World Voices

Transcription

World Voices

MONDAY APRIL 26 -SUNDAY MAY 2, 2010
www.pen.org
April 2010
Dear Friends,
On behalf of the 3,400 writers, translators, editors, agents, and publishers of PEN American
Center—the largest branch of the world’s oldest literary and human rights organization—it’s our
great pleasure to welcome you to the sixth annual PEN World Voices Festival of International
Literature, held from Monday, April 26, to Sunday, May 2.
Each year the Festival strives to foster international understanding and promote literary
culture by bringing more than fifty authors of distinction and promise from around the world
together with a stellar list of their U.S. counterparts for six days of conversations, readings,
performances—and, of course, our famous PEN Cabaret where we sing and sometimes even
dance! Many of this year’s writers are the leading literary lights in their own countries—and
not nearly well-known enough on our shores. The Festival is a rare opportunity for American
readers and writers to meet and converse with the present and future faces of international
literature.
This year, PEN celebrates the 50th anniversary of its campaigns on behalf of persecuted writers.
For five decades PEN has been instrumental in freeing hundreds of writers imprisoned for their
words, and today PEN continues to fight for writers around the globe. To highlight this ongoing
work—and as a reminder that the silencing of writers in one country robs the entire world of
their voices—there will be an empty chair onstage at each of this year’s Festival programs,
dedicated to one of our colleagues currently in prison somewhere in the world.
This extraordinarily rich and diverse literary celebration is made possible by the generous
support of our many co-sponsors, partner organizations, cultural agencies, and individuals.
With their help, the Festival continues to grow each year, bringing the best of world literature to
American audiences. Through PEN’s increasingly vital website (www.pen.org), audio and video
of Festival events are quickly made available to audiences around the globe, along with fiction,
poetry, and essays by many of the Festival’s participants.
This year we embark on a bold new venture: taking the Festival on the road to venues across
the country. So, whether you live here or in the Bay Area, you’ll be able to see some of the
most exciting literary voices at special events we’re co-hosting with partners in six other cities.
For the full listing of satellite events please see www.pen.org/festival.
BL OOMBERG IS PROUD TO SUPPORT PEN AMERIC
AN CENTER.
We invite you to join us as we celebrate writers and literature from all corners of the globe and
look forward to seeing you at the events.
Salman Rushdie,
Chair
Caro Llewellyn,
Director
1
Anthony Appiah,
President PEN American Center
The Sixth Annual
Buy a book at the Festival and have it signed by the author!
Books will be available for purchase at all Festival venues and
signings by participating authors will take place following all
sessions.
Some Festival events require paid tickets or reservations and
may sell out. Book your tickets early to avoid disappointment.
Please see individual event listings for information on purchasing
tickets. Free events are seated on a first-come, first-served basis.
April 26-May 2, 2010
presents
Darryl Pinckney, Roxana Robinson, Andrzej Stasiuk, and
Colm Tóibín on New York Stories of Henry James,
Elizabeth Hardwick, and Edith Wharton
Enjoy Festival discounts by becoming an Associate member of
PEN and receive up to 20% off the price of Festival tickets. For
more information, visit: www.pen.org/join. You’ll save money
and help PEN in its important work at the same time.
Thursday evening, April 29th
The Morgan Library & Museum
The program is correct at the time of printing, but all programs
and participants are subject to change. Please visit
www.pen.org/festival for late-breaking information
and updates.
www.nyrb.com
Cover illustration and design by Bruce McCall
Program layout by Adrian Camoens
Printed by Berlin Industries with special thanks to Rodale Inc.
Copyright © 2010 PEN American Center
PEN American Center
588 Broadway, Suite 303
New York, NY 10012
Tel. (212) 334-1660
Fax. (212) 334-2181
Web: www.pen.org
E-mail: [email protected]
presents
This spring, WNYC hosts a monthly showdown series
designed to bring out the best up-and-coming performers
of all genres in the five boroughs. Join us for First Fridays in
The Greene Space, MC’d by radio host Terrance McKnight.
Come out to discover new talent, support your neighborhood favorites — and enjoy beer, wine and snacks on the
house!
BROOKLYN | March 5
MANHATTAN | April 2
THE BRONX | April 30
STATEN ISLAND | May 7
QUEENS | June 4
SEMI-FINAL | June TBD
(with winners from each borough)
WINNER’S CONCERT
Summer 2010
The Greene Space | 44 Charlton St (at Varick St)
Tickets available now at wnyc.org/thegreenespace
contributors, Bill McKibben and James Hansen, and
others on Climate Change—What Can We Do?
Thursday evening, April 29th
The Metropolitan Museum of Art
www.nybooks.com
World
Voices
EVENTS
MONDAY APRIL 26
7 – 8:30 p.m.
WNYC Jerome L.Greene
Performance Space,
44 Charlton Street
Participants: Lorraine Adams,
Alex Epstein, Andrea Levy,
andaNorman Rush
Moderated by Claire Messud
MONDAY APRIL 26
TUESDAY APRIL 27
Women, Sex, and Fiction
Join novelist Claire Messud and a prestigious panel for a lively debate on gender,
culture, and literature in translation. In the 21st century, few writers want to be
classified by gender, ethnicity, or the language in which they write. They’d prefer to
be considered just writers now, mindful of Elizabeth Bishop’s observation on gender
that “art is art and to separate writings, paintings, musical compositions, etc. into two
sexes is to emphasize values that are not art.” Of the Modern Library’s top 100
novels of the 20th century, only nine were by women (two by Edith Wharton). Like
the Modern Library’s, most best-of lists include only those written in English. And
less than one percent of literary fiction and poetry published in the U.S. are works in
translation. Joining Messud are National Book Award-winner Norman Rush, novelist
and Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist Lorraine Adams, Orange Prize-winner Andrea
Levy, and Israeli novelist Alex Epstein to take on some of the toughest questions
facing world literature today.
World
Voices
EVENTS
WEDNESDAY, APRIL 28
10 – 12 noon The Work Before the Work
A Special Program for High School Students
Instituto Cervantes New York,
211–215 East 49th Street
Participants: Annecy Báez, Rawi Hage,
and Sebastian Junger
Moderated by David Dante Troutt
TUESDAY APRIL 27
American Museum
of Natural History,
79th Street and Central Park West
The 2010 PEN Literary Gala
The 2010 PEN Literary Gala is PEN’s largest source of unrestricted support,
providing crucial funding for its work to secure the liberty of persecuted and
imprisoned writers around the world, to defend freedom of expression wherever it
is threatened, and to promote literature and international cultural exchange. The
PEN Gala draws attention to imprisoned writers of conscience in particularly dire
circumstances through the presentation of the PEN/Barbara Goldsmith Freedom to
Write Award. The PEN Literary Service Award is also presented to a writer whose
critically acclaimed work helps us to understand the human condition in original and
powerful ways. 60 Minutes Correspondent Steve Kroft will serve as Master of
Ceremonies. Many successful writers divide their time and focus between daily
occupations and creative writing. How do they find the energy,
enthusiasm, and balance necessary to succeed at jobs while also
developing their craft? Do these two sides of the writer’s life support
or hinder one another? A panel of acclaimed authors considers how a
writing life can be influenced—sometimes for the better, sometimes for the
worse—by a career outside of the literary arena.
This event is free but reservations are required.
For information on bringing your class to this event, please contact Stacy
Leigh at 212.334.1660 ext.109
Cosponsored by Instituto Cervantes and the Consulate General of Spain
Tickets: $20/$15 PEN members 212.352.0255 or www.ovationtix.com
Cosponsored by WNYC Jerome L.Greene Performance Space
and Guernica Magazine
WEDNESDAY, APRIL 28
1 – 2 p.m.
La Maison Française, NYU,
16 Washington Mews
Participants: Philippe Djian
and A.M. Homes
Philippe Djian — Life, Literature
and Betty Blue
Philippe Djian is a French writer of Armenian descent. He is the author
of more than twenty novels, including Assassins, Frictions, Impuretés,
and the bestseller 37°2 le matin, which was published in the United
States as Betty Blue and adapted for film by Jean-Jacques Beineix. His
novel Unforgivable was a bestseller in France, and received the 2009
Prix Jean Freustié. Today he’ll talk about a life in literature, traveling to
America, and much more besides with novelist and screenwriter A.M.
Homes.
Free and open to the public. No reservations.
Cosponsored by La Maison Française, NYU and the Cultural Services of
the French Embassy
Tickets: $1,000 includes three course meal and wine
212.334.1660 (ext.112 or 113)
8 – 9:30 p.m.
Naja Aidt
Sherman Alexie
Paul Auster
Alina Bronsky
Javier Cercas
Ariel Dorfman
Roddy Doyle
Aleksandar Hemon
Andrea Levy
Quim Monzó
Ben Okri
Francine Prose
Atiq Rahimi
Janne Teller
Marlene van Niekerk
You've read about these
authors in the pages of WLT,
now hear them in person at
the World Voices Festival.
world literature today
In recent years, WLT has brought you special issues on censorship and
freedom of speech, endangered languages, exile, and prison writing.
Now more than ever, WLT is your passport to the world of literature.
92nd Street Y
Unterberg Poetry Center,
1395 Lexington Avenue
Participants: Mohsin Hamid, László
Krasznahorkai, Andrea Levy, Yiyun
Li, Daniele Mastrogiacomo, Sofi
Oksanen, Atiq Rahimi, Salman
Rushdie, Alberto Ruy-Sánchez, Patti
Smith, and Miguel Syjuco
Readings from Around the Globe
Celebrate the sixth annual PEN World Voices Festival with
an extraordinary line-up of internationally acclaimed writers
from Pakistan, Hungary, China, the United Kingdom, Italy,
Finland, Afghanistan, India, Mexico, the United States, and the
Philippines. Readers include the winner of the Booker of Bookers,
the “Godmother of Punk,” a journalist who was kidnapped in
Afghanistan, and Estonia’s “Person of the Year” for 2009! The writers
will read in their own beautiful languages—with an English translation
projected on screen behind them, so you can read along. Don’t miss
an unforgettable celebration of literature from around the world.
Tickets: $20/$15 PEN & 92nd Street Y members
www.smarttix.com or 212.868.4444
Cosponsored by the 92nd Street Y Unterberg Poetry Center
Subscribe online to our print or digital editions at
worldliteraturetoday.com
5
World
Voices
EVENTS
THURSDAY, APRIL 29
10 – 12 noon Writing, Speaking, Dreaming: Authors Talk About Languages
A Special Program for High School Students
Participants: Bernardo Axtaga,
Randa Jarrar,
Roger Sedarat,
and Francisco X. Stork
Moderated by Cathy Park Hong
As a nation of immigrants, the United States has a rich linguistic life. English is a
common language of communication; still, many other languages unify American
communities and influence our lives as we work, reflect, and create. For writers,
a second language can influence word choice, grammar, and other aspects of
craft. A panel of accomplished authors discusses the ways in which they rely
upon, contend with, and work through a language other than English in their
professional and creative lives.
World
Voices
EVENTS
7 – 8 p.m.
Center for Jewish History,
15 West 16th Street
Participants: Eshkol Nevo and
Michael Orthofer
This event is free but reservations are essential.
Baruch College Vertical Campus
College, CUNY, Multi-Purpose Room
(ground floor, room 1-107)
55 Lexington Avenue at 25th Street
Participants: Aleksandar Hemon,
Major Jackson, Yiyun Li,
Marcel Möring,
and Martin Solares
Moderated by Esther Allen
Literature lives and grows out of literature, as writers develop their own voices
by learning from, or reacting against, those who went before them. For the third
year in a row, Baruch’s Great Works Program asks each of the participants in
this event to select a classic work from those being studied in the program and
discuss its resonance within his or her own life and work.
That’s Not What I Meant!
Acclaimed Swiss writer Peter Stamm, author of the novels Agnes, Unformed
Landscape, and On a Day like This, and the short story collection In
Strange Gardens, and poet Michael Hofmann, translator of Stamm’s works
and of countless twentieth-century masters, will converse about the challenges
of bringing Stamm into English. Moderated by Susan Bernofsky, co-chair of the
Translation Committee and an award-winning translator from German.
Participants: Michael Hofmann
and Peter Stamm
Moderated by Susan Bernofsky
7 – 8:30 p.m.
Joe’s Pub,
425 Lafayette Street
Participants: Preston Allen,
Javier Cercas, Siri Hustvedt,
Karl O. Knausgaard, Anne
Landsman, Monique Proulx,
Lee Stringer, Christos Tsiolkas,
and Tommy Wieringa
Cosponsored by The Great Works Program, Weissman School of Arts and
Sciences, Baruch College, CUNY
5:30 – 6:30 p.m. Free and open to the public. No reservations.
Cosponsored by Instituto Cervantes New York, the Consulate General of Spain,
and the PEN Translation Committee
Eshkol Nevo is one of Israel’s most exciting new voices. He studied
copywriting and psychology and both disciplines inform his work. He writes
short stories, has also penned a non-fiction book called The Breaking
up Manual, and two novels, Homesick, and World Cup Wishes.
Since 2008, he has been the chosen artist of Israel’s Cultural Excellence
Foundation—one of Israel’s highest recognitions for excellence in the arts.
He’ll be joined by Michael Orthofer, managing editor at the Complete
Review and its Literary Saloon for a discussion about art, home, living
under threat, and, of course, the art of breaking up.
Cosponsored by the Center for Jewish History and the Office of Cultural
Affairs, Consulate General of Israel in New York
Resonances: Contemporary Writers
on the Classics
Homesick: Eshkol Nevo in Conversation
with Michael Orthofer
Tickets: $15/$10 PEN and Center for Jewish History Members
For information on bringing your class to this event, please contact Stacy Leigh at
212.334.1660 ext.109
2:30 – 4:30 p.m.
THURSDAY, APRIL 29
An Around the World Reading
Grab your passport and come on an around the world trip with Festival
airlines. We’ll be making numerous stops in Europe, then head to Australia,
Quebec, and South Africa before we land back in the U.S. Please fasten
your seatbelts, sit back and relax, even grab a delicious Joe’s Pub cocktail,
while you enjoy a very special evening of fiction and non-fiction readings
by award-winning writers from here and abroad.
Tickets: $15/$10 PEN & ACLU members. www.joespub.com or 212.967.7555
Purchase tickets for both Joe’s Pub events tonight for $20/$15 PEN
members
Cosponsored by Joe’s Pub
7 – 8:30 p.m.
Participants: David Almond,
Francisco X. Stork, Janne Teller,
and Ed Young
Moderated by Elizabeth Bird
A Gathering of Voices
Distinguished children’s book authors David Almond, Francisco X. Stork,
Janne Teller, and Ed Young come together to talk about their work and
its sources. Each of them is rooted in and has found inspiration from a
specific culture—in England, Mexico, Holland, and China. How do their
roots influence how these writers speak to children? Which subjects seem
right? How have influences from other cultures affected them, and in what
ways do they approach universal themes—and taboos? This lively panel will
be moderated by Elizabeth Bird, author and Senior Children’s Librarian with
New York Public Library’s Children’s Center at 42nd Street.
