City’s writers festival cuts Bob Carr and Germaine Greer

Germaine Greer was “relieved’’ when the Brisbane Writers Festival disinvited her and Bob Carr. Why is she happy about it?

Germaine Greer, left, and Bob Carr, right. have been dumped by the Brisbane Writers Festival.

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.

“The Brisbane Writers Festival is very hard work,’’ said Greer, who landed in hot water at the same festival in 2012 when she noted low literacy rates in Queensland, where she now lives part of the time. “So, to be uninvited to what is possibly the dreariest literary festival in the world, with zero hospitality and no fun at all, is a great relief.”

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”.

She said Greer was not invited by the festival but by a Brisbane book store. The festival decided to work with the store on the event but in the end both parties had chosen to pull out. She acknowledged there were concerns the media interest in Greer would overshadow the other 140-plus writers on the program.

Ms McLean said Carr was considered but the festival decided not to proceed because he was unsuitable for the selected topic — “What the World Needs Now” — and would instead just talk about his new book. She said it was a “curatorial decision” to leave him out.

Ms McLean said neither writer had been signed to a contract with the festival.

Greer’s On Rape will be published on September 1. The author, a landmark feminist thinker since The Female Eunuch (1970), has drawn strong criticism for her prepublication comments, including a call to lower the “excessive” sentences for rapists.

She said there was a “general fog of craziness” about rape, adding that non-consensual sex was “practically universal in every longstanding relationship”.

In a letter to MUP about Greer, seen by The Australian, Ms McLean notes “concerns about the likelihood of media coverage of Germaine possibly overshadowing other writers on the program”. “We have taken this decision knowing it will cause upset and we apologise.”

In a second letter to MUP about Carr, Ms McLean writes that in consultation with the board of UPLIT, the group that organises the festival, she had decided to withdraw the invitation: “It is an unfortunate situation and a decision not taken lightly.’’

She adds that “there is also consideration for the brand alignment of several sponsors we are securing for the festival”.

MUP chief executive Louise Adler said she was concerned “we are entering an era where ­festivals are self-censoring”.

“Writers festivals are about discussion and challenges to our perspectives. Isn’t a writers festival supposed to provoke us to think anew?” she said. “Sure we want festivals that are the reverse of ‘safe spaces’, that offer us the opportunity to see and hear bold and brave writers with new ideas.

“It seems odd that writers of enormous public interest, who were both sought after and invited by the festival, have been disinvited as they are now considered ‘contrary to the mission and values of the festival’.’’

Ms McLean rejected the comments, saying BWF was “fully prepared to embrace controversy” and had lined up events on the Adani coalmine debate, changes in feminism and the future of mental healthcare, for example.

MUP has moved quickly to set up an alternative event featuring Greer and Carr. This “salon de refuses’’, in association with Dymocks, will be held at a Brisbane cinema on September 7. It will be hosted by Phillip Adams.

The shunning of Greer and Carr is the latest in a series of unexpected events at Australian writers festivals. At this year’s Sydney event, acclaimed Dominican-American writer Junot Diaz left the festival after an audience member, US novelist Zinzi Clemmons, accused him of inappropriate sexual behaviour. Diaz denies the claims.