And writing is the only way I know how to fight. And writing is the only way I know how to grieve.”