Cosponsored by Instituto Cervantes New York, the Consulate General of
Spain, and PEN’s Children’s Book Committee
6 – 7 p.m. Istituto Italiano di Cultura,
686 Park Ave
Participants: Daniele
Mastrogiacomo
and Federico Rampini
Kidnapped! Daniele Mastrogiacomo in
conversation with Federico Rampini
In March 2007, while on assignment in southern Afghanistan, Italian reporter
Daniele Mastrogiacomo was kidnapped by the Taliban. He was moved from
one improvised prison to the next over a dozen times during his captivity, and
was forced to witness the decapitation of his interpreter when negotiations for
his and his collaborators’ release stalled. He talks about his experience, about
the relationships that formed between him and his captors, about the war in
Afghanistan and the rise of the new Taliban with veteran foreign correspondent
and La Repubblica’s New York Bureau Chief, Federico Rampini.
Cosponsored by the Italian Cultural Services
6
7
World
Voices
EVENTS I Come From There New Plays from the Arab World
“
Martin E. Segal Theatre Center,
CUNY Graduate Center,
365 Fifth Avenue
“
Don’t miss this special two-day program of rehearsed
readings and discussions with Arab playwrights from the
British Council / Royal Court Theatre Project which we
bring to you from London.
In April 2007, the Royal Court Theatre and the British
Council embarked on an ambitious new project working
with writers across seven different countries from the Near
East and North Africa region. Emerging playwrights from
Egypt, Jordan, Lebanon, Morocco, Palestine, Syria and
Tunisia travelled to Damascus to work with playwrights
April De Angelis and David Greig, and Royal Court
Associate Director International Elyse Dodgson, starting
a journey that has spanned 18 months and workshops in
THURSDAY, APRIL 29
4.30 – 6 p.m
three different countries. Together, these writers have been developing new
plays exploring and reflecting contemporary life in their countries, through
workshops in Damascus, Tunis and Cairo.
In November 2008, some of these writers were invited to London to present
their work at the Royal Court Theatre as staged readings in specially
commissioned translations. In January and February 2009, further readings
took place in Arabic in Lebanon, Jordan and Tunisia. Five of these writers
have now been invited to New York to present this work at the Martin E. Segal
Theater, City University of New York. These readings will be accompanied
by panel discussions with the writers and the artists involved in the project.
The Royal Court Theatre’s work with international playwrights is supported
by Genesis Foundation (www.genesisfoundation.org.uk).
FRIDAY, APRIL 30
WITHDRAWAL by Mohammad Al Attar from Syria
/ Insehab
Translation: Clem Naylor
4.30 – 6 p.m.
/ Montaget masreya
Translation: Khalid Laith
Ahmad and Nour rent a flat so that they can spend time together
away from their families, but is having space to themselves going
to solve all their problems? A brutally honest examination of a
relationship.
THE HOUSE by Arzé Khodr from Lebanon
/ Al Beyt
Translation: Khalid Laith
Hadia is an independent woman in Cairo. Gasir is a painfully
awkward lab assistant with attachment issues over his dead
mother. Is he really her knight in shining armour?
6.30 – 8 p.m.
DAMAGE by Kamal Khalladi from Morocco
/ Aatab
Translation: Houda Echouafni
Three weeks after Youssef and Sana’s wedding, Youssef accepts
a military peacekeeping expedition in Congo. Will either of
them be the same people when he comes back?
8 – 9.30 p.m.
New Plays from the Arab World
A forum led by Elyse Dodgson with all five Arab writers
featured in the presentations, discussing the dramatization of
contemporary life in the Near East and North Africa region.
They will also talk about the question of translation, with
Dominic Cooke (Royal Court, Artistic Director), Elyse Dodgson
(Royal Court, Associate Director International), and UK mentor
playwright April De Angelis.
Free and Open to the Public. No Reservations
8
603 by Imad Farajin from Palestine
Translation: Hassan Abdulrazzak
Nadia wants nothing else but to remain in the house she grew up in.
Her sister, Reem, wants nothing else but to sell the house which is full
of painful memories.
6.30 – 8 p.m.
EGYPTIAN PRODUCTS by Laila Soliman from Egypt
Four Palestinian men share a cramped prison cell listening to the
buses come and go outside, wondering if the next one will take
them home. A play about hope and waiting.
8 – 9.30 p.m
“I Come From There”: British Council/
Royal Court Theatre Arab Playwright Project
A forum led by Laila Hourani (British Council), Elyse Dodgson,
and April De Angelis (Royal Court) discussing the extraordinary
journey of the three-year Arab Playwright Project that led from
the first workshops in Damascus to the readings at Royal Court,
and from the publishing of plays in London, to the presentations
in New York. With Professor Marvin Carlson, CUNY.
Co-sponsored and co-presented by the British Council,
Royal Court Theatre in collaboration with the Martin E. Segal
Theatre Center, The Graduate Center, CUNY.
9
World
Voices
EVENTS
7 – 8:30 p.m.
The Morgan Library & Museum,
Gilder Lehman Hall,
225 Madison Avenue
Participants: Darryl Pinckney,
Roxanna Robinson, Andrzej Stasiuk,
and Colm Tóibín
Moderated by Edwin Frank
THURSDAY, APRIL 29
World
Voices
EVENTS
New York Stories
New York seen from up close and afar, by three great writers who were
inextricably attached to the city. Henry James, a native, left New York early
in life and returned to it only late, but the city haunts his work. Edith Wharton
is one of the great chroniclers of New York society, high and low. Elizabeth
Hardwick, a transplanted Kentuckian, cast her keen eye on the life of the
city in the latter half of the twentieth century, when it established itself as
the intellectual center of American life. Distinguished contemporary novelists
and critics Colm Tóibín, Roxana Robinson, and Darryl Pinckney, who have
edited the New York stories of, respectively, James, Wharton, and Hardwick,
and the contemporary Polish essayist Andrzej Stasiuk, who writes about not
writing about New York, all consider the city and the stories it has inspired.
Tickets: $15/$10 Morgan and PEN members
Cosponsored by The Morgan Library & Museum and NYRB Classics
WEATHER REPORT
8 – 9:30 p.m.
The Metropolitan Museum of Art,
Grace Rainey Rogers Auditorium,
1000 Fifth Avenue
Participants: Jostein Gaarder, James
Hansen, Frederic Hauge, Bjørn
Lomborg, Bill McKibben, Andrew
Revkin, and others
Moderated by Robert Silvers
7 – 8:30 p.m.
Jack H. Skirball Center for the
Performing Arts at NYU,
566 LaGuardia Place
(at Washington Square South)
Participants: Philippe Djian, Barry
Gifford, Richard Price, and
Jean-Philippe Toussaint
Directed by Francine Prose
Adaptation: From Page to Screen
What is lost—and what is gained—in the translation of fiction to film? Join a
distinguished international panel of authors, including the French writers Philippe
Dijan, whose book was the basis for the film Betty Blue, and Jean-Philippe
Toussaint, whose work has been compared to the films of Jim Jarmusch. They’ll
be joined by American novelists and screenwriters Barry Gifford, whose Wild at
Heart directed by David Lynch celebrates its 20th birthday this year, and Richard
Price, whose book Clockers was directed by Spike Lee for the cinema. Come for
a fascinating, sometimes heartbreaking, sometimes joyous look at what happens
when film directors get their hands on the books we love. Author and former
PEN American Center president Francine Prose, whose work has been adapted
for both the stage and the screen, directs the action.
Galapagos Art Space, DUMBO,
16 Main Street, Brooklyn
Participants: John Freeman, Rodrigo
Fresán, Paris Review editor, Rawi
Hage, M Mark, and Peter Stamm
Moderated by David Haglund
Join the editors of Granta, The Paris Review, and PEN America—along
with three contributors to those magazines—for a free-wheeling conversation
about the past, present, and future of literary magazines, both in the United
States and abroad. For two centuries now, literary magazines have played
essential roles in the lives and careers of writers, editors, and readers—
introducing and nurturing new authors, providing outlets for writers both
overlooked and established, and publishing groundbreaking work that might
not otherwise find a readership. How are those tasks changing in the internet
age? And how does the job of the literary magazine vary across continents?
John Freeman of Granta, M Mark of PEN America, and the new editor
of The Paris Review will be joined by writers Rodrigo Fresán, Rawi Hage,
and Peter Stamm in a conversation moderated by David Haglund, managing
editor of PEN America.
As part of our continuing collaborations with The New York Review
of Books and the Fritt Ord Freedom of Expression Foundation of
Norway, we are pleased to present a major transatlantic conversation
about the latest on global warming, the Copenhagen climate talks, and
policy options for the future.
“What Can We Do?” brings together on one panel some of the premier
scientists and writers from the U.S. and Scandinavia: Frederic Hauge,
founder and director of the international environmental organization
the Bellona Foundation; Bjørn Lomborg, author of the controversial
The Skeptical Environmentalist: Measuring the Real State of
the World and Cool It: The Skeptical Environmentalist’s Guide
to Global Warming; Jostein Gaarder, author of the internationallyacclaimed novel Sophie’s World and creator of the Sophie Prize; Bill
McKibben, author of The End of Nature, Earth: Making a Life
on a Tough New Planet, and numerous other books; James Hansen,
head of the NASA Goddard Institute for Space Studies and author
of Storms of My Grandchildren; and author and environment
journalist Andrew Revkin, whose biography of Chico Mendes formed
the basis of the documentary film The Burning Season. The New
York Review of Books editor, Robert Silvers will guide the discussion
about how we can turn back the tides of global warming.
Cosponsored by New York Review of Books and the Fritt Ord
Freedom of Expression Foundation
Cosponsored by La Maison Francaise, NYU, Skirball Center for the Performing
Arts at NYU, and the Cultural Services of the French Embassy
Literary Magazines: Here and Abroad,
Now and in the Future
Weather Report – What Can We Do?
Tickets: $25/$20 PEN members/Metropolitan Museum of Art members
and New York Review of Books subscribers www.smarttix.com or
212.868.4444
Tickets: $15/$12 PEN members and current NYU I.D holders (includes faculty and
staff) www.skirballcenter.nyu.edu or 212.352.3101 or in person at Skirball Center
Shagan Box Office, 566 LaGuardia Place, Tuesday – Saturday 12 - 6 p.m.
7 – 8:30 p.m.
THURSDAY, APRIL 29
9:30 – 10.45 p.m.
Joe’s Pub,
425 Lafayette Street
Participants: Alina Bronsky, Rodrigo
Fresán, Mohsin Hamid, Aleksandar
Hemon, Randa Jarrar, Irakli
Kakabadze, Elias Khoury, valter hugo
mãe, Quim Monzó, Sofi Oksanen,
Peter Schneider, and special guests.
Face to Face: Confronting the Torturers
A PEN Freedom to Write event
The discovery of a subterranean CIA dungeon in a former riding academy
in Lithuania, the flight records of thousands of secret U.S. rendition flights, the
testimonies of a growing number of released detainees describing their abuse
in American custody—as the evidence around the globe mounts that the
United States tortured hundreds of captives in the “War on Terror,” people of
conscience everywhere are watching to see if those who ordered and carried
out the abuse will be held accountable.
Many of those watching are in countries that have successfully confronted
their own legacies of torture and human rights abuses. Join us for an evening
of readings from documentary and imaginative literature from around the
world in which people have stood face to face with their torturers.
Tickets: $15/$10 PEN & ACLU members. www.joespub.com or 212.967.7555
Purchase tickets for both Joe’s Pub events tonight for $20/$15 PEN members
Cosponsored by Galapagos Art Space and PEN America
Cosponsored by the American Civil Liberties Union and Joe’s Pub
10
11
World
Voices
EVENTS
10 – 12:00 noon
Participants: David Almond,
Alina Bronsky, Janne Teller,
and Tommy Wieringa
Moderated by Matt de la Peña
FRIDAY, APRIL 30
Face Off! Overcoming Barriers
It is often said that it is not the life that matters, but the courage one brings to it.
Four acclaimed authors from the U.K., Germany, Denmark, and the Netherlands,
respectively, discuss how the characters in their books summon the courage to
overcome obstacles and live the kind of life they aspire to. Do writers get a kind
of freedom, a way to problem solve issues from their own lives and even an
opportunity to test their own mettle through their characters? Matt De La Peña
asks our guests to share how their characters face down obstacles, both internal
and external, and what their work means to their own lives.
World
Voices
EVENTS
1 – 2:30 p.m.
Participants: Lewis Lapham,
Joris Luyendijk, Martin Pollack, and
Mary Anne Weaver
This event is free but reservations are essential.
FRIDAY, APRIL 30
The Future of Journalism
International desks and bureaus—once the backbone of the news business—
are closing around the world, with more newspapers relying on locals
or stringers to do the reporting. Journalists in general are losing their
jobs at a huge rate—yet degrees in journalism remain popular. Several
long-established and respected newspapers have turned off their printing
presses, and those that remain are still struggling to make profitable use
of the Internet. The future of journalism as we know it is wide open; join a
distinguished and international group of editors and journalists for a wideranging conversation on the future of news.
For information on bringing your class to this event, please contact Stacy Leigh at
212.334.1660 ext.109
12:30 – 2 p.m.
Garden Readings
Deutsches Haus, at NYU,
42 Washington Mews
Romanian author Filip Florian introduces us to strange saints, inept lovers,
wanderers from old fairy tales and local legends, and Monique Proulx describes
a unique landscape in her novel, Wildlives. Marcel Möring’s In a Dark
Wood explores the guilt, fear, and loss suffered by Europeans, and in particular
the Jewish people, during and after the Holocaust, while Josef Winkler who
was awarded the acclaimed Georg-Buechner Prize for German language
literature (also won by Günter Grass), describes the difficulties gays face in a
patriarchal Catholic society. According to Jonathan Lethem, Rodrigo Fresán is “a
kaleidoscopic, open-hearted, shamelessly polymathic storyteller, the kind who
brings a blast of oxygen into the room.” Join us under the trees in the beautiful
courtyard of Deutsches Haus for this special lunchtime reading with international
guests of the Festival.
Participants: Filip Florian, Rodrigo
Fresán, Marcel Möring, Monique
Proulx, and Josef Winkler
1 – 2:30 p.m.
This Critical Moment: The Journey —
A National Book Critics Circle Conversation
Austrian Cultural Forum,
11 East 52nd Street
Have a conversation with leading literary critics about writers at
this year’s Festival — including Sherman Alexie, Quim Monzó, Peter
Schneider, Martin Solares, Peter Stamm, and Josef Winkler. Who are their
influences? How has their work been received, both here and abroad?
Join members of the National Book Critics Circle (NBCC) as they discuss
these and other questions — and trace the journey these writers have
travelled from publication to translation to critical attention.
Participants: Eric Banks, Jane
Ciabbattari, Rigoberto González,
and Mary Ann Newman
Free and open to the public. However, reservations are required.
Please call ACF’s reservation line at 212.319.5300 ext. 222 or email
[email protected].
Cosponsored by the Austrian Cultural Forum and the National Book
Critics Circle
Cosponsored by Deutsches Haus at NYU
1 – 2:30 p.m.
