Pulitzer Prize-winning author Viet Thanh Nguyen said on Saturday a Jewish organisation in New York City cancelled a reading he was due to give on Friday without explanation, a day after he said he signed an open letter condemning Israel’s “indiscriminate violence” against Palestinians in Gaza.
Nguyen, a Vietnamese-American professor and writer whose novel “The Sympthizer” won the 2016 Pulitzer Prize for Fiction, was scheduled to speak at the 92nd Street Y literary center’s Christopher Lightfoot Walker Reading Series event in Manhattan at 8pm.
Writing on Instagram, Nguyen said he learned at 3pm that the event had been cancelled by the 92NY. The center describes itself on its website as “a proudly Jewish organisation.” “Their language was ‘postponment,’ but no reason was given, no other date was offered, and I was never asked,” Nguyen wrote.
“So, in effect, cancellation. Some people in social media comments say they heard it was a bomb threat. I’ve heard no such thing from 92Y staff.” A spokesperson for 92NY confirmed it postponed the event, citing Nguyen’s stance on Israel as well as the October 7 attack by militants of the Palestinian Islamist group Hamas and continued holding of hostages, which it said “has absolutely devastated the community.” Nguyen’s reprsentatives did not respond to messages seeking more details.
Nguyen, a Vietnamese-American professor and writer whose novel “The Sympthizer” won the 2016 Pulitzer Prize for Fiction, was scheduled to speak at the 92nd Street Y literary center’s Christopher Lightfoot Walker Reading Series event in Manhattan at 8pm.
Writing on Instagram, Nguyen said he learned at 3pm that the event had been cancelled by the 92NY. The center describes itself on its website as “a proudly Jewish organisation.” “Their language was ‘postponment,’ but no reason was given, no other date was offered, and I was never asked,” Nguyen wrote.
“So, in effect, cancellation. Some people in social media comments say they heard it was a bomb threat. I’ve heard no such thing from 92Y staff.” A spokesperson for 92NY confirmed it postponed the event, citing Nguyen’s stance on Israel as well as the October 7 attack by militants of the Palestinian Islamist group Hamas and continued holding of hostages, which it said “has absolutely devastated the community.” Nguyen’s reprsentatives did not respond to messages seeking more details.