Pulitzer Prize-winning author Viet Thanh Nguyen has said a Jewish organization in New York City cancelled a reading he was due to give on Friday without explanation, a day after he said he signed an open letter condemning Israel’s “indiscriminate violence” against Palestinians in Gaza.

Nguyen, a Vietnamese-American professor and writer whose novel “The Sympathizer” won the 2016 Pulitzer Prize for Fiction, was scheduled to speak at the 92nd Street Y literary centre’s Christopher Lightfoot Walker Reading Series event in Manhattan at 8 p.m.

In a statement to Reuters, a spokesperson for 92NY confirmed it postponed the event, citing Nguyen’s stance on Israel as well as the October 7 attack by Hamas and continued holding of hostages, which it said “has absolutely devastated the community”.

In an Instagram post on Thursday, Nguyen said he signed the open letter along with other authors because the effect of Israel’s policy was the inevitable death of civilians.