Scandinavia House,
58 Park Avenue
Participants: Preston Allen, Alex
Epstein, Aleksandar Hemon,
Yiyun Li, and Martin Solares
Moderated by Deborah
Treisman
Short Stories: Past, Present, and Future
What virtues and challenges are unique to the short story, as opposed to the
novel, the essay, or the poem? What is the relationship between “flash fiction”
and the traditional short story? How flexible is the form? And why is it that, even
now—after Poe, Chekov, Hemingway, O’Connor, Nabokov, and Munro—the
short story often gets less respect, in terms of prizes and critical esteem, than
the novel? Join acclaimed practitioners of the form from Bosnia, Israel, China,
Mexico, and the United States, for a conversation about the past, present, and
future of the short story with The New Yorker fiction editor, Deborah Treisman.
3 – 4 p.m.
11 East 52nd Street
Participants: Jonathan Galassi
and C.K. Stead
Elebash Recital Hall, CUNY
Graduate Center,
365 Fifth Avenue
Alina Bronsky, Randa Jarrar, and
Marcel Möring
Moderated by Arnon Grunberg
Incognito: Writers and their Aliases
People use aliases to hide their true identity — it’s a way to remain anonymous
and out of the spotlight. But in an age when being a celebrity is considered
a goal in and of itself, why would an author want to mask their identity by
writing under an alias? Alina Bronsky from Germany is not who she says she
is. Bernardo Axtaga is also a nom de plume, while Randa Jarrar chose to write
a fictional account of a life that very much resembles her own, and Marcel
Möring’s examinations of domestic life explore how we hide our true selves.
Some of Arnon Grunberg’s books were written in the name of Marek van der
Jagt. Together they will discuss identity and truth and might even reveal how they
settled on their own particular pseudonym.
New Zealand poet, literary critic, and novelist Christian Karlson Stead has
published fourteen books of poetry, eleven novels, two books of short
stories, and seven books of criticism. He also edited the Letters and
Journals of Katherine Mansfield. His books have been awarded
numerous prizes all over the world. His poetry – the focus of today’s
discussion with fellow poet and FSG publisher, Jonathan Galassi – is
filled with the pleasures of sound, rhythm, and word play. Don’t miss this
discussion with one of the world’s great living poets.
Please call ACF’s reservation line at 212.319.5300 ext. 222
or email [email protected].
Cosponsored by The American-Scandinavian Foundation
1 – 2:30 p.m.
C.K. Stead in Conversation with
Jonathan Galassi
Cosponsored by the Austrian Cultural Forum
3 – 4:30 p.m.
Participants: Ben Okri, Thomas
Pletzinger, Alberto Ruy-Sánchez,
and Sergi Sokolovskiy
Moderated by Ben Schrank
Blogs, Twitter, the Kindle:
The Future of Reading
Philip Roth recently said that reading novels would be a “cultic” activity in
25 years, adding that “the book can’t compete with the screen.” Do other
writers share his pessimism? How does the situation differ across cultures
and continents—and are there lessons in those differences? These writers
from Nigeria, Germany, Mexico, and Russia – some of whom Twitter and
some who do not, (and perhaps, more accurately, will not) - come together
for a conversation about the future of reading with publisher, Ben Schrank,
President and Publisher of Razorbill, an imprint at Penguin.
Cosponsored by the Martin E. Segal Theatre, The Graduate Center, CUNY
12
13
World
Voices
EVENTS
3 – 4:30 p.m.
Elebash Recital Hall,
CUNY Graduate Center,
365 Fifth Avenue
Participants: Inga Kuznetsova,
Jonathan Lethem, Eshkol Nevo,
and Andrzej Stasiuk
Moderated by Albert Mobilio
FRIDAY, APRIL 30
Utopia and Dystopia: Geographies of the Possible
Where do you want to live? There’s the best of all possible worlds. Or the worst.
Plato’s Republic or Orwell’s Oceania. Of course, such idealizations exist only in the
imagination—the very word utopia means “no place” in Greek. Not surprisingly,
these unchartable locales inspire novelists. And we look to them to articulate our
longing for a better world, as well as our dread of a worse one. These writers from
Russia, the US, Israel, and Poland will consider these among many questions: Can
the novel—in this ironic age—still give voice to such strong feelings about societies?
Are ideals themselves—whether uplifting or despairing—incompatible with the
novelist’s inquisitive tack? And isn’t every utopia someone else’s dystopia?
World
Voices
EVENTS
6:30 – 8 p.m. Writing Inside Writing Outside
Graduate Center,
365 Fifth Avenue
Participants: Anthony
Cardenales, Piper Kerman, and
Adrian Nicole LeBlanc
Moderated by Jackson Taylor
BOOKFORUM
4:30– 6 p.m.
11 East 52nd Street
Participants: Karl O.
Knausgaard, Joris Luyendijk,
Monique Proulx, and
Roman Senchin
Moderated by Noreen Tomassi
Writers have any number of tools up their sleeve - structure, genre, and language are
among some of the many devices they can call upon. Whether to swoop through the
celestial heavens on the rhythms of lyrical language, or move through terra firma with
accurate hard-hitting depictions, is a decision writers make before they even put pen to
paper. Norwegian novelist Karl Knausgaard whose latest book is all about myths and
angels, and Quebec writer Monique Proulx who uses nature as a character in her most
recent novel, are joined by Roman Senchin from Russia, who deals with the streets in his
work and Dutch journalist, Joris Luyendijk, who adds some heavy doses of realism from
the world of reportage. They’ll be guided to heaven and back to earth by executive
director of the Center for Fiction, Noreen Tomassi.
Free and open to the public. However reservations are required.
or email [email protected].
5 – 6p.m.
Graduate Center,
365 Fifth Avenue
Participants: David Almond and
Sofi Oksanen
Moderated by Rakesh Satyal
Participants: Paul Auster and
Peter Schneider
7 – 8.00 p.m
92nd Street Y
Unterberg Poetry Center,
1395 Lexington Avenue
Participants: Richard Ford
and Shirley Hazzard
with special guests for readings of
Shirley Hazzard’s work
The Great Fire – Shirley Hazzard
in conversation with Richard Ford
Join us for this rare meeting of two modern-day masters of the grand
themes—“time, love, the coming around of inexorable events . . . the
acceleration and dislocation of modern life.” What Australian novelist
Shirley Hazzard once said about her own subject matter can also be said
of Richard Ford’s, especially his epic Bascombe Trilogy. Ford has said
that Hazzard is his favorite writer, and for this very special evening will
serve as her interviewer. Author of such contemporary classics as The
Transit of Venus and The Great Fire, Hazzard is “one of the greatest
writers working in English today,” said Michael Cunningham. The evening
will feature readings of Shirley Hazzard’s work by friends and admirers,
including Annabel Goff and others.
Tickets: $20/$15 PEN and 92nd Street Y members
David Almond and Sofi Oksanen in
conversation with Rakesh Satyal
Cosponsored by the 92nd Street Y Unterberg Poetry Center
Young characters allow their creators to explore the world and its very grown-up
problems with a unique innocence and honesty. The characters from David Almond’s
many award-winning books including Skellig and Sofi Oksanen’s Purge move
through harrowing times, managing to survive and tell their particular tales, growing
from their woes along the way. What kind of freedom do these characters allow their
authors? What challenges are there in writing them? Do child protagonists provide less,
as much, or more wisdom than adults? Rakesh Satyal, author of the acclaimed novel
Blue Boy, moderates a conversation about all this and more.
Scandinavia House,
58 Park Avenue
and the PEN Prison Writing Program
5:30 – 6:30 p.m.
To the average person, the daily life behind prison walls is an invisible
world. Writing about the everyday experiences of life from inside this
system closed to the general public comes with as many challenges as
writing about the experience outside. Piper Kerman, who documented the
thirteen months she spent in prison in Orange is the New Black, is joined
by journalist Adrian Nicole LeBlanc, author of the award-winning Random
Family, which charts the lives of a community living in the South Bronx,
and by Anthony Cardenales, one of LeBlanc’s subjects. Together these three
writers will discuss their work and how the polarities of documenting and
living the prison experience affected their writing.
and Bookforum
Heaven and Earth
FRIDAY, APRIL 30
7 – 8:30 p.m.
11 East 52nd Street
Participants: Michael Hofmann,
Paul Holdengräber,
George Prochnik, and
Klemens Renoldner
Moderated by Jonathan Taylor
Conversation with Peter Schneider and Paul Auster
Award-winning German author Peter Schneider, who has published over 20 novels,
screenplays, and volumes of journalistic essays since his first novel, Lenz, in 1973, will
be interviewed by Brooklyn-based Paul Auster, whose works including The Brooklyn
Follies, The Book of Illusions, and The New York Trilogy are masterpieces of
American urban existential dread. Come listen as the two authors compare notes on
their literary maps and oeuvres, homelands real and imagined, and their common
journeys as authors over the past few tumultuous decades.
A New World of Yesterday:
Stefan Zweig’s Utopian Nostalgia
Stefan Zweig, possibly the best-selling “serious” author of the first half of the
20th century, mined cultural history for lessons in civilization for a humanity
plunging into barbarity. In his portraits of elite Europe, the approach of
modernity is experienced with a view fixed on the disappearing past;
meanwhile, the unfolding present drove him to the New World, and suicide
in Brazil in 1942. Zweig, a perennial nominee for “rediscovery” as a great
writer, has been both praised as a keeper of the flame of humanism and
dismissed as blindly apolitical.
While Zweig’s nostalgic relationship to his World of Yesterday has become
legendary, Klemens Renoldner, George Prochnik, Paul Holdengräber and
Michael Hofmann look also at the Austrian writer’s thoughts about the
future in his final years in the Americas.
or email [email protected]
6:30 – 7:30 p.m. Bowery Poetry Club,
308 Bowery Street
Participants: Naja Marie Aidt,
Barry Gifford, valter hugo mãe,
Pavel Nastin, and
Thomas Pletzinger
The Big Poetry Reading
Come on a journey celebrating acclaimed poets from Denmark, the U.S., Russia, and
Germany. Sharing their work on stage tonight are Nordic poet, short-story, and recent
screenplay writer Naja Marie Aidt, American author, screenwriter, and poet Barry
Gifford, valter hugo mãe from Portugal, Russian photographer, curator, and poet Pavel
Nastin, and German editor, translator, novelist, and poet, Thomas Pletzinger.
Tickets: $10/$5 PEN members at the door
14
8 – 9:30 p.m. The Translation Slam
Bowery Poetry Club,
308 Bowery Street
Participants: Assaf Gavron,
Barbara Harshav, Thomas
Pletzinger, and Martin Pollack
Moderated by Michael F. Moore
Back for the third year running is the fast, fascinating, and fun Translation
Slam. Borrowed from our friends in Montreal, and fine-tuned to a New
York bent, the Translation Slam puts translators in the spotlight in a duel to
the literary — not to say literal— death. Joining us for tonight’s tussle are
Germany’s Thomas Pletzinger and Martin Pollack, who will be translating
Cathy Park Hong, and Assaf Gavron and Barbara Harshav, who will tackle
the work of Alex Epstein in Hebrew.
Tickets: $10/$5 PEN members at the door. Cosponsored by Blue Metropolis
Montreal International Literary Festival, and PEN Translation Committee
15
World
Voices
EVENTS
12:30 – 2 p.m.
Scandinavia House,
58 Park Avenue
Filip Florian, Assaf Gavron,
and Atiq Rahimi
SATURDAY MAY, 1
War and the Novel
Filip Florian’s novel Little Fingers imagines the discovery of a mass grave in a small town.
Atiq Rahimi’s The Patience Stone depicts a woman who must nurse her husband while
besieged by violence in Afghanistan. In CrocAttack, Assaf Gavron invents a reluctant
media celebrity, famous because he did not die in a terrorist attack. And Bernardo Atxaga,
in The Accordionist’s Son, has revisited the Spanish Civil War and examined its long
repercussions. Why have novelists so long been drawn to the subject of war? And how do
writers engage with this fraught and complicated subject? Join novelists from Afghanistan,
Spain, Romania, and Israel as they discuss these and many other questions.
1 - 2 p.m. The Great Hall, Cooper Union,
7 East 7th Street
Participants: Toni Morrison and
Marlene van Niekerk
Moderated by K. Anthony Appiah
World
Voices
EVENTS
3 – 4:30 p.m.
The Great Hall, Cooper Union,
7 East 7th Street
Participants: Ernie Colón, Sid
Jacobson, and Francine Prose
Moderated by Judith Thurman
of The New Yorker
Toni Morrison and Marlene van Niekerk
in conversation with Anthony Appiah.
Marlene van Niekerk is best known for her novel Triomf, a darkly comic and
controversial depiction of post-apartheid South Africa, written in her native Afrikaans.
Of her latest novel, Agaat, Toni Morrison has said, “I was immediately mesmerized...
Its beauty matches its depth and her achievement is as brilliant as it is haunting.” On
this special occasion, the Nobel Prize-winning author of such novels as Beloved,
Sula, Song of Solomon, and most recently A Mercy, talks with her South African
colleague about politics, language, literature, and more. K. Anthony Appiah, PEN
American Center president and the author of Cosmopolitanism and many other
books, conducts the conversation between these eminent and engaged writers.
Participants: Rodrigo Fresán, Alberto
Ruy-Sánchez, Martin Solares, and
Miguel Syjuco
Moderated by Natasha Wimmer
1 – 3 p.m.
New European Fiction
Le Poisson Rouge,
158 Bleecker Street
To celebrate the launch of the highly acclaimed new anthology series Best European
Fiction, editor Aleksandar Hemon leads two back-to-back programs of reading and
discussion.
Participants: Naja Marie Aidt,
Aleksandar Hemon, valter hugo
mãe, Colum McCann, and
Jean-Philippe Toussaint
Continuing their recent conversation in the pages of The Believer, Best European
Fiction series editor Aleksandar Hemon will speak with Colum McCann, who will be
writing the preface for next year’s anthology, about the current state of fiction in Europe
and their own sense, as Europeans, about what European fiction now has to offer
American and world readers. Three contributors to the inaugural volume from Belgium,
Portugal, and Denmark will read from their work and discuss with Hemon what exciting
things are happening right now in the literature of their countries.
Tickets: $10/$8 PEN members 212.505.3474 http://lepoissonrouge.com
Government-issued photo ID required 21 +
Cosponsored by Le Poisson Rouge, Dalkey Archive, and Granta
3 – 4.00 p.m. Instituto Cervantes New York,
Participants: Nicholas Jose and
Miguel Syjuco
Ilustrado
The 2008 Man Asian Literary Prize panel of judges said Philippine born Miguel Syjuco’s
novel Ilustrado was “brilliantly conceived, and stylishly executed,” and congratulated
the book’s coverage of a large historical period with seemingly effortless skill. They also
commented, “it is ceaselessly entertaining, frequently raunchy, and effervescent with
humor.” Today he joins his former teacher at Adelaide University, Nicholas Jose, who now
heads the Australian Studies Department at Harvard, to talk about fatherhood, regret,
revolution, and the mysteries of lives lived and abandoned.
