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Other Voices, Other Nations
The PEN America Center invites the world’s best writers over for coffee
PEN World Voices Festival Chair Salman Rushdie
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In its fifth year, the PEN World Voices Festival promotes interaction within the international literary world. Salman Rushdie, the festival’s chair, points out that few translations of non-English books are printed in the U.S., as little as two percent of the total publishing industry. The World Voices Festival seeks to introduce international writers to the American stage. This year’s theme, Evolution/Revolution, is about cataclysmic change, acknowledging recent anniversaries: Darwin’s Origin of the Species, Tiananmen Square, the collapse of Eastern European communism and the Cuban Revolution.
PEN describes itself as “an association of writers working to advance literature, defend free expression, and foster international literary fellowship.” Mrs. C. A. Dawson Scott, a Cornish novelist, and John Galsworthy founded PEN in 1922 on the principle "that if the writers of the world could learn to stretch out their hands to each other, the nations of the world could learn in time to do the same."
The festival did not escape lean times, and some events were cut from this year’s program due to lack of financing. Still, the panels and events include 160 writers from 40 countries. With overwhelming choices, we have highlighted some events below. Check the website for locations and times. Most events are free.
April 27
Neil Gaiman in Conversation with Joshua Wolf Shenk – Genre-bender Gaiman discusses inspirations for his work.
April 28
Resonances: Writers on the Great Works – Muriel Barbery, George Packer, and others consider why great works of literature continually speak to us through the ages.
April 29
The Voyage of the Reader: Using Children’s Books to Create a Love of Reading – On capturing a child’s imagination with books, featuring Mary Ann Hoberman, Francine Prose, and Meir Shalev
Prison Deform – Jackson Taylor, head of PEN’s Prison Writing Program, weighs the effect of incarceration on art with Jose Dalisay, Hwang Sok-Yong, Khet Mar, and Susan Rosenberg.
Evolution/Revolution – A night of readings from world literary moguls Nicole Brossard, Edwidge Danticat, Péter Nádas, Salman Rushdie, and others. (An English translation of the works will be projected behind each author.)
April 30
Jeffrey Sachs: Common Wealth – The author of The End of Poverty and Common Wealth discusses current problems of economic development and globalization.
Language in New Forms: The Work of Andrey Platonov – Authors T.J. Clark, Wendy Lesser, Michael Ondaatje, and Francine Prose admire the groundbreaking techniques of lesser-known Russian master Andrey Platonov.
The New York Review of Books: The Economic Crisis and How to Deal with It – A discussion with economic experts Senator Bill Bradley, Niall Ferguson, Paul Krugman, Nouriel Roubini, George Soros, and Robin Wells.
May 1
Macondo: Imaginary and Real – Writers delineate the truth and fiction of place, considering the city Macondo, the fictional setting of Gabriel Garcia Marquez’s One Hundred Years of Solitude.
Poetry Reading – An international cast of poets assembles at New York’s famous Bowery Poetry Club to read their work, with Nicole Brossard, Narcís Comadira, Wayne Koestenbaum, Uwe Kolbe, Fuad Rifka, and János Térey.
May 2
Tribute to Harold Pinter – The Nobel-winning playwright died last December, and this daylong homage includes readings, discussions, rare recordings, screenings, and the U.S. premiere of the documentary Working with Pinter.
Where Truth Lies: A Conversation on the Art of Fiction – Participants Marlon James, Jan Kjærstad, Horacio Castellanos Moya, and Roxana Robinson analyze the human need to tell stories.
The PEN Cabaret – The annual event features theater, music, readings, spoken word and music with star power including Lou Reed, James Franco, Parker Posey, and Walter Mosley.
May 3
Conversation: Richard Ford and Nam Le – Veteran storyteller Ford and newcomer Nam Le, the Vietnamese/Australian author of The Boat, discuss the vast range of possibilities within the short story form.
Is Nonfiction Literature? – An impressive think tank—Colum McCann, Philip Gourevitch, Norbert Gstrein, and Antje Rávic Strubel—take up the question of nonfiction’s less respected place in the literary world.
The Fourth Annual Arthur Miller Freedom to Write Lecture by Nawal El Saadawi – Egyptian writer and activist Nawal El Saadawi has risked her life to promote the health and wellbeing of Arab women. Her lecture closes out this year’s World Voices Festival.