Novelist says she was wrong to oppose Charlie Hebdo PEN award

Jennifer Cody Epstein says it was a mistake to question freedom of speech honour, and that magazine’s articles ‘sprang from satire, not hate’

The American novelist Jennifer Cody Epstein has said that she “fundamentally misunderstood Charlie Hebdo’s mission and content” when she put her name to a letter condemning PEN’s decision to honour the magazine with an award.

Epstein was one of more than 200 writers who signed a letter disassociating themselves from PEN American Center’s choice of the French satirical magazine, where 12 people were killed by gunmen in January, as winner of its “Freedom of Expression Courage award” last month. The writers, who also included Peter Carey and Michael Ondaatje, argued in their letter that the choice of winner was “not simply conveying support for freedom of expression, but also valorising … material that intensifies the anti-Islamic, anti-Maghreb, anti-Arab sentiments already prevalent in the western world”.

The 1st protester to admit she was completely wrong: Jennifer Cody Epstein's letter to the anti-Charlie Hebdo faction http://t.co/jvI4UQoGD2

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