16
Francine Prose’s Anne Frank: The Book, the Life, the Afterlife delves into
the life of the 15 year-old girl to reveal a much more complex picture than her
extraordinary Diary showed. By looking at the book and its eventual publication,
we discover new truths about its author, the book’s impact, and its importance.
Ernie Colón and Sid Jacobson, who are perhaps best known for The 9/11
Report: A Graphic Adaptation, have come together again to present Anne
Frank in a new graphic book about her life which will be released later this year.
Both books and their authors required detailed research in close collaboration
with the Anne Frank House in Amsterdam. Don’t miss this fascinating exploration
of one of the world’s most read books and its incredible 15 year-old author, lead
by author and New Yorker staff writer, Judith Thurman.
Cosponsored by Cooper Union with special thanks to FSG
3 – 5 p.m.
Translation Master Class with Edith Grossman
Renowned translator of Latin American and Spanish writers and poets,
contemporary and classic, and author of the recent essay collection, Why
Translation Matters? Edith Grossman conducts a special two-hour workshop.
Translators will have the opportunity to work one-on-one with one of the
country’s most experienced and respected translators on honing their craft and
refining their editing techniques. This special intensive workshop is for experienced
translators and will have only 15 participants, so book early!
Of Roots, Cliches and the Imagination:
Where Do We Write From?
Spanish-language writers are often grouped together by American critics as part
of a single tradition. But as these writers prove, there are many traditions at work in
Spanish writing—and, what’s more, writers are free to choose among these traditions,
and even to invent their own. Join Rodrigo Fresán from Argentina, Martín Solares and
Alberto Ruy-Sánchez from Mexico, Ernie Colón from Puerto Rico, and Miguel Syjuco
from the Philippines for a conversation about the mixed and surprising roots of writing,
the clichés so often attached to Spanish-language writers, and the borderless force of
the imagination. The conversation will be moderated by award-winning translator of
Roberto Bolaño among others, Natasha Wimmer.
Anne Frank: The Diary, the Girl,
and the Publishing Phenomenon
Tickets; $10/$8 PEN members.
Tickets; $10/$8 PEN members. www.smarttix.com or 212.868.4444
Cosponsored by Cooper Union
1 – 2:30 p.m.
SATURDAY MAY, 1
Tickets: $70/$60 PEN members
3:30 – 5 p.m.
Le Poisson Rouge,
158 Bleecker Street
Participants: Deborah Amos, Philip
Gourevitch, Arnon Grunberg,
Sebastian Junger, and Daniele
Mastrogiacomo
Introduced by Steven Isenberg,
Executive Director,
PEN American Center
War
War writing is an act of witness. It seeks to bring from the battlefront a way of
connecting readers to an experience said to defy the power of words. Join these
extraordinary journalists who put themselves on the front line so we can know
the terrible truths behind the headlines, for a discussion about the difficulties
reporting the devastating facts of war. Deborah Amos is an award-winning
correspondent who reported on the Gullf War in 1991, and more recently Iraq
for NPR. Philip Gourevitch has reported on the Genocide in Rwanda and Arnon
Grunberg has made numerous trips to Iraq from where he has recently returned.
The Humvee Sebastian Junger was riding in was hit by a land mine when he
was in Afghanistan working on his forthcoming book War and the awardwinning documentary Restrepo, and Daniele Mastrogiacomo’s ordeal of being
kidnapped and held hostage is every journalist’s worst nightmare.
Tickets: $10/$8 PEN members 212.505.3474 http://lepoissonrouge.com
Cosponsored by Le Poisson Rouge
4.30 - 5.30 p.m.
Javier Cercas in Conversation with Amanda Vaill
One of Spain’s most celebrated authors, Javier Cercas wrote his first novel,
Soldiers of Salamis, about an incident from the Spanish Civil War. The book
was made into a movie and was hailed by Boyd Tonkin as “a classic novel... about
the filtration of war’s tragedies through memory and myth.” His most recent book,
Anatomía de un Instante, is a chilling reconstruction of the 1982 attempt
by army insurgents to bring back Fascism to democratic Spain. He’ll speak with
Amanda Vaill, whose biography, Everybody Was So Young, was a finalist
for a National Book Critics Circle Award, and who is currently at work on a book
about three couples whose lives all intersected with the Spanish Civil War. Join
them for a conversation about that war and its enduring aftermath, about the role
of fiction in rendering the complexity of the past, and much more.
Participants: Javier Cercas and
Amanda Vaill
17
PennWorldVoices Ad:Layout 1 1/29/10 8:53 PM Page 1
World
Voices
EVENTS
SATURDAY MAY, 1
Patti Smith and Jonathan Lethem in Conversation
The Great Hall, Cooper Union,
7 East 7th Street
Don’t miss this conversation with two New York icons. Patti Smith burst on to the
New York punk scene with her 1975 seminal debut album Horses. She has been
a bright flame in music for more than three-decades, influencing the likes of REM,
The Smiths, and Garbage. She is also an acclaimed visual artist and poet, and
the recipient of a Commander of the Ordre des Arts et des Lettres from the French
Ministry of Culture. Recently, she has released a memoir, Just Kids about her
friendship with photographer Robert Mapplethorpe. Jonathan Lethem’s National Book
Critics Circle award winning book Motherless Brooklyn about a detective with
Tourette syndrome had The New York Times crown him as “something of a hipster
celebrity.” He’s also the author of The Fortress of Solitude and, most recently,
Chronic City. Together they will talk about Just Kids and some of their shared
passions, along the way – the visual arts, literature (of course), and their love for the
Chilean writer, Roberto Bolaño.
Participants: Jonathan Lethem
and Patti Smith
Tickets; $10/$8 PEN members.
THE NORMAN MAILER
WRITERS COLONY
A t P r o v i n c e t o w n, M a s s a c h u s e t t s
The Norman Mailer Writers Colony
is pleased to announce its call
for applications for:
Photo: ©Nancy Crampton
5:30 – 6:30 p.m.
C ALL for A PPLICATIONS
A month-long writer’s
resident fellowship from
July 5 through August 1, 2010
5:30 – 6:30 p.m.
Scandinavia House,
58 Park Avenue
Participants: Quim Monzó, Peter
Schneider, and Jean-Philippe Toussaint
Moderated by Susan Harris, Editorial
Director, Words Without Borders
The Essay
Almost all modern essays are written in prose, but works in verse such as
Alexander Pope’s An Essay on Criticism and An Essay on Man also
contribute to the form’s rich history. Brevity is often a defining principle, but the
opposite holds true as well, with examples such as John Locke’s voluminous
An Essay Concerning Human Understanding. These writers, all of
them accomplished essayists, discuss the form — its great history, its restraints,
freedoms, and challenges.
and
Week-long creative writing
workshops beginning in May
through September 12, 2010.
Cosponsored by The American-Scandinavian Foundation and
Words Without Borders
6 – 8 p.m.
Grand Gallery, National Arts Club,
15 Gramercy Park
Participants: Homero Aridjis, Ariel
Dorfman, Cathy Park Hong, Inga
Kuznetsova, Marlene Van Niekerk,
and C. K. Stead
A full list of workshops can be
found at www.nmwcolony.org.
Poetry Reading and Reception
Celebrate contemporary poetry with PEN and the Poetry Society of America. Six
acclaimed poets join us from across the globe for an early evening of readings.
Don’t miss this extraordinary line-up of poets — Mexico’s Homero Aridjis, Chile’s Ariel
Dorfman, Russia’s Inga Kuznetsova, South Africa’s Marlene van Nierkerk, Cathy
Park Hong from the United States, and New Zealand’s C.K. Stead for an evening of
acclaimed verse.
Tickets: $5 / Free to PSA and PEN members
Cosponsored by the Poetry Society of America
6 – 8 p.m.
Idlewild Books,
12 West 19th Street
The 2010 PEN/O. Henry Prize Story Celebration
Join PEN and Anchor Books for a celebratory evening of cocktails and short fiction
as they honor the recipients of the 2010 PEN/O. Henry Prize Stories and the
jurors Junot Díaz, Yiyun Li, and Paula Fox. Featuring series editor Laura Furman and
special guest appearances from past and present O. Henry winners. Hosted by
PEN World Voices Festival and Anchor Books’ Rob Spillman, Editor of Tin House
Magazine; Hannah Tinti and Maribeth Batcha, Editor and Publisher of One Story;
Martha Cooley, novelist and Associate Professor at Adelphi University.
8 – 10 p.m. The Fourth Annual PEN Cabaret
Le Poisson Rouge,
158 Bleecker Street
Participants: Irakli Kakabadze,
Natalie Merchant, Ben Okri, and
special guests
Emceed by Rakesh Satyal
A perennial highlight of the festival, the PEN Cabaret returns this year to the
heart of the West Village. Come hear former 10,000 Maniacs front-woman
Natalie Merchant as she performs songs from her new album, Leave Your Sleep
(Nonesuch), featuring musical interpretations of classic poetry from Ogden Nash,
Christina Rossetti, and Robert Louis Stevenson, among others. Also on tap: Booker
Prize–winning novelist Ben Okri, direct from London, and Georgian novelist,
poet, and performance artist, Irakli Kakabadze. Plus, stay tuned for special-guest
announcements—the global stars are aligning now. Emceed by Rakesh Satyal, editor,
author, and jazz-singing diva extraordinaire.
A non-profit organization for educational purposes.
All programs will comprise of
no more than 8 participants at a
time and will take place at Norman
Mailer’s home in Provincetown.
Scholarships will include full tuition
and housing for the period of study.
Food and travel to and from
Provincetown, and other expenses
are not included.
Information and application forms may be found on the Colony’s web site:
www.nmwcolony.org
or by calling
1 (800) 835-7853
Deadlines for submissions available on the Colony's web site.
Tickets: $30/25 PEN members 212.505.3474 http://lepoissonrouge.com
Cosponsored by Le Poisson Rouge
18
19
World
Voices
EVENTS
SUNDAY MAY 2
World Nomads Lebanon
Le Skyroom
French Institute Alliance
Française (FIAF)
22 East 60th Street (between
Madison and Park)
1 p.m.
Join us for the third edition of the World Nomads series – FIAF’s annual exploration
of transculturalism, intended as a forum for dialogue between cultures, dedicated each
year to a specific region of the world. Last year, we celebrated Haiti and this year we
explore Lebanon through a program of literature, music, talks, cinema, architecture,
and visual arts.
Elias Khoury
Today, renowned Lebanese author Elias Khoury will present and read selections from his
newly published book White Masks. Since the 1975 publication of his first novel, On
the Relations of the Circle, Khoury has been an integral part of the Beirut vanguard
of modern Arabic literature, having published novels, plays, and works of literary criticism
that have been translated into English, French, German, Italian, Swedish, Norwegian,
Dutch, and Hebrew. He is also a noted journalist, public intellectual, and cultural activist,
outspoken in his defence of democracy and freedom of expression.
3 p.m.
1 – 2 p.m.
French Institute Alliance Française
(FIAF), Florence Gould Hall,
55 East 59th Street
Participants: Maziar Bahari and
Jason Jones
EVENTS
1 – 2 p.m.
Museum of Jewish Heritage – A
Living Memorial to the Holocaust,
Edmond J. Safra Plaza,
36 Battery Place
Participants: Ben Okri and
Anderson Tepper
Participants: Colm Toíbín
and Christos Tsiolkas
For the past two decades, Nigerian-born author Ben Okri has been one of
world literature’s most beloved, spellbinding, and unclassifiable of voices. The
author of nine novels, including the 1991 Booker Prize–winning The Famished
Road, two volumes of stories, and collections of poetry and essays, Okri has
charted new ground in his approach to literature and mythology, metaphysics
and history. Join Okri, in a rare U.S. appearance, for a discussion of his
transcendent work—from its searing depictions of war orphans to wondrous
evocations of archetypal searchers and dreamers—with critic Anderson Tepper.
1 – 2:30 p.m. The Writer as Activist
powerHouse Arena,
Award-winning Lebanese author Alexandre Najjar joins us to discuss his multi-faceted
career and read from some of his works. Born in Lebanon, Najjar now splits his time
between Paris and Beirut, and serves as director of Beirut’s French-language monthly
L’Orient littéraire. His most recent awards include the Prix Méditerranée and the
Grand prix de la francophonie Hervé Deluen awarded by l’Académie française, both
in 2009.
Central to PEN’s mission is the belief that writers play significant roles in their
societies and in the world, not only as creators, but also as witnesses, critics,
visionaries, activists, gadflys—and at key moments in history, as the voices
of conscience of their times. Novelist and playwright Sarah Schulman leads
a conversation with acclaimed writers from around the world who have
distinguished themselves both by their art and by their actions, and who have
served at various times as the consciences of their countries. Homero Aridjis,
a poet and environmental activist and former UNESCO chair from Mexico,
Ariel Dorfman, the award-winning playwright and novelist from Chile, Irakli
Kakabadze, an exile from the Republic of Georgia who teaches peace building
and playwriting in the U.S., come together to explore the essential role writers
play as agents of change in the world and why activism is important to each of
them.
Alexandre Najjar
Iran: A Conversation with Maziar Bahari
and The Daily Show’s Jason Jones
In June 2009, Canadian-Iranian journalist, playwright and documentary filmmaker
Maziar Bahari was among the hundreds of people arrested following the disputed
Iranian presidential elections. He was held for 118 days in Tehran’s notorious Evin
Prison. PEN and the Committee to Protect Journalists led an international campaign for
his release, and are now working with him to draw attention to the many writers and
journalists currently imprisoned in Iran. Shortly before he was arrested, Bahari filmed
an interview with The Daily Show’s Jason Jones, who had traveled to Iran to do a
series of satirical – and poignant – pre-election reports about the Iranian people entitled,
Access to Evil. While he was in prison, one of the things Bahari was questioned about
was this interview with Jones, whom his interrogators labeled a spy. We are thrilled to
present this remarkable reunion conversation with Maziar Bahari and Jason Jones about
this most tumultuous year in the Islamic Republic of Iran.
Cosponsored the French Institute Alliance Française (FIAF)
and the Committee to Protect Journalists
(FIAF), Tinker Auditorium,
55 East 59th Street
Ben Okri in Conversation with Vanity Fair’s
Anderson Tepper
Cosponsored by Museum of Jewish Heritage – A Living Memorial
to the Holocaust
Participants: Homero Aridjis, Ariel
Dorfman, and Irakli Kakabadze
Moderated by Sarah Schulman
Cosponsored by powerHouse Arena
1:30 – 2:30 p.m.
Brooklyn Public Library, Central Library,
Grand Army Plaza,
Dr. S. Steven Dweck Center for
Contemporary Culture, Brooklyn
Participants: Melvin Van Peebles and
Greg Tate
The Slap: A Conversation with Colm Toíbín
and Christos Tsiolkas
Christos Tsiolkas, the Greek-Australian author of Loaded and The Jesus Man, has
created an international scene with his Commonwealth Writer’s Prize–winning novel
The Slap which is just published here this month. Join him and groundbreaking Booker
Prize-winning Irish novelist Colm Toíbín, whose books include The Blackwater Lightship,
The Story of the Night, and, most recently, Brooklyn, for a discussion of some of the
common themes—from sexual identity to literary taboos—that connect their work.
