Outspoken feminist writer Germaine Greer and former NSW premier and foreign minister Bob Carr have been told they are not welcome at the Brisbane Writers Festival because they are “too controversial” and would “overshadow” other writers on the program.
Both Greer, who was going to discuss her contentious new book, On Rape, and Carr, who has just published a memoir, reacted with surprise and indignation when told of the decision, sent to their publisher, Melbourne University Press.
Carr, who in his memoir Run for Your Life discusses the “China panic”, the decline of the US and his relationship with the Israel lobby, said he thought literary festivals were supposed to encourage ideas and debate, and even controversy.
“This is political orthodoxy gone mad,” he said. “The (festival organisers) have turned themselves into vestal virgins and told us we are not welcome. Well, I feel honoured to be thrown out the door in the company of someone like Germaine Greer.”
The two were considered for the festival, which starts on September 6. Carr was to be interviewed on stage by journalist Marian Wilkinson.
But BWF acting chief executive Ann McLean said the situation was more complex than two writers being “disinvited”.
Read the article by literary editor Stephen Romei in The Australian.