Another day, another act of censorship – and a blistering riposte
JVL Introduction
Bosnian-Serbian novelist Lana Bastašić decided to break with her prestigious German publisher because of its abject silence on the humanitarian crisis in Gaza. [You can read her letter in full below.]
This was too much for the Literaturfest Salzburg and Literaturhaus NÖ which cancelled the reading and residency they had invited her to and had only a few weeks earlier confirmed.
Bastašić’s response is a brilliant assault on those who have added themselves to “the long and infamous list of cultural institutions which cancel artists who refuse to stay silent when the world is screaming.”
RK
This article was originally published by Literary Hub on Tue 30 Jan 2024. Read the original here.
Read novelist Lana Bastašić’s blazing response to yet another act of literary censorship.
It is my political and human opinion that children should not be slaughtered and that German cultural institutions should know better when it comes to genocide.
–Lana Bastašić
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Congratulations Lana, both on your principled (and personally painful) stand and on the excellence of your writing.
Hope people vote with their feet
I’d not heard of Lana Bastasic before, but I’m going to order Catch the Rabbit from my local bookshop. If her novels are as well written as her letters, it will be a gripping read!
Lab a lady with impeccable morals, which she put above her career. Pity there aren’t more celebs from all spheres following her example.