Cosponsored by French Institute Alliance Française (FIAF) and the Australian
Consulate General
20
A Life in Film
Director, actor, screenwriter, playwright, novelist, and composer Melvin
Van Peebles discusses his work with Greg Tate, journalist, cultural critic,
and musician. The two artists are currently collaborating on Sweet
Sweetback’s Baadasssss Song (the Hood Opera), a musical
adaptation of the 1971 iconic film, which was written, composed and
directed by Melvin Van Peebles. The film was an iconic work of AfroAmerican cinema and the beginnings of the Blaxploitation genre. Greg
Tate’s Burnt Sugar the Arkestra Chamber provides the music for the
opera.
Tickets: $12 Non-Members/$8 FIAF/PEN Members/students
www.Ticketmaster.com or 212:307.4100
1 – 2 p.m. SUNDAY MAY 2
Tickets: $15/$10 Museum of Jewish Heritage and PEN members
Rawi Hage
Award-winning author, photographer, and visual artist Rawi Hage comes to FIAF to
discuss his approach to writing and the ways in which his multicultural background have
influenced his unique and singular voice. Born in Beirut, Hage lived through nine years
of the Lebanese civil war before embarking on a path that would lead him through
Cyprus, New York, and ultimately Montreal, where he currently resides. His debut novel,
De Niro’s Game, was winner of the prestigious 2008 IMPAC Dublin Literary Award,
the McAuslan First Book Prize, and the Paragraphe Hugh MacLennan Prize for Fiction.
5 p.m.
World
Voices
Cosponsored by the Brooklyn Public Library.
3 – 4:30 p.m.
powerHouse Arena,
Participants: Ian Buruma and
Andrew Delbanco
Taming the Gods: A Conversation
with Ian Buruma and Andrew Delbanco
Ian Buruma’s just released new book, Taming the Gods: Religion and
Democracy on Three Continents, contains three essays—one on the US and
Europe, one on China and Japan, and one on Islam in contemporary Europe.
Don’t miss his conversation with the author, essayist, and Columbia University
professor Andrew Delbanco—who was named “America’s Best Social Critic” by
Time Magazine in 2001—for a look at the complicated relationship between
religion and democracy. How do they work with—and against—each other? How
does this relationship differ across cultures and religious traditions? Join them for a
provocative and illuminating discussion.
Cosponsored by powerHouse Arena
21
EVENTS
2:30 – 3:30 p.m.
55 East 59th Street
Participants: László
Krasznahorkai and Colm Tóibín
SUNDAY MAY 2
The Master of Apocalypse
According to Susan Sontag, László Krasznahorkai is “the contemporary Hungarian
master of apocalypse who inspires comparison with Gogol and Melville.” W. G.
Sebald said of his work, “The universality of Krasznahorkai’s vision rivals that of
Gogol’s Dead Souls and far surpasses all the lesser concerns of contemporary
writing.” Since 1985, the renowned director and the author’s good friend Béla
Tarr has made films almost exclusively based on Krasznahorkai’s works. Today,
he’ll talk with Irish novelist and Booker Prize-winner, Colm Tóibín (who will publish
Krasznahorkai’s work in the UK under his own imprint), about truth and darkness,
adaptation, and much more.
TIM HETHERINGTON
World
Voices
From the
#1New York Times
bestselling author of
THE PERFECT STORM
2:30 – 3:30 p.m.
(FIAF), Florence Gould Hall
55 East 59th Street
Participants: Roddy Doyle and
Colum McCann
Roddy Doyle in Conversation
with Colum McCann
Join two of contemporary fiction’s most gifted—and beloved—voices, heirs to the great
Irish literary tradition. Roddy Doyle’s novels and stories, from The Commitments to
Paddy Clark Ha Ha Ha, and The Deportees, are unforgettable classics, helping
to define modern Ireland with wit and verve; while Colum McCann, whose subjects
range from the life of Rudolf Nureyev in Dancer, to the plight of Europe’s gypsies
in Zoli, won the 2009 National Book Award for Let the Great World Spin, a
kaleidoscopic novel of Irish immigrants in 1970s New York. Come hear these two
author-raconteurs spin even greater tales of their literary roots, ideas, and inspirations.
www.Ticketmaster.com or 212.307.4100
“I was immediately mesmerized. Van Niekerk’s achievement
is as brilliant as it is haunting.”
—TONI MORRISON
“Unquestionably the most important
[South African novel] since
Coetzee’s Disgrace.”
—THE TIMES LITERARY SUPPLEMENT
“Fascinating and moving, this is,
above all, a love story.”
—THE TIMES (LONDON)
“Voluminous, detailed, momentous . . .
It is an allegory of colonial exploitation,
apartheid, and the precarious steps toward
reconciliation.”
—INDEPENDENT
Over fifteen months, Sebastian
Junger followed a single platoon
based at a remote outpost in
eastern Afghanistan. His objective
was both simple and ambitious: to
convey what soldiers go through—
what war actually feels like.
The result is an acutely observed
and heartfelt depiction of an
experience young men have lived
for millennia— one that few of us
at home truly comprehend, and
which remains, even today, the
ultimate test of character.
Available in hardcover, as an audiobook,
in a Large Print Edition, and as an eBook
Twelve is a division of Grand Central Publishing
www.twelvebooks.com
Hachette Book Group
AVA I L A B LE M AY 2 0 1 0 : : PA P E R B AC K : : $ 1 9 . 9 5
www.tinhouse.com
23
World
Voices
EVENTS
2:30 – 4 p.m.
Museum of Jewish Heritage –
A Living Memorial to the Holocaust,
36 Battery Place
Participants: Eduardo Lago, Anne
Landsman, José Manuel Prieto, and
Salman Rushdie
Moderated by Adam Gopnik
SUNDAY MAY 2
Two Worlds
Each of these panelists has made America their home after coming here
from Spain, South Africa, Cuba, and India respectively, and bestselling
author and New Yorker staff writer, Adam Gopnik who leads today’s
discussion, hails from Canada. Together they will discuss how their increased
familiarity with America and American fiction has altered their sense of
fiction in general and their own writing in particular? They’ll also explore the
differences they see in American literature and contemporary writing in their
own countries?
LJK
Literary Management, LLC
to the Holocaust
4 – 5 p.m.
(FIAF), Florence Gould Hall,
55 East 59th Street
Participants: Mohsin Hamid and
Akhil Sharma
Introduced by Philip Gourevitch
The Reluctant Fundamentalist: Mohsin Hamid
in Conversation with Akhil Sharma
The “war on terror” has been examined from myriad angles: social,
political, religious. How might fiction illuminate the complex forces at
play—and the individuals involved on all sides? Join Pakistani writer Mohsin
Hamid, author of Moth Smoke and The Reluctant Fundamentalist,
and award-winning Indian author of An Obedient Father, Akhil
Sharma, for a conversation on the power of novels to reveal, explain,
and even anticipate contemporary events. Introduced by author Philip
Gourevitch, editor of The Paris Review.
Celebrates the
2010 PEN WORLD VOICES FESTIVAL
www.Ticketmaster.com or 212:307.4100
Cosponsored by The Paris Review and the French Institute Alliance
Française (FIAF)
4 – 5 p.m.
55 East 59th Street
Participants: Atiq Rahimi and
Lila Azam Zanganeh
Bringing the world closer together through literature
Atiq Rahimi in Conversation with
Lila Azam Zanganeh
Atiq Rahimi fled Afghanistan after the Soviet invasion, eventually receiving
political asylum in France; he has since become a renowned filmmaker and
author. The Patience Stone, his fourth book—and first in French, rather than
Persian—won the Prix Goncourt, France’s most prestigious literary prize. Lila
Azam Zanganeh was born in Paris to Iranian parents; she is now fluent in six
languages and has written for The New York Times, Le Monde, and La
Repubblica. Join these acclaimed émigrés for a conversation about Iran, exile,
literature, film, and more.
www.LJKliterary.com
5 – 6:30 p.m. Black Sheep & Exploding Turbans
powerHouse Arena,
Participants: Alina Bronsky, Janne
Teller, Peter Stamm,
and Josef Winkler
Moderated by Jamal Mahjoub
The violent reaction to the publication in Denmark four years ago of a series of
satirical cartoons depicting the Prophet Mohammed suggests that the cultural
divisions highlighted by The Satanic Verses controversy twenty years ago
have intensified rather than dissipated. Europe is currently facing what some
call its biggest challenge - trying to come to terms with its Muslim minority.
Across the continent debates over the veil, the burka, and more recently, the
Swiss referendum banning the building of minarets have prompted passionate,
often violent responses. What are the consequences of this for Europe and for
literature in a society that appears to be segregating along sectarian and racial
lines, and where intolerance is increasing on both sides of the divide?
Cosponsored by powerHouse Arena and Guernica Magazine
24
708 Third Avenue, 16th Floor
New York NY 10017
Tel 212.221.8797 Fax 212.221.8722
For the 2010 PEN World Voices Festival
DalkEy archiVE PrEss
is pleased to announce its new National literature series
initiative with the launch of three multi-year series.
ThE hEbrEW liTEraTurE sEriEs, made possible with support from the Institute for the Translation of Hebrew Literature
and the Office of Cultural Affairs at the Consulate General of
Israel, will focus on major contemporary Hebrew works. The
first title, published in April 2010, is Homesick by Eshkol Nevo,
who is a featured author in this year’s World Voices Festival.
Other titles forthcoming in the series include Dolly City by Orly
Castel-Bloom and Life on Sandpaper by Yoram Kaniuk.
ThE caTalaN liTEraTurE sEriEs, made possible with support from the Institut Ramon Llull, is a five-year project that will
include both contemporary works and classics of Catalan literature. The first title, to be published in Fall 2010, will be a new
edition of the classic The Dolls’ Room by Llorenç Villalonga.
ThE sloVENiaN liTEraTurE sEriEs, made possible with
support from the Slovenian Book Agency, will include modern
and contemporary Slovenian works. The series will launch in Fall
2010 with three titles: Necropolis by Boris Pahor, The Succubus
by Vlado Žabot, and You Do Understand? by Andrej Blatnik.
For more information on the National Literature Series initiative,
visit Dalkey Archive’s website:
www.dalkeyarchive.com
27
World
Voices
EVENTS
4:30 – 5:30 p.m.
Museum of Jewish Heritage – A
Living Memorial to the Holocaust,
36 Battery Place
Participants: Ariel Dorfman and
Gabriel Sanders
SUNDAY MAY 2
F R A NC IS C O X. S TOR K
LIFE.
DEATH.
LOVE.
REVENGE.
Ariel Dorfman in Conversation
with Gabriel Sanders
Born in Argentina and raised in both the United States and Chile,
Ariel Dorfman was part of the momentous democratic movement that
brought Salvador Allende to power in Chile; later, he took a role in that
government. When Chile’s popular revolution came to an end, Dorfman’s
life was spared—but many of his friends and colleagues were tortured
and killed. Dorfman has since confronted the haunting memory of the
coup in his books, which include The Empire’s Old Clothes, Widows,
The Last Song of Manuel Sendero, Mascara, My House Is on
Fire, and Konfidenz. His play Death and the Maiden was adapted
for film by Roman Polanski. His intellectual concerns range wide, from the
trial of Augusto Pinochet to American cartoons— his book How to Read
Donald Duck: Imperialist Ideology in the Disney Comic has been
called “a pioneering work on cultural imperialism.” Today he joins us for a
very special discussion with, Gabriel Sanders, deputy editor of the online
magazine Tablet, about art and politics.
SOMETIMES
YOU’RE FORCED
TO CHOOSE.
to the Holocaust
Pancho has a plan:
murder his sister’s killer.
But when his road to
revenge crosses paths
with a dying young man
and a beautiful girl,
Pancho is forced to
weigh the consequences
of his next move.
6:30 – 8 p.m. I, writer: The artistic, political and
economic responsibilities of writers
in the digital age
The Fifth Annual Arthur Miller Freedom to Write Lecture
by Sherman Alexie
The Great Hall Cooper Union,
7 East 7th Street
“As print publishing is rapidly changing, and radically altering what it
means to be a writer, how should we respond? To survive, we will likely
become dual citizens, continuing to live and write as analog artists, but
also embracing and expanding the aesthetics of digital literature. As
independent brick-and-mortar bookstores, with their commitment to liberal
social responsibility, are replaced by online stores with libertarian ambitions,
must writers seek to become more vocal advocates for other writers and
social causes? Should writers, in order to protect their art and promote
their politics, form a national union? In any case, we writers are facing an
uncertain, potentially destructive, but ultimately challenging and exciting
future.” — Sherman Alexie
Sherman Alexie has received numerous honors—including the National
Book Award and the PEN/Hemingway Award—for his poetry, fiction,
and children’s books. In December, he sparked debate with remarks on
The Colbert Report about digital culture and the future of books. Join
him for a thoughtful examination of these concerns—and of the roles and
responsibilities of the writer at the present moment.
Tickets: $15/$10 PEN members
★ “[An] openhearted, sapient novel about ﬁnding authentic
faith and choosing higher love.” —Publishers Weekly, starred review
★ “Investigates the large considerations of life and death,
love and hate, and faith and doubt.” —Booklist, starred review
ALSO BY
FRANCISCO X. STORK
Marcelo in the Real World
Winner of the Schneider Family Book Award (teen category)
An ALA Top Ten Book for Young Adults
28
www.scholastic.com
SCHOLASTIC and associated logos are trademarks
and/or registered trademarks of Scholastic Inc.
World
Voices
PARTICIPANTS
Lorraine Adams (United States) is a novelist, critic, and Pulitzer
Prize-winning journalist. Her second novel, The Room and the Chair,
will be published in 2010. Her novel Harbor won the Los Angeles
Times Book Prize for First Fiction, was a finalist for the Orange and
Guardian First Book prizes, and was selected as a New York Times
Best Book.
Naja Marie Aidt (Denmark/Danish) has published nine collections
of poetry and three collections of short stories. She is included in Best
European Fiction 2010. Aidt has also written several plays, children’s
books, song lyrics, and the screenplay for the feature film Strings. In
2008, her collection Bavian received the most prestigious literary prize
awarded in the Nordic countries—the Nordic Council’s Literature Prize.
Sherman J. Alexie, Jr. (Spokane/Coeur d’Alene Indian) received the
World
Voices
PARTICIPANTS
Mohammad Al Attar (Syria) has been a member of the Theatre
Studio Group in Damascus, working as dramaturge on the Bola-inspired
project Interactive Theatre in Syrian Rural Areas; Sarah at El Tetra,
Damascus, a play performed by a group of young offenders from the
Damascus Juvenile Institute; and Al-Mewed Way Al-Machala at the
Syrian Opera House. Attar was also dramaturge for a production of
Ibsen’s Enemy of the People. His play Withdrawal, was presented
as a staged reading at the Royal Court Theatre in Tunis.
