As many as 1,300 writers and publishers from around the world have signed a letter of support for Palestinian literary voices, including author Adania Shibli, after several reports surfaced from across the world where events featuring Palestinian art, voices, and stories had been cancelled in the wake of Hamas’ terror attack on Israel.
The letter is the effort of ArabLit, an organisation which publishes ArabLit Quarterly magazine featuring several translated works from Arabic.
“These recent, terrible days have seen – in several European countries – a closing-off and shutting down of cultural events that bring forward Palestinian art, voices, and stories,” noted ArabLit on its website.
The letter makes particular reference to award-winning Palestinian author Adania Shibli, because a ceremony scheduled for her to receive a prestigious award was cancelled in the wake of the ongoing Israel-Palestine conflict.
Shibli, who was a finalist for the 2020 National Book Award for her book Minor Detail (New Directions/Fitzcarraldo, translated by Elisabeth Jaquette), was to receive Germany’s 2023 LiBeraturpreis for the same book, published in German as Eine Nebensache (Berenberg Verlag, translated by Günther Orth) at the 2023 Frankfurt Book Fair, which begins next week.
Ironically, a statement released by organisers of the prize, Litprom, which is funded in part by the German government and the Frankfurt Book Fair, said on October 13 that she would no longer receive the prize during the book fair.
Shockingly, a public discussion with Shibli and her translator Günther Orth at the book fair has also been cancelled.
First, the statement by Litprom wrongly claimed that Shibli was consulted before the decision. However, Shibli said it was not discussed with her before the release of the statement, but was only presented to her after the decision had already been made.
The statement of Frankfurt Book Fair, which funds Litprom, also said it stands in “complete solidarity on the side of Israel” and that they wanted to make Jewish and Israeli voices “especially visible at the fair”.
The letter signed by 1,300 writers and artists also condemned the cancellation of the play of Hassan Abdulrazzak ‘And Here I Am’ by the mayor of Choisy-le-Roi, a commune in France. Abdulrazzak’s play is around the coming-of-age story of actor-director Ahmed Tobasi, born in Jenin during the first intifada of Palestine.
Similarly, the launch of A Day in the Life of Abed Salama, Nathan Thrall’s book, was cancelled due to “security concerns”.
The letter of support was signed by, among others, Nobel Prize laureates Abdulrazak Gurnah, Annie Ernaux, and Olga Tokarczuk; Booker Prize winners Anne Enright, Richard Flanagan, and Ian McEwan; 2021 winner of the Litprom prize Pilar Quintana and 2015 winner Madeleine Thien; dozens of publishers and literary agents; as well as many concerned writers from around the globe. There are now more than 1,300 signatories, ArabLit said on its website.
The letter of support may be read here:
“The shocking and tragic events that began on October 7th and are ongoing today have had repercussions all over the globe, including within the publishing world. Award-winning Palestinian author Adania Shibli, who was a finalist for the 2020 National Book Award for her book Minor Detail (New Directions/Fitzcarraldo, translated by Elisabeth Jaquette), was to receive Germany’s 2023 LiBeraturpreis for the same book, published in German as Eine Nebensache (Berenberg Verlag, translated by Günther Orth) at the 2023 Frankfurt Book Fair, which begins next week.
“On October 13, the organizers of the prize, Litprom, which is funded in part by the German government and the Frankfurt Book Fair, released a statement saying Shibli would no longer receive the prize during the book fair.
“In addition, a public discussion with Adania Shibli and her translator Günther Orth at the book fair has also been canceled.
“The statement originally said that this decision had been made in accordance with the author, which was then relayed, without verification, by an article in The New York Times (now corrected). This is untrue; Adania Shibli has said the decision was not made with her, she was presented with the decision. If the ceremony were held, she said, she would have taken the opportunity to reflect on the role of literature in these cruel and painful times. (Litprom and The Times have since made corrections.)
“Shibli’s US publisher, Barbara Epler of New Directions, wrote a letter to the editor of The New York Times, which we excerpt here:
“With the unbelievable heartbreak that is now being suffered on all sides, it serves no one to put forward falsehoods, especially about the author of a novel about the Nakba that is so historically true.
“To cancel the ceremony and so try to silence the voice of Adania Shibli — “due to the war in Israel” — is cowardly.
“But to say Shibli agreed (amid all the suffering in Gaza) is worse.
“At a time when the fair has issued a statement saying it wants to make Israeli voices “especially visible at the fair,” they are closing out the space for a Palestinian voice.
“While Shibli’s Minor Detail has been smeared as being anti-Semitic by two journalists and literary editors, other serious literary critics have clearly refuted this in the German press and elsewhere. The book makes reference to well-documented events related to the rape of a Bedouin girl in 1949 by an Israeli army unit.
“Shibli’s UK publisher, Jacques Testard of Fitzcarraldo writes, “One of the purposes of literature is to encourage understanding and dialogue between cultures. At a time of such horrific violence and heartbreak, the world’s biggest book fair has a duty to champion literary voices from Palestine and Israel. We stand in solidarity with Adania Shibli and her German publishers, Berenberg Verlag.”
“In this spirit, those of us involved in writing, translation, and publishing strongly assert that canceling cultural events is not the way forward. We recall the Frankfurt book fair supporting Turkish publishers, and how last year Ukrainian president Zelensky spoke to the fair in a pre-recorded address. The Frankfurt Book Fair has a responsibility, as a major international book fair, to be creating spaces for Palestinian writers to share their thoughts, feelings, reflections on literature through these terrible, cruel times, not shutting them down.
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