[lbo-talk] NYT: Six PEN Members Decline Gala After Award for Charlie Hebdo

[Joseph Catron]

"The decision by PEN American Center to give its annual Freedom of
Expression Courage award to the French satirical newspaper Charlie
Hebdo has prompted six writers to withdraw as literary hosts at the
group's annual gala on May 5, adding a new twist to the continuing
debate over the publication's status as a martyr for free speech.

"The novelists Peter Carey, Michael Ondaatje, Francine Prose, Teju
Cole, Rachel Kushner and Taiye Selasi have withdrawn from the gala, at
the American Museum of Natural History in Manhattan. Gerard Biard,
Charlie Hebdo's editor in chief, and Jean-Baptiste Thoret, a Charlie
Hebdo staff member who arrived late for work on Jan. 7 and missed the
attack by Islamic extremists that killed 12 people, are scheduled to
accept the award.

"In an email to PEN's leadership on Friday, Ms. Kushner said she was
withdrawing out of discomfort with what she called the magazine's
'cultural intolerance' and promotion of 'a kind of forced secular
view,' opinions echoed by other writers who pulled out ..."

http://nyti.ms/1zcvkk9

-- 
"Hige sceal þe heardra, heorte þe cenre, mod sceal þe mare, þe ure
mægen lytlað."