Bernardo Atxaga (Spain) is a writer of novels, short stories, poetry,
plays, essays, children’s books, and screenplays for radio and film. He
began publishing in his native language of Euskara in the 1970s. Atxaga’s
Obabakoak was awarded the Spanish National Literature Prize in
1989 and has been translated into twenty-five languages. His most recent
novel, The Accordionist’s Son, was published in 2008.
PEN/Hemingway Award for Best First Book of Fiction and the Lila WallaceReader’s Digest Writers Award for his collection of short stories, The Lone
Ranger and Tonto Fistfight in Heaven. His novel, Indian Killer, was
named a New York Times Notable Book. Alexie’s most recent work is
War Dances, a collection of stories and poems. His poetry collection,
Face, was Small Press Distribution’s best-selling poetry book of 2009.
Paul Auster (United States) is the best-selling author of Invisible,
Man in the Dark, The Brooklyn Follies, The Book of Illusions,
and The New York Trilogy, among many other works. He has
been short-listed for the International IMPAC Dublin Literary Award,
the PEN/Faulkner Award for Fiction, and the Edgar Award. Auster’s
work has been translated into thirty-five languages.
Esther Allen (United States) is an assistant professor at Baruch
Annecy Báez (United States) is the winner of the 2007 Miguel
Mårmol Prize for My Daughter’s Eyes and Other Stories. Her
work has been published in numerous journals and anthologies,
including Caudal, Callaloo, Vinyl Donuts, and Tertuliando/
Hanging Out, a bilingual literary anthology. Báez is a member of
Daisy Cocco De Fillipis Latina writer’s group “La Tertulia.”
Preston Allen (United States) is the author of the critically acclaimed
novel All or Nothing and the award-winning collection Churchboys
and Other Sinners. His stories have appeared in numerous
magazines and journals and have been anthologized in Brown Sugar,
Miami Noir, and Las Vegas Noir. Allen is the recipient of a State of
Florida Individual Artist Fellowship.
Maziar Bahari (Iran/Canada) is a journalist and documentary
David Almond (U.K.) won the Whitbread Children’s Award and
the Carnegie Medal for his novel Skellig. His second novel, Kit’s
Wilderness, won the Smarties Award Silver Medal. The Fire-Eaters
won the Whitbread and the Smarties Gold Award. His latest novel,
Clay, was short-listed for the Costa Children’s Book award and the
Carnegie Medal.
Eric Banks (United States) is a writer and editor based in
Deborah Amos (United States) is an award-winning foreign correspondent who covers Iraq for NPR News. Her reports can be heard on
NPR’s award-winning Morning Edition, All Things Considered, and
Weekend Edition. She is the author of Lines in the Sand: Desert
Storm and the Remaking of the Arab World and Eclipse of the
Sunnis. She is a member of the Council on Foreign Relations.
Susan Bernofsky (United States) is an acclaimed translator
Kwame Anthony Appiah (United States) is the President of PEN
Elizabeth Bird (United States) is a Senior Children’s Librarian
College, CUNY, and the executive director of the Center for Literary
Translation at Columbia University. She has guided the work of the
PEN Translation Fund since its inception six years ago. Her most
recent translation is Rex, by José Manuel Prieto.
American Center and professor of philosophy at Princeton University. Among
his works are three mystery novels and a variety of works in philosophy
and cultural studies, including Cosmopolitanism: Ethics in a World of
Strangers. He reviews regularly for the New York Review of Books, and
is a member of the American Academy of Arts and Letters and the American
Academy of Arts and Sciences.
Homero Aridjis (Mexico) was president of International PEN (2003–
2007). He has written forty books of poetry and prose and his writing
has been translated into a dozen languages. His newest book of poetry is
Solar Poems.
30
filmmaker. He is also a reporter for Newsweek. Bahari was
imprisoned by the Iranian government in June 2009 and released
on bail on October 20, 2009. Bahari has written for The New
York Times, The New Statesman and The Guardian. His films
have been shown on HBO, BBC, and Channel 4, among others.
New York. He was formerly the editor of Bookforum and a
senior editor at Artforum. Banks currently serves on the board
of directors of the National Book Critics Circle.
and author best known for her translations of the great Swiss
modernist author Robert Walser and contemporary Germanlanguage fiction and poetry. She is currently writing two books
of her own, a biography of Robert Walser and a novel set in
her hometown, New Orleans.
with New York Public Library’s Children’s Center at 42nd Street
and is the author of Children’s Literature Gems: Choosing
and Using Them in Your Library Career.
Alina Bronsky (Russia/Germany) was born in Yekaterinburg,
Russia, in 1978, and now lives in Frankfurt, Germany. Broken
Glass Park, nominated for the prestigious Bachmann Prize, is
her first novel. Alina Bronsky is a pseudonym.
31
World
Voices
PARTICIPANTS
World
Voices
PARTICIPANTS
Ian Buruma (Netherlands/U.S.) is the Henry R. Luce Professor
Ariel Dorfman (Chile/U.S.) is a poet, novelist, playwright, human
of Human Rights and Journalism at Bard College. His many books
include The China Lover, God’s Dust, The Missionary and
the Libertine, Anglomania, and Murder in Amsterdam, which
won a Los Angeles Times Book Prize for the Best Current Interest
Book. He was awarded the 2008 Shorenstein Journalism Award,
which honored him for his distinguished body of work, and the
2008 Erasmus Prize. His book Taming the Gods: Religion and
Democracy on Three Continents will be published in 2010.
rights activist, and a professor at Duke University. He has received
numerous international awards, including the Laurence Olivier
Award for his play Death and the Maiden which was made into
a feature film by Roman Polanski, and the O. Henry Award for Short
Stories. Written both in Spanish and English, Dorfman’s books have
been translated into more than forty languages and his plays staged
in over 100 countries. His most recent novel is called Americanos:
Los Pasos de Murieta.
Anthony Cardenales (United States) Cardenales was born
Roddy Doyle (Ireland) is the author of eight novels and a
collection of short stories. His first three novels—The Commitments,
The Snapper, and the 1991 Booker Prize finalist The Van—are
available as The Barrytown Trilogy. In 1993, Paddy Clarke Ha
Ha Ha won the Booker Prize and became an international bestseller. Doyle has written for stage and screen, published children’s
books, and contributed to a variety of publications, including The
New Yorker and McSweeney’s.
in the Bronx. He earned his Associates Degree in 2006 and his
Bachelors in 2008, both from Bard College. He currently works in
the green energy business and lives in New York.
Javier Cercas (Spain) is a novelist, short-story writer and essayist
whose books include El movil (The Motive), El Inquilino (The
Tenant), El Vientre de la Ballera (The Belly of the Whale), and
Relatos Reales (True Tales). His novel Soldiers of Salamis has
been published in fifteen languages.
Alex Epstein (Russia/Israel) is the author of three collections
of short stories and three novels. He was awarded Israel’s
Prime Minister’s Prize for Literature. His short-short stories have
appeared in English in Words Without Borders, The Iowa
Review, and other journals. His forthcoming novel is titled Blue
Has No South.
Jane Ciabattari (United States) is president of the National Book
Critics circle and author of the short story collection Stealing the
Fire. As a journalist, she has reported from Havana, Hong Kong,
Brussels, Marrakech, Paris, Prague, Rome, and Shanghai.
Imad Farajin (Palestine) attended the Royal Court Theatre
Ernie Colón (Puerto Rico) has worked at Harvey, Marvel, and DC
Comics. At DC, he oversaw the production of the Green Lantern,
Wonder Woman, Blackhawk, and The Flash. Along with Sid
Jacobson, he created the graphic novel The 9/11 Report: A
Graphic Adaptation. In August 2008, they released a 160page follow-up: After 9/11: America’s War on Terror. Their
forthcoming book, A Graphic Biography: Anne Frank, will be
published in 2010.
Filip Florian (Romania) worked as a journalist and reporter
for Radio Free Europe. Little Fingers, his first novel, has
received numerous awards, including Best Debut Novel from the
Romanian Writers Union.
Andrew Delbanco (United States) is the author of many books,
International Residency for Emerging Playwrights. He won the AlQattan Foundation’s Young Writer Award for his play Chaos, and
another play, 603, was presented as a staged reading at the Royal
Court Theatre and at Al Balad Theatre in Amman, Jordan. Since then,
603 has toured to theatres in the West Bank, Dubai, and Abu Dhabi.
including The Death of Satan, Required Reading: Why Our
American Classics Matter Now, and The Real American
Dream. Delbanco’s essays appear regularly in The New York
Review of Books, The New Republic, The New York Times
Magazine, and other journals. His most recent book, Melville: His
World and Work, was a finalist for the Los Angeles Times Book
Prize in Biography.
Richard Ford (United States) has written novels, short stories, and
Matt de la Peña’s (United States) has published three novels. His
debut novel Ball Don’t Lie won numerous awards and will be released as a motion picture in 2010. In fall 2010 his fourth novel, I Will
Save You, will be published.
Edwin Frank (United States) is the editorial director of the
NYRB Classics series. He is currently working on a history of the
twentieth-century novel.
Philippe Djian (France) is the renowned author of over twenty
novels, including Assassins, Frictions, Impuretés, and the bestseller 37°2 le Matin, published in the United States as Betty
Blue and adapted for film by Jean-Jacques Beineix. His novel
Unforgivable received the 2009 Prix Jean Freustié.
John Freeman (United States) is an award-winning writer and
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screen plays. Ford has won many awards including a Guggenheim
fellowship in 1977, the National Endowment for the Arts fellowship in
1978 and 1983, a New York Public Library Literary Lion award in 1989,
an American Academy award in 1989, the Echoing Green Foundation
award in1991, and the Pulitzer Prize for fiction in 1997. Ford is the author,
most recently, of the novel The Lay of the Land.
book critic who has written for numerous publications, including The
New York Times Book Review, The Los Angeles Times, People,
and The Wall Street Journal. He is the author of The Tyranny of
E-mail and is the editor of Granta.
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Rodrigo Fresán (Argentina/Spain) was born in Argentina and
now lives in Barcelona. He is the author of eight books; Kensington
Gardens was the first of these to be published in the United States.
His latest novel is El Fondo del Cielo (The Bottom of the Sky). His
work has been translated into fifteen languages.
Jostein Gaarder (Norway) is the author of Sophie’s World, which
has been translated into 53 languages and has sold over 30 million copies.
His other works include children’s books and adult novels such as The
Solitaire Mystery, Through a Glass, Darkly; Vita Brevis; among
many others. Gaarder has been involved in the promotion of human rights
and sustainable development for several years, establishing the Sophie
Prize, an annual international environment and development prize.
Jonathan Galassi (United States) is the president of Farrar,
Straus and Giroux. He has published two books of poems, Morning
Run and North Street, and has translated several volumes of the
work of the Italian poet Eugenio Montale: The Second Life of Art:
Selected Essays; Otherwise: Last and First Poems; Collected
Poems: 1920-1954; and Posthumous Diary.
Assaf Gavron (Israel) is an author, translator, and musician.
He has published five books of fiction and his short stories have
appeared in various anthologies and publications. Among the many
works he has translated from English into Hebrew are the novels of
Jonathan Safran Foer, Portnoy’s Complaint by Philip Roth, and 9
Stories by J.D. Salinger.
Barry Gifford (United States) is the author of more than forty
published works of fiction, nonfiction, and poetry which have been
translated into twenty-eight languages. His novel Wild at Heart was
made into a film by David Lynch, that won the Palme d’Or at the Cannes
Film Festival. He has received awards from the National Endowment for
the Arts, the Writers Guild of America, and the Premio Brancati in Italy,
among others. His most recent book is The Imagination of the Heart:
Book Seven of the Stoßry of Sailor and Lula.
Rigoberto González (Mexico/U.S.) is the author of eight
books. He has received Guggenheim and NEA fellowships, won the
American Book Award, and The Poetry Center Book Award. He is a
contributing editor for Poets & Writers Magazine and serves on
the board of directors of the National Book Critics Circle.
Adam Gopnik (United States) has been writing for The New
Yorker since 1986, and is the author of Paris to the Moon, Through
the Children’s Gate, and Angels and Ages. He is a three-time winner of National Magazine Awards for Essays and for Criticism and a
winner of the George Polk Award for Magazine Reporting.
Philip Gourevitch (United States) was the editor of The Paris Review
from 2005-2010, and a long time staff writer for The New Yorker. He is the
author of The Ballad of Abu Ghraib, A Cold Case, and We Wish To
Inform You That Tomorrow We Will Be Killed With Our Families:
Stories from Rwanda, winner of the National Book Critics Circle Award, the
Los Angeles Times Book Prize, and the Guardian First Book Award.
Edith Grossman (United States) has been a professional translator
since 1972, and a full-time translator since 1990. Her translations of
writers such as Gabriel García Márquez, Mario Vargas Llosa, and
Carlos Fuentes are contemporary classics. Her translation of Don
Quixote is widely considered a masterpiece. Currently a Guggenheim
Fellow, she lives in New York City.
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Arnon Grunberg (Netherlands/U.S.) wrote his first novel, Blue
Mondays, a European best-seller, at age twenty-three, and his work
has been translated into twenty-one languages. Two of his novels,
Phantom Pain and The Asylum Seeker, won the AKO Literature
Prize, the Dutch equivalent of the Booker Prize. The Story of My
Baldness also won the Anton Wachter Prize, making Grunberg the
only novelist to have won it twice. His most recent novel is called Onze
oom (Our Uncle).
Rawi Hage (Lebanon/Québec) was born in Lebanon and immigrated
to Canada in 1992. His first book, DeNiro’s Game, won numerous
awards, including the International IMPAC Dublin Literary Award. His
second novel, Cockroach, was published in 2008 and was also a
shortlisted nominee for the Giller Prize and the Governor General’s
Award, as well as being the winner of the Paragraphe Hugh MacLennan
Prize, awarded by the Quebec Writers’ Federation. He lives in Montreal.
David Haglund (United States) is the managing editor of
PEN America: A Journal for Writers and Readers and
communications coordinator for PEN American Center. He has
written for Slate, The London Review of Books, The New York
Times Book Review, Bookforum, and other publications, and
serves on the board of the National Book Critics Circle.
Mohsin Hamid (Pakistan) is the author of two novels. His first,
Moth Smoke, was a Betty Trask Award winner, a PEN/Hemingway
Award finalist, and a New York Times Notable Book of the Year.
His second, The Reluctant Fundamentalist, was published to widespread acclaim. It was a New York Times Notable Book of the
Year, was short-listed for the Man Booker Prize and won many other
awards.
Dr. James Hansen (United States) is best known for bringing global warming to the world’s attention in the 1980s, when
he first testified before Congress. Director of the NASA Goddard Institute for Space Studies, he is frequently called to testify
before Congress on climate issues. Storms of my Grandchildren is his first book.
Susan Harris (United States) is the editorial director
of Words without Borders. With Ilya Kaminsky, she is
the coeditor of the most recent Words without Borders
anthology, The Ecco Anthology of International Poetry.
