Episode 10

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Published on:

30th Nov 2024

And the Prize goes to…Warmongers!

Suchitra, Bhakti, and Madhuri examine a year of prize scandals, immoral literary institutions and inappropriate red carpet galas. They ask why the genocide in Gaza has not been a red line for many prestigious literary institutions who have insisted on going about business as usual. They look at how literary institutions, prize committees, cultural events and writers themselves are complicit in perpetuating imperialist power structures and silencing dissenting voices. They highlight the ways in which these institutions, through both overt actions and subtle inactions, reveal their allegiance to oppressive systems. They break down the controversies that have rocked prominent literary organizations and awards in North America, such as PEN America, Giller Prize, and the Dan David Prize amongst others, further exposing their failure to take a firm stand on Palestine. The hosts also address the broader critique of performative activism in the literary world.

The episode interrogates the role and responsibilities of a writer, publishers and institutions during an ongoing genocide, and emphasizes an urgent reimagining for the way that literary and cultural institutions and ecosystems should function. It urges the literary industry to push forward the cultural boycott of Israel, and actively participate in creating ethical, radical spaces for resistance and solidarity.

Keywords: Palestine, Gaza, literary awards, PEN America, Guernica, Giller Prize, Dan David Prize, JCB Prize, PACBI, cultural boycott, Palestinian literature, literary institutions, genocide, resistance, solidarity, zionist apologia

Key Takeaways: 

  • The ongoing genocide in Gaza perpetuated by Israel has exposed and unmasked the literary world as they were faced with controversies over their stance on the genocide. Many writers and organizations have called on for the boycott of institutions who continue to not address the genocide on Gaza and maintain their close ties with Israel.
  • The Giller Prize and PEN America, in particular, have recently faced serious backlash for their financial sponsorships and allegiance to institutionalised oppressive systems.  
  • The impact of cultural production and its political implications by literary organizations on state violence is sanitized by manufacturing harmful narratives of tip-toeing around neutrality and zionist apologia. 
  • The role of a writer comes into question during an ongoing genocide and genocide must be a red line in cultural and literary production. There is a moral imperative to engage in ethical publishing and reject affiliations with systems abetting oppression and violence.
  • Literary organizations must understand the significance of the cultural boycott of Israel and the necessity of signing on to PACBI.

Hosted by: Suchitra Vijayan, Bhakti Shringarpure, and Madhuri Sastry

A podcast by The Polis Project

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About the Podcast

It's Not You, It's The Media
Resist media gaslighting
It's Not You, It's The Media! unpacks the ways that the media manipulates narratives and makes you question your reality. You're being gaslighted. Suchitra Vijayan, Bhakti Shringarpure and Madhuri Sastry eviscerate the propaganda, set the record straight and offer moral clarity.

Suchitra Vijayan is a writer, photographer and activist. She is the founder and Executive Director of The Polis Project. For her first book, The Midnight's Border: A People's History of India, Suchitra traveled across the 9000-mile Indian border. A barrister by training, she previously worked for the United Nations war crimes tribunals in Yugoslavia and Rwanda before co-founding the Resettlement Legal Aid Project in Cairo, which gives legal aid to Iraqi refugees. She is the co-author of How Long Can the Moon Be Caged? Voices of Indian Political Prisoners (2023) which offers a lens into today's India through the lived experiences of political prisoners.

Bhakti Shringarpure is a writer and editor. She is the co-founder of Warscapes magazine which transitioned into the Radical Books Collective, a multi-faceted community building project that creates an alternative, inclusive and non-commercial approach to books and reading. Bhakti is the author of Cold War Assemblages: Decolonization to Digital (2019) and editor of Literary Sudans: An Anthology of Literature from Sudan and South Sudan (2017), Imagine Africa (2017) Mediterranean: Migrant Crossings (2018) and most recently, Insurgent Feminisms: Writing War (2023).

Madhuri Sastry is a former lawyer, specializing in international and human rights law. She was the publisher of Guernica Magazine. Her political writing, cultural criticism, interviews and essays have appeared in several publications including The Nation, Guernica, Slate, Bitch and New York Magazine. She is on the editorial board at the Polis Project.