Bosnian author Lana Bastasic responds to being ‘Dis-invited’ from Austria literature festival over Gaza views

Bosnian author Lana Bastasic has responded to being dis-invited from the Austria literature festival over Gaza views!

As reported, Lana Bastašić was uninvited from a writing residency because of her anti-genocide stance.

The author of the novel Catch the Rabbit, winner of the 2020 European Union Prize for Literature, in an Instagram post revealed the email she received from the institution and welcomed the move, saying she wants no link to an institution that ‘cancels artists because of activism’

The writer captioned her Instagram post saying, “Today I was informed that my residency and event have been cancelled by Literaturfest Salzburg and Literaturhaus NÖ both of which were confirmed as late as January 20th this year. This was not something I applied for, but a residency I was invited to. Here is the email I received and the reply I sent. They keep underestimating Yugoslavs. Again.”

In response to her invitation being withdrawn, Bastasic said that the decision was an example of “clear positioning” and that it was her “political and human opinion that children should not be bombed and that German cultural institutions should know better when it comes to genocide.

“Given that you invited me to your residency and festival, you must have been acquainted with my work, which deals closely with the consequences war has on children. Perhaps to you, literary works are divorced from real life, but then again, you have probably never known war first-hand,” she added.

Bastasic thanked the organisation for rescinding its invitation, saying that she does not want to be part of another institution “which not only cancels artists because of their activism but seems to think silence and censorship is the right answer to genocide”.

 

Earlier this month, Lana Bastasic split with her publisher stating that it was her moral and ethical duty to end her contract with the publisher over its silence on Israel’s war on Gaza, as well as the culture of “systematic censorship” in Germany.

She accused her publisher of having double standards, and believed that its stated concern over antisemitism was “deaf to the suffering of Palestinians”.

The author told Middle East Eye that her decision led to significant financial loss and uncertainty, but she would not shift from her position.

“I didn’t start writing because I wanted to have a career. I started writing because I come from a traumatised place and I had the need to communicate something,” she told Middle East Eye.