Barbara Harshav (United States) translates from French,
German, Hebrew, and Yiddish. Among her more than 50 books
are three volumes of translations of Yiddish poetry and two
volumes of translations of Hebrew poetry. She teaches in the
Comparative Literature department at Yale University, and is
president of the American Literary Translators’ Association.
Frederic Hauge (Norway) established the Bellona Foundation in
1986 at the age of 20. Through investigation, documentation, legal
action, and nonviolent activism, Bellona has facilitated concrete changes
in environmental policies among political and industrial leaders in
Norway and internationally. Today, Bellona is an international scientific
and technology-based environmental NGO with 75 employees in
Norway, Russia, the EU, and the USA. In 2007 Hauge was elected
Vice Chairman of the European Commission’s Technology Platform
for Zero Emission Fossil Fuel Power Plants (ZEP), and the same year
TIME Magazine named him a Hero of the Environment. He is on the
Steering Committee of the European Biofuels Technology Platform.
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World
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World
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PARTICIPANTS
including The Transit of Venus, which won the National Book
Critics Circle Award andThe Great Fire, which won the National
Book Award, was shortlisted for the Orange Prize for Fiction,
and longlisted for the Man Booker Prize. She is also the author of
Greene on Capri: A Memoir, among others.
Randa Jarrar (United States/Palestine/Egypt) is a writer and
translator whose honors include the Million Writers Award, the
Avery Hopwood and Jule Hopwood Award, and the Geoffrey
James Gosling Prize. Her translations from the Arabic have
appeared in Words Without Borders: The World Through
the Eyes of Writers. Her first novel is A Map of Home,
winner of a 2009 Arab American Book Award.
Aleksandar Hemon (Bosnia/U.S.) is the author of The Lazarus
Project, a finalist for the 2008 National Book Award, and three
collections of short stories: The Question of Bruno, Nowhere
Man (a finalist for the National Book Critics Circle Award), and Love
and Obstacles. He edited the Best European Fiction 2010. He
was awarded a Guggenheim Fellowship in 2003 and a “genius grant”
from the MacArthur Foundation in 2004.
Nicholas Jose (Australia) is the author of The Rose
Crossing, The Red Thread, and other novels, and general
editor of The Literature of Australia: an anthology. He
was president of Sydney PEN from 2002–05 and is currently
Visiting Chair of Australian Studies at Harvard where he teaches
contemporary writing from Asia and the Pacific.
Shirley Hazzard (Australia/U.S.) is the author of four novels
Michael Hofmann (Germany) is a poet, critic, and translator.
Jason Jones (Canada) is an actor and comedian who is currently
a correspondent on The Daily Show with Jon Stewart.
Paul Holdengräber (United States) is the Director of Public
Sebastian Junger (United States) is the author of Fire and
A.M. Homes (United States) is the author of This Book Will
Save Your Life, Things You Should Know, Music for Torching,
The Safety of Objects, and The Mistress’s Daughter, among
many others. A contributing editor to Vanity Fair, BOMB, and
other publications.
Irakli Kakabadze (Georgia/U.S.) is the author of five books
and hundreds of essays in English, Georgian, and Russian. He is
also an author of lyrics for Postindustrial Boys, and together
with Zurab Rtveliashvili, practices a literary performance
style called Polyphonic Discourse. He now teaches art and
peacebuilding at Cornell University.
Cathy Park Hong (United States) was chosen for the Bernard
Piper Kerman (United States) is a vice president at a
Washington, D.C.-based communications firm that works with
foundations and nonprofits. She is the author of Orange is
the New Black, a memoir of the thirteen months she spent in
prison.
Siri Hustvedt (United States) is the author of the novels What
I Loved, The Blindfold, The Enchantment of Lily Dahl, and
most recently, The Sorrows of An American. Hustvedt has also
published three collections of essays: Yonder, A Plea for Eros, and
Mysteries of the Rectangle: Essays on Painting.
Kamal Khalladi (Morocco) is a playwright, director,
Major Jackson (United States) is the author of Hoops and
Arzé Khodr (Lebanon) graduated in Theater Studies and
has worked as a theater teacher. She is also an actress and has
acted in many short films. She works as a writer for television
programs. The House, her first full-length play, was presented
as staged reading at the Royal Court Theatre and at Espace El
Teatro in Tunis.
Among his recent books are Selected Poems, a translation of
Gunter Eich’s poems, Angina Days and a translation of Thomas
Bernhard’s first novel, Frost. He lives in Hamburg, and teaches at the
University of Florida in Gainesville.
Programs at The New York Public Library and founder and Director of
LIVE from the NYPL. Holdengräber has written essays and articles for
journals in France, Germany, Spain, and the United States. In 2003, the
French government awarded him the Chevalier des Arts et des Lettres.
Women Poets Prize for her second collection of poetry entitled Dance
Dance Revolution. Hong is the recipient of a Fulbright Fellowship,
a National Endowment for the Arts Fellowship, and a Village Voice
Fellowship for Minority Reporters. Her poems have been published in A
Public Space, Paris Review, Jubilat, and many other places.
Leaving Saturn, a finalist for the National Book Critics Circle
Award. He is poetry editor at the Harvard Review and lives in
South Burlington, Vermont.
Sid Jacobson (United States) was the managing editor and
editor-in-chief at Harvey Comics, where he created Richie Rich, and
was the executive editor at Marvel Comics. Along with Ernie Colón,
he created a graphic novel titled The 9/11 Report: A Graphic
Adaptation. In August 2008, they released a 160-page followup: After 9/11: America’s War on Terror. Their latest book, A
Graphic Biography: Anne Frank, is forthcoming in 2010.
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the international best-seller The Perfect Storm. He has been
awarded a National Magazine Award and an SAIS Novartis Prize
for journalism. His first documentary film, Restrepo, received the
US documentary grand jury prize at the Sundance Film Festival.
Junger’s latest book, War, will be published in May 2010.
university teacher, and founding member of the Théâtre de
l’Atelier in Meknes, Morocco. In 2008 he attended the Royal
Court Theatre International Residency for Emerging Playwrights.
His play Damage was presented as a staged reading at the
Royal Court Theatre and at Masrah Al Madina in Beirut.
Elias Khoury (Lebanon) is the author of twelve novels,
including Gate of the Sun, Yalo, White Masks, Little
Mountain, and City Gates. In 1998, he was awarded the
Palestine Prize for Gate of the Sun, and, in 2000, the novel
was named Le Monde Diplomatique’s Book of the Year.
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PARTICIPANTS
Karl O. Knausgaard (Norway) made his debut with the novel
Ute Av Verden (Out of the World). A Time for Everything, his
second novel and his first to be published in English, was nominated
for the Nordic Council Prize. The first volume of his celebrated sixvolume Min Kamp (My Struggle) received Norway’s prestigious
Brage Prize in 2009.
László Krasznahorkai (Hungary) has written six novels and won
numerous prizes, including Best Book of the Year in Germany for his novel
The Melancholy of Resistance). Two of his novels have been made into
award-winning films by the renowned filmmaker Béla Tarr: Werkmeister
Harmonies from the novel The Melancholy of Resistance, and the
forthcoming novel Sátántangó.
Inga Kuznetsova (Russia) published her first poems at age nineteen
and won the Pushkin National Prize for Student Poetry. Her first book of
poems, Sni-Sinitsi (Chickadee Dreams), won the Triumph youth prize
and the Moscow Score Award for best debut. Her poems have been
translated widely and appeare in Contemporary Russian Poetry.
Eduardo Lago (Spain) is author of Llámame Brooklyn (Call Me
Brooklyn) a first novel which was awarded the Nadal Prize (2006)
and Ladrón de Mapas (Map Thief, 2008). Lago is a co-founder,
together with Enrique Vila-Matas, of the Order of Finnegans. He is
the current director of Instituto Cervantes New York.
Anne Landsman (South Africa/U.S.) won the 2009 South African
Sunday Times Literary Award for The Rowing Lesson. She is also
the author of The Devil’s Chimney, which was nominated for a
PEN/Hemingway Award.
Lewis H. Lapham (United States) is the founder and editor of
Lapham’s Quarterly. The editor emeritus of Harper’s Magazine, he
was inducted into the American Society of Magazine Editors Hall of Fame.
He is the author of thirteen books, among them Money and Class in
America, The Wish for Kings, and Theater of War. He produces a
weekly podcast for Bloomberg Radio, The World in Time, and made the
documentary film The American Ruling Class.
Adrian Nicole LeBlanc (United States) is a journalist and the author
of Random Family: Love, Drugs, Trouble and Coming of Age in
the Bronx. A New York Times bestseller, it won many awards and was
chosen by over twenty publications as one of the top ten books of that
year. She is the recipient of a MacArthur Foundation Fellowship and is
currently completing a book about standup comedians.
Jonathan Lethem (United States) is an author, essayist, and short
story writer. His novel Motherless Brooklyn won a National Book
Critics Circle Award, a Macallan Gold Dagger, and was translated
into nearly thirty languages. In 2003, he published The Fortress of
Solitude, which became a New York Times Best Seller. His latest
novel is Chronic City.
Andrea Levy (United Kingdom) won both the Whitbread Book of
the Year Award and the Orange Prize for Fiction: Best of the Best for
her fourth novel Small World. Her latest novel, The Long Song,
will be published by Farrar, Straus and Giroux in May.
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World
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PARTICIPANTS
Yiyun Li (China/U.S.) is the winner of the Frank O’Connor
International Short Story Award, the Hemingway Foundation/PEN
Award, and the Guardian First Book Award. The author of The
Vagrants and A Thousand Years of Good Prayers, Li was
selected for a Whiting Award, and by Granta as one of the best
young American novelists. Her next collection of stories, Gold Boy,
Emerald Girl, will be published in September.
Bjørn Lomborg (Denmark) is the organizer of the Copenhagen
Consensus Center, which brings together some of the world’s top
economists to set priorities for the world. In 2008 he was named
“one of the 50 people who could save the planet” by the UK
Guardian; “one of the top 100 public intellectuals” by Foreign
Policy and Prospect magazines; and “one of the world’s 75 most
influential people of the 21st century” by Esquire.
Joris Luyendijk (Netherlands) is a Dutch nonfiction author, news
correspondent and talk show host. He has written the novels A Good
Man Sometimes Hits His Wife and They Are Just Like People.
Between 1998 and 2003, he lived in Cairo, Beirut, and East Jerusalem,
working for the newspapers de Volkskrant and NRC Handelsblad,
as well as for Dutch radio and television. In 2002, Luyendijk was
awarded the Golden Pen, the Dutch prize for journalism.
valter hugo mãe (Portugal) has published seven books of poetry
and three novels (most recently folclore íntimo); edited anthologies
of the poets Manoel de Barros, José Régio, and Adília Lopes, among
others; and has translated works from Italian and Spanish. He is included
in Best European Fiction 2010. He also dabbles in art: his first show,
“the face of gregor samsa,” took place in Porto in 2006.
Jamal Mahjoub (Pakistan) is a novelist and essayist, born in London
and brought up in Khartoum. Currently based in Barcelona, he has lived
in Denmark and the UK for extended periods. His novels are widely
translated in Europe and he is the recipient of literary prizes in France,
Spain, and Britain. At present he is writing a nonfiction book about Sudan.
M Mark (United States) is the founding editor of PEN America:
A Journal for Writers and Readers. Previously, she founded The
Village Voice Library Supplement and served as its editor and
publisher for fifteen years. She has also edited several books, including
Disorderly Conduct: The VLS Fiction Reader, and her essays and
stories have appeared in numerous journals and books.
Daniele Mastrogiacomo (Pakistan/Italy) has covered national
and international affairs for the Italian daily La Repubblica, reporting
from some of the world’s most hostile places: Kabul, Teheran, Palestine,
Baghdad, and Mogadishu, to name a few. In 2006, he reported on the
war in Lebanon between Israel and Hezbollah. Days of Fear, about
his kidnapping in Afghanistan while covering the war, is his first book.
He was recently assigned to cover events following the earthquake
in Haiti.
Colum McCann (Ireland/U.S.) is the author of the 2009 National
Book Award winner for Fiction, Let the Great World Spin. He
has written four other novels, as well as two critically acclaimed short
story collections. A contributor to The New Yorker, The New York
Times Magazine, The Atlantic Monthly, GQ, and The Paris
Review, he lives in New York City.
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World
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World
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Bill McKibben (United States) is the author of The End of
Pavel Nastin (Russia) is a poet, photographer, and indepen-
Natalie Merchant (United States) began her career as lead vocalist and
lyricist of the band 10,000 Maniacs and released six albums with them
including The Wishing Chair, In My Tribe, Our Time in Eden, and
Campfire Songs. In 1994, she left the group to pursue a solo career that
has included the albums Tigerlily, Ophelia, Natalie Merchant Live, and
Retrospective. She has sold 15 million albums and is one of America’s most
respected songwriters. Her new double album Leave Your Sleep, (six years
in the making) contains a collection of classic children’s poetry set to music.
Eshkol Nevo (Israel) teaches creative writing at the Sam
Nature, Deep Economy, Earth: Making a Life on a Tough
New Planet, and numerous other books. He is the founder of the
environmental organizations Step It Up and 350.org, and was
among the first to warn of the dangers of global warming. He is a
scholar in residence at Middlebury College.
Claire Messud (United States) is the author of three novels and a
book of novellas. Her most recent novel, The Emperor’s Children,
was named one of the ten best books of 2006 by The New York
Times, was long-listed for Britain’s Man Booker Prize, and has been
translated into over twenty languages.
Albert Mobilio (United States) is a coeditor of Bookforum
and a recipient of a Whiting Award. His most recent essays have
appeared in Black Clock, Cabinet, and Tin House. His books of
poetry include The Geographics, Me with Animal Towering,
and Touch Wood.
dent curator. Nastin’s work has been translated into English and
Swedish and published in journals in Russia, Europe, and the U.S.
In 2005, he published a book of poetry titled Yazyk Zhestov
(Sign Language). He was also short-listed for the Andrey Bely
Award in the Literary Projects category in 2009.
Spiegel Film School and at private workshops. His novel
Homesick won the Reimond Wallier prize in the Salon de Livre,
Paris, 2008.
Mary Ann Newman (United States) is the Director of the
Catalan Center at New York University’s Center for European and
Mediterranean Studies. She is a translator, editor, and occasional
writer on Catalan culture. In addition to Quim Monzó, she has
translated Xavier Rubert de Ventós, Joan Maragall, and Narcis
Comidira, among others.
Ben Okri (Nigeria/U.K.) has published nine novels, including The
Famished Road, two volumes of stories, as well as collections of poetry
and essays. He is a Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature and was
awarded the OBE. Translated into more than 20 languages, he has been
awarded numerous international prizes including the Commonwealth
Writers Prize for Africa and the Aga Khan Prize for Fiction. He is a Vice
President of the English Centre of International PEN and was presented
with a Crystal Award by the World Economic Forum.
Quim Monzó (Spain) is the recipient of the National Award for fiction,
Michael Orthofer (Austria/U.S.) is the founder and managing
the City of Barcelona Award, the Prudenci Bertrana Award, the El Temps
Award for best novel, the Lletra d’Or Prize, and the Catalan Writers’
Award. He has also won Serra d’Or magazine’s Critics’ Award four
times and is a contributor to the La Vanguardia newspaper. Most of his
novels are written in Catalan, including the most recent, Mil Cretins.
editor of the Complete Review (www.complete-review.com)
and its Literary Saloon weblog, a leading online resource for
information about international literature.
Michael F. Moore (United States) is the co-chair of the PEN
Translation Committee. He has translated, from the Italian, works by
the novelist Erri De Luca, the poet Alfredo Giuliani, and the aphorist
Guido Ceronetti.
Sofi Oksanen (Finland) is the author of the novels Stalin’s Cows,
Baby Jane, and most recently, Purge. Purge—the first book to
win both of Finland’s top literary awards, the Finlandia and the
Runeberg—is based on her acclaimed and controversial play of the
same name, originally staged at the National Theater in Helsinki. In
2009, Oksanen was named Estonia’s “Person of the Year.”
Marcel Möring (Netherlands) won the AKO Prize, the Dutch equivalent
Darryl Pinckney (United States) is the author of the novel
High Cotton, which won the Los Angeles Times Book Prize
for Fiction and Out There: Mavericks of Black Literature.
He is a frequent contributor to The New York Review of
Books and received the Vursell Award for Distinguished Prose
from the American Academy of Arts and Letter in 1994.
Toni Morrison (United States) is the author of numerous works of fiction,
Thomas Pletzinger (Germany) participated in the University
of Iowa’s International Writing Program. The translation of his
critically acclaimed novel Bestattung eines Hundes (Funeral
for a Dog) will be published in the U.S. in spring of 2010.
Alexandre Najjar (Lebanon/France) has written eight books.
Two of his novels have been translated into English, The Silence
of My Father and The School of War. He is the winner of the
Prix Méditerranée and the French Academy Prize. He is also a
lawyer and the director of the French magazine, L’Orient littéraire,
published monthly in Beirut.
Martin Pollack (Austria) is a translator, essayist, and
of the Booker Prize for his second novel, Het Grote Verlangen (The
Great Longing). His novel In Babylon won two Golden Owls, a Flemish
award for the best Dutch/Flemish book of 1998. His novel DIS was
awarded the Bordewijk Prize for the best Dutch novel of 2006. His most
recent novel is, In a Dark Wood.
nonfiction, and children’s literature. Her most recent novel is A Mercy. She
twice has received the Pulitzer Prize–for Sula (1974) and Beloved (1988)–
as well as the National Book Critics Circle Award and the Nobel Prize for
Literature. Most recently the Robert F. Goheen Professor of Humanities at
Princeton University, she lives in Rockland County, New York.
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journalist. He worked as editor and correspondent of Der
Spiegel, and presently writes and translates. His novel Death
in a Bunker: A Tale of My Father has been translated into
English.
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Richard Price (United States) has written more than seven novels,
including his recent Lush Life. Price has also written numerous
screenplays, including The Color of Money, which was nominated
for an Academy Award in Screenwriting, Sea of Love, and Ransom.
Price received the 1999 Award in Literature from the American
Academy of Arts and Letters. In 2007, he shared an Edgar Award for
his writing on the HBO series The Wire.
José Manuel Prieto (Cuba/U.S.) was born in Havana in 1962.
He lived in Russia for twelve years, has translated the works of Joseph
Brodsky and Anna Akhmatova into Spanish, and has taught Russian
history in Mexico City. He is the author of Rex and Nocturnal
Butterflies of the Russian Empire, and is a visiting professor at
Princeton University.
George Prochnik (United States) is the author of the forthcoming
In Pursuit of Silence: Listening for Meaning in a World of
Noise, as well as Putnam Camp: Sigmund Freud, James Jackson
Putnam & The Purpose of American Psychology, a New York
Times “Editor’s Choice” pick and winner of a 2007 Gradiva Award. He is
working on a book about Stefan Zweig.
Francine Prose (United States) is the author of many best-selling
books of fiction, including A Changed Man and Blue Angel, which
was a finalist for the National Book Award, and the nonfiction New
York Times best-seller Reading Like a Writer. Her latest novel, is
Goldengrove, and her latest nonfiction book is Anne Frank: The
Book, The Life, The After Life. She is a former president of the PEN
American Center.
Monique Proulx (Québec) is a novelist and a writer of short stories
and screenplays. Awards for the screen adaptation of The Invisible
Man at the Window include the prestigious Québec-Paris Prize
and The Sex of the Stars, Best Canadian Film at the International
Film Festival of Montréal. Her collection of short stories Aurora
Montrealis has been published in a dozen countries. Her latest book is
the novel Wildlives.
Atiq Rahimi (Afghanistan/France) is recognized as both a writer and a
renowned maker of documentary and feature films. The film of his novel
Earth and Ashes was in the Official Selection at Cannes Festival in 2004.
He is currently adapting one of his novels, A Thousand Rooms of Dreams
and Fear, for the screen. Since 2001, Rahimi has returned to Afghanistan
to set up a Writers’ House in Kabul to offer support and training for young
Afghan writers and filmmakers. His latest novel is The Patience Stone.
Federico Rampini (Italy) is the US Chief Correspondent of La
Repubblica, Italy’s leading national daily newspaper. His columns and
feature stories have been translated and published in Le Monde, Le
Figaro, Liberation, and El Pais. His books have been translated in Europe
and in Latin America.
Klemens Renoldner (Austria) is the director of the Stefan Zweig
World
Voices
PARTICIPANTS
Roxana Robinson (United States) is the author of four novels,
most recently Cost, three collections of short stories, and the
biography Georgia O’Keeffe: A Life. Her work has appeared
in The New Yorker, Harper’s Magazine, The Washington
Post, The Wall Street Journal, and Vogue.
Norman Rush (United States) worked in Africa from 1978 to
1983. His short story collection Whites was a finalist for both the
Pulitzer Prize and the National Book Award. His novel Mating
received the 1991 National Book Award for Fiction, among other
awards. His novel Mortals, published completed his trilogy on the
Western presence in contemporary southern Africa. He is at work
on a new novel, Subtle Bodies, set in the Catskills.
Salman Rushdie (India/United States) is author of many
novels, including Midnight’s Children, Shame, The Satanic
Verses, Haroun and the Sea of Stories, The Ground
Beneath Her Feet, Fury, Shalimar the Clown, and, most
recently, The Enchantress of Florence. He has won numerous
awards, including the Man Booker Prize, the “Booker of Bookers,”
and the Whitbread Prize, and he was awarded a knighthood for
services to literature in 2007. A former President of PEN American
Center, he is Chair of the World Voices Festival.
Alberto Ruy-Sánchez (Mexico) is a fiction and nonfiction
writer, poet, and essayist. His most recent publications include,
Limulus, Visiones del Fósil Viviente (Visions of the Living
Fossil) and Nueve Veces el Asombro. He was proclaimed
Officier de l’Ordre des Arts et des Lettres by the French
government, and received the honor of Gran Orden de Honor
Nacional al Mérito Autoral in Mexico City.
Gabriel Sanders (United States) is deputy editor of the
online magazine Tablet. His writing has appeared in The New
York Times Book Review, Bookforum, The Forward,
The Jerusalem Report, Time Out New York, and other
publications. He lives in Brooklyn, NY.
Rakesh Satyal (United States) is the author of the novel Blue
Boy and an editor at HarperCollins, where he edits such writers
as Paulo Coelho, Clive Barker, Armistead Maupin, and Paul
Rudnick. He also sings a popular cabaret show in New York that
has been featured widely in publications ranging from The New
York Observer to Page Six. Peter Schneider (Germany) published his first novel Lenz in
Centre at the University of Salzburg, and has worked as a theater
director at leading theaters in Austria, Germany, and Switzerland. He
curated the Stefan Zweig exhibition in Salzburg, and is the editor of
Stefan Zweig – Bilder Texte Dokumente.
1973. More than twenty other novels, screenplays, and volumes
of essays followed, including Der Mauerspringer (The Wall
Jumper), Extreme Mittelage (The German Comedy), and
Paarungen (Couplings). Since 2001, he has been the Roth
Distinguished Writer-in-Residence at Georgetown University.
Andrew Revkin (United States) writes the popular Dot Earth blog
Ben Schrank (United States) is President and Publisher of
for The New York Times, focusing on environment, energy, and global
sustainability. He has been a pioneering multimedia science journalist for nearly
three decades. After fifteen years at the Times, Revkin recently left his staff
position there to become the Senior Fellow for Environmental Understanding
at Pace University’s Academy for Applied Environmental Studies.
42
Razorbill, an imprint at Penguin (USA). He is the author of the
novels Miracle Man and Consent.
43
World
Voices
PARTICIPANTS
World
Voices
PARTICIPANTS
Sarah Schulman (United States) is the author of 14 books including
Andrzej Stasiuk (Poland) has received numerous awards for his
work, including the NIKE, Poland’s most prestigious literary prize, for his
collection of essays Going to Babadag. His 1999 novel Nine was
recently published in English to great acclaim. He has written almost a
book a year since, the most recent titled Dojczland.
Roger Sederat (United States) is a poet and translator. He is the
author of Dear Regime: Letters to the Islamic Republic and the
forthcoming Ghazal Games. He is Assistant Professor in the MFA
Program in Creative Writing and Literary Translation at Queens College,
City University of New York.
Peter Stamm (Switzerland) is the author of the novels Unformed
Roman Senchin (Russia) grew up in the Siberian town of Minusinsk, which
C.K. Stead (New Zealand) has published thirteen collections of poems
and two of short stories, as well as eleven novels, and six books of literary
criticism. His novels have been translated into a dozen languages. He has
won numerous literary prizes, including New Zealand Book Award for both
poetry and fiction, the Katherine Mansfield Award, the King’s Lynn Poetry
Prize, and the Prime Minister’s Award for Fiction. He was awarded a CBE for
services to New Zealand literature and the Order of New Zealand.
the novels The Mere Future, Rat Bohemia, and Empathy, the plays
Carson McCullers and Manic Flight Reaction, and many other
books. She is on the Advisory Board of the Human Rights and Social
Movements Program at Harvard’s Kennedy School. Her latest book is The
Gentrification of the Mind: Witness to a Lost Education.
provided the setting for his prize-winning novel Minus, has been translated
into German, French, and other languages. Senchin has published six
novels and many short stories, and has won several Russian literary awards.
Senchin’s most recent novel, The Yeltyshevs, has been short-listed for the
Russian Booker Prize.
Akhil Sharma (India/U.S.) is the author of An Obedient Father,
which won the PEN/Hemingway Award and has been published in
numerous languages. He is also an award-winning short story writer and
has been anthologized three times in Best American Short Stories
and twice in The O. Henry Prize Stories. In 2007 he was included in
Granta’s list of Best Young American novelists.
Robert Silvers (United States) is the editor of The New York Review
of Books. He was a founding co-editor with Barbara Epstein, with whom
he worked from 1963 until her death in 2006. Silvers has also edited several
anthologies featuring New York Review contributors, including The
Consequences to Come: American Power After Bush and The
Company They Kept: Writers on Unforgettable Friendships.
Patti Smith (United States) is a writer, artist, and performer. Her seminal album
Landscape and On a Day Like This, the story collection In
Strange Gardens, and numerous short stories and radio plays.
Francisco Stork (Mexico/U.S.) is the author of Marcelo in the
Real World, a 2009 Booklist Editor’s Choice, as well as a New York
Times Notable Children’s Book of 2009. Marcelo in the Real
World has been translated into fourteen languages. His newest novel,
The Last Summer of the Death Warriors was published in March.
Lee Stringer (United States) is the author of Sleepaway School
and Grand Central Winter; both won Washington Irving Book
Awards. He received the Lannan Foundation residency fellowship in
2005. His newest book is entitled White People: Stories from All
Over, and will be published in the spring of 2011.
Horses was followed by nine releases including Radio Ethiopia, Easter,
Dream of Life, Gone Again, and Trampin’. Her books include Witt, Babel,
Woolgathering, The Coral Sea, and Patti Smith Complete 1975 - 2006.
Smith’s most recent book, Just Kids, was published in January 2010. In 2005, she
received the Commandeur de l’Ordre des Arts et des Lettres.
Miguel Syjuco (Philippines) received the 2008 Man Asian Literary
Sergei Sokolovskiy (Russia) is a prose writer and editor. Sokolovskiy’s
short fiction has been published in the anthologies Babylon, Okrestnosti,
Avtornik, and others. He published and edited the journal Shestaya
Kolonna; he was also the editor of the Okrestnosti (The Environs)
anthology and his publishing house, Autochton, has published a series of
books by young authors.
Greg Tate (United States) is an American author whose books include
Flyboy in the Buttermilk, Midnight Lightning: Jimi Hendrix and
the Black Experience, and Everything But the Burden: What
White People Are Taking from Black Culture. An essayist and long
time staff writer for The Village Voice, Tate has published widely in
The New York Times, Rolling Stone, Spin, Artforum, elsewhere.
Martin Solares (Mexico) is a fiction writer and critic. He received
the Efraín Huerta National Literary Award in 1998 for his short story “El
Planeta Cloralex.” Los Minuts Negros (The Black Minutes) was shortlisted for the Rómulo Gallegos International Novel Prize and has been
published in Spanish, English, and German.
Jackson Taylor (United States) has directed the Prison Writing
Program at PEN American Center for more than twenty years and
recently has acted as an advisor to the Anne Frank Center USA’s
Prison Diary Project. Taylor’s debut novel is The Blue Orchard.
Laila Soliman (Egypt) attended the Royal Court Theatre International
Jonathan Taylor (United States) is an editor and writer in New
Residency for Emerging Playwrights. Her play Egyptian Products was
presented as a staged reading at the Royal Court Theatre and in Masrah Al
Madina, Beirut. She directed At Your Service!, an adaptation of two plays
by Harold Pinter and Fo/Rame at the Hanager theatre, Cairo. In 2010, she
wrote and directed the first Arabic adaptation of Frank Wedekind’s Spring
Awakening, staged in Egypt.
44
Prize and the Philippines’ highest literary honor, the Palanca Award, for
the unpublished manuscript of Ilustrado. Ilustrado is his first novel.
York, and has moderated World Voices Festival events on Thomas
Bernhard and Franz Kafka. His book reviews and essays have
appeared in The Believer, Print, The Village Voice, Bookforum,
The Nation, Stop Smiling, and The Stranger.
45
editions
A PEN World Voices
partner since 2007
DAYS OF FEAR BROKENGLASSPARK
Europa
Invites you to join authors Alina Bronsky and
Daniele Mastrogiacomo at the 2010 World Voices festival.
ALINA BRONSKY
BROKENGLASSPARK
Europa
“A riveting debut.”
—Publishers Weekly
With generous support from the Goethe-Institut
New York and the German Book Office.
editions
DANIELE MASTROGIACOMO
DAYS OF FEAR
A Firsthand Account of Captivity
Under the New Taliban
“A searing, frightening tale.
Graphic and harrowing.”
—Kirkus Reviews
Europa
editions
“A searing, frightening tale. Graphic and harrowing.”
—Kirkus Reviews