From the poster of the international festival of art, literature, and humanities Cultur Alh, which will be held in Granada between next Monday, September 21, and Sunday the 27th, the name of the Argentine writer Ariana Harwicz (Buenos Aires, 48 years old) has been removed, as she has shared on social media. “They unprogrammed me at the last moment. They gave in to pressure from activists. They gave in to terror.”
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From the Cultur Alh festival, Patricia Escalona, co-director along with Ana Gallego Cuiñas of this event, now in its second edition, confirms that “the invitation” to the author, a finalist for the International Booker in 2018 and living in France for almost two decades, “has been rescinded.”
The first sign against Harwicz, whom they invited months ago, as the author explained in a phone conversation this Friday, came with the opposition to reading her books by the reading clubs of the students at the University of Granada. “Harwicz’s strong stance, opposed to the cultural boycott of Israel, was what caused the rejection,” explains Escalona. The writer adds that she is against the unprogramming of Israelis in film and literature festivals or concerts. “I was also against the unprogramming of Russians when the war in Ukraine broke out. I am against reducing every person to their nationality,” she states. “I am against the cultural boycott and I am very happy to meet people who think differently.” The dialogue in Granada in which she was going to participate was titled “Opposing the World” and was expected to be accompanied by Jesús Ortega.
It is not an “International Festival of Arts Literature and Humanities” and it is not a public university in Granada. The organizers said how much they admire my books, which are anything but propaganda. They unprogrammed me at the last moment. They gave in to pressure from activists. They gave in to… pic.twitter.com/LEaRC1aNcv
— Ariana Harwicz (@ArianaHar) September 18, 2026
Finally, a letter sent by the University Network for Palestine of Granada has been what motivated the organizers’ decision to cancel the writer’s talk at this festival, which will be attended by John Banville, Gabriela Cabezón Cámara, Patrick Boucheron, María Fernanda Ampuero, and Juan Villoro, among others. “It is reaching the purge of authors, filmmakers, or musicians. And it is the cultural elite that calls for violence in the name of humanism,” Harwicz asserts.
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“I wanted to go, just like they held a demonstration, but they said it would be dangerous. It will be a festival without dissent. What a pity for the students,” lamented the author of Mátate, amor (Anagrama) or Perder el juicio (Anagrama) in her message on social media. She adds on the phone: “We are all afraid, and we all know what to say to be invited to festivals or to get a grant. My books are not propaganda and they don’t even talk about a specific era. Today Jews are being turned into pariahs,” states the Argentine Jewish writer.
The Alhambra and the University of Granada are the setting for many of the events planned by the festival, which also take place in the streets and squares of the city, and the event with Harwicz was scheduled in one of them. “It is very unlikely that we could have talked about her books if there were demonstrations. There could have been no literary or political debate, what there would have been is a protest,” points out the organizer.
The unprogramming of Harwicz took place the same week that more than thirty guests at the Festival of Ideas in Madrid pressured the organizers to break with the event’s sponsor, the insurer Allianz, as finally happened.
“The groups that pressure dominate the entire cultural field: subsidies, festivals, and awards. That is, there is no culture, there is ideological pressure,” emphasizes Harwicz, who participated in the last edition of the Madrid Book Fair in a colloquium with Karina Sainz Borgo, moderated by Jesús García Calero. “They didn’t unprogram me because of my ideas, that is the current euphemism and it is false. They unprogram me because I am Jewish to turn me into a pariah. A public university and a public festival should not submit to pressures nor fear for my integrity.”
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