Posting on social media, he asked: \u201cDo civic society and the arts not care about safeguarding people who disclose trauma publicly? What\u2019s the deal?\u201d He added: \u201cSurely I\u2019m part of the Scottish literary establishment now?\u201d<\/p>\n
McGarvey believes \u201clip service\u201d is being paid to creating an inclusive platform which is not borne out in the programme.<\/p>\n
He said his latest work is nuanced and examines the culture of trauma and its commodification which may have sparked discomfort among the book festival organisers, adding: \u201cThat would probably make a lot of people uncomfortable. Perhaps it might be a little bit too close to home for some people.\u201d<\/p>\n
McGarvey, who is also known by his stage name, Loki, is staging a live Fringe show on his latest book, Trauma Industrial Complex<\/a>, which examines the effects of oversharing personal trauma.<\/p>\n A spokeswoman for the festival said: \u201cShaping the festival programme is a complex process, this year presenting 700 events featuring 641 writers from 35 countries. This year\u2019s programme explores themes including geopolitics, environmental repair and cultural reparations alongside celebrating the world\u2019s most brilliant fiction. The sheer number of writers and volume of published work in Scotland, let alone from around the world, means that every year some authors won\u2019t be on our stages.\u201d<\/p>\n After McGarvey\u2019s comments it emerged that Jenny Niven, the book festival\u2019s director, justified the exclusion of The Women Who Wouldn\u2019t Wheesht<\/a>, a gender-critical book, as discussion on the subject \u201cfeels extremely divisive\u201d.<\/p>\n Responding to a customer who asked why the book was not featured when the festival was giving a platform to queer and trans writers and speakers, Niven emailed: \u201cWe appreciate you taking the time to write to us, and acknowledge that you feel that we\u2019ve missed the mark in this situation.<\/p>\n \u201cAs you would know as an audience member, we work very hard to ensure that the conversations that happen on our stages are rigorous, informed and fair.\u201d<\/p>\n Jenny Niven did not want to \u201cpit the rights of one minoritised group against another\u201d<\/p>\n ALAMY<\/p>\n Niven added: \u201cAs you can see from the range of other challenging topics addressed in the programme, we don\u2019t shy away from difficult conversation.<\/p>\n \u201cHowever, at present, the tenor of the discussion in the media and online on this particular subject feels extremely divisive.<\/p>\n \u201cWe do not want to be in a position that we are creating events for spectacle or sport, or raising specific people\u2019s identity as a subject of debate.<\/p>\n \u201cGiven the inflammatory tone of a great deal of media \u2014 on all \u2018sides\u2019 of this discussion \u2014 we did not feel it to be the right move for us to host a conversation which appeared to pit the rights of one minoritised group against another.\u201d<\/p>\n Susan Dalgety, one of the authors of The Women Who Wouldn\u2019t Wheesht, told the Scottish Daily Mail that she doubted whether Niven had read the book, saying it is \u201cneither divisive nor inflammatory\u201d.<\/p>\n She added: \u201cBy cancelling us, the book festival has failed in one of its core principles \u2014 to provide a platform for nuanced conversations between people with diverse views and experiences.\u201d<\/p>\n Writing in a column for the newspaper, Jenny Lindsay, a gender-critical author, accused the book festival of \u201cdiscrimination\u201d and she found it \u201cutterly enraging\u201d.<\/p>\n Jenny Lindsay said that the literary world was one-sided in the gender debate<\/p>\n ROBERTO RICCIUTI\/GETTY IMAGES<\/p>\n Lindsay wrote: \u201cJenny Niven \u2014 who, in full disclosure I have both met and rather admired in the past \u2014 explains the decision to essentially blacklist both myself and the editors of The Women Who Wouldn\u2019t Wheesht, an anthology that was a Sunday Times bestseller three times.<\/p>\n \u201cPart of this explanation is the familiar claim that this subject is so \u2018extremely divisive\u2019 that it risks creating \u2018events for spectacle or sport, or raising specific people\u2019s identity as a subject of debate\u2019.<\/p>\n \u201cBut whether or not \u2018woman\u2019 is an identity or a biological fact is at the root of this entire sorry mess. It is to exact an impossible double standard on women to insist they just pretend that isn\u2019t the case.<\/p>\n \u201cThe out-of-touch literary world has long been ludicrously one-sided in the gender debate. That we all knew. But this confirms it.\u201d<\/p>\n An Edinburgh International Book Festival spokeswoman said: \u201cThe Edinburgh International Book Festival<\/a> is committed to hosting a broad range of nuanced and informed conversations.<\/p>\n \u201cOur 2025 programme includes authors with a diverse range of perspectives on many subjects.\u201d<\/p>\n Niven, third from left, with Queen Camilla during her visit to Edinburgh last month for Holyrood Week<\/p>\n ALAMY<\/p>\n![\"Jenny](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/08\/\/15727a32-693a-4577-bcbf-18c055cd9334.jpg\")
<\/p>\n![\"Poet](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/08\/\/af048836-83cc-41fa-b6d8-4b032985ff20.jpg\")
<\/p>\n![\"Queen](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/08\/\/0f0b32cf-095a-4df9-9d65-837c8b2ec39d.jpg\")
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