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Man Booker Prize winning author Richard Flanagan said he was mystified by a decision by the Perth International Arts Festival (PIAF) to disinvite him to a speaking engagement in the city.
Mr Flanagan, who has recently published his first book since winning the Man Booker Prize in 2014, said he was invited to Perth for a festival umbrella event to be held this week, but the invitation was withdrawn.
He said he was at a loss to explain the reasoning behind the decision.
"Who knows, but in all my time I have never experienced something like that," he said.
"That you would be invited and then you would be disinvited, and it was suggested that there isn't an audience for people like me.
"But my experience here in Western Australia is that this per capita is the greatest literary culture in Australia.
"It's got more writers, more achievements and when I've been to your writers' festival it's extraordinary [the] audiences, they're very engaged, informed readers so it seems to me that's a strange, new type of hostility when you've got the top-funded arts body in your state no longer wanting to have writers come and speak to West Australians.
"It's mystifying isn't it really and I think it's a bit insulting to West Australians."
PIAF's artistic director Wendy Martin said the decision was taken because Mr Flanagan was also invited to speak at an event at All Saints College in Perth's southern suburbs on Wednesday night.
"What happened this time is that Dymocks made an invitation to Richard Flanagan, and of course as Richard referred to, we are a subsidised West Australian company and we have to make really judicious decisions about how we spend our money across the year," she said.
"Audiences have the opportunity, as they absolutely should, to hear one of Australia's greatest writers speak and it just didn't seem to make sense for Richard to have two speaking engagements in the same city.
"It's a complicated arrangement and Dymocks were going ahead with their event and we decided we could not do a competing event with them."
Ms Martin said she had no doubt there was audience interest in hearing Mr Flanagan speak.
"Richard Flanagan would sell out anywhere in the world where he is speaking, but as I said to you these events even as a sell out require subsidies," she said.
"We had to make a decision this time that it was beyond our means and capabilities at this moment."
Ms Martin conceded the decision had angered Mr Flanagan.
"It's absolutely regretful to hear one of Australia's literary giants so upset. On behalf of the festival I am terribly, terribly sorry that Richard Flanagan feels this way," she said.
"He has an open invitation to be part of the Perth Writers Festival next year if he wants to be here with us, but unfortunately on this occasion this week, it wasn't possible."
Topics: arts-and-entertainment, books-literature, carnivals-and-festivals, perth-6000
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