Open Book Festival, Cape Town
Thursday 20 September 3:00pm SAST
Censorship Today
Keynote address by: Keith Gray
Should freedom of speech ever have limits? Freedom of speech is not only under threat in undemocratic countries: the American Library Association received challenges to ban no fewer than 326 book titles in 2010, including And Tango Makes Three, which attracted complaints because its young penguin hero has two fathers.
This free event was open to the public and Chaired by Mervyn Sloman, Director Open Book.
Author Biography:
Keith Gray: As a teenager Keith Gray went from reluctant reader to passionate reader – then straight on to being a dedicated writer. He published Creepers, which was shortlisted for the Guardian Children’s Fiction Prize, when he was only 24. Since then he’s written a number of critically-acclaimed novels which have won, or been shortlisted for, several major awards including the Carnegie Medal, the Costa Children’s Book Award, the Scottish Children’s Book Awards and the Smarties Book Prize. Never an author to shy away from difficult subject matter Keith’s novels are often deemed ‘controversial’ and he recently edited two ground-breaking, if provocative, anthologies for teenagers – Losing It which tackles first sexual experience, and Next which explores ideas about the afterlife. His novel Ostrich Boys has been adapted for the stage and will embark on a UK tour in 2013. Keith lives in Edinburgh with his partner, their daughter and a parrot called Bellamy.