Authors Stand with Charlie Hebdo

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January 9, 2015

As the world continues to mourn the 12 dead in Wednesday’s terrorist attack on the controversial French magazine Charlie Hebdo, satirists, cartoonists, writers, and editors have come together with PEN America to stand against the attack and bolster the necessity of free expression, even when that expression is offensive to some. From PEN America’s statement:

Peaceful coexistence within diverse communities requires a climate of tolerance and an open exchange of views that includes criticism, humor, and hyperbole. The right to satirize, to question, to expose, to mock, even when offensive to some, is a bulwark of a free society. Today’s bloody retribution for the drawing and publishing of cartoons represents a terrifying challenge to these values of tolerance.

BSKY

Claire Burgess

Claire Burgessâ€™s short fiction has appeared in Third Coast, Hunger Mountain, and PANK online, among others. Her stories have received special mentions in the Pushcart Prize and Best American anthologies, but havenâ€™t actually made it into one yet. Sheâ€™s a graduate of the Vanderbilt University MFA program, where she co-founded Nashville Review. She lives in Pittsburgh by way of the deep South and says things on Twitter @Clairabou_.

One response

Caleb Powell

January 9, 2015

Exactly, Claire, I hope you and all writers who agree make statements. To stand with Charlie Hebdo means to publish and republish the magazine’s cartoons, as The New Yorker has done. As the AP fears to do.

Some people say we should not offend, and thus refuse to publish Charlie Hebdo. But those who are against religious chauvinism, misogyny, and homophobia might find the Bible, Torah, and Koran offensive. We ban all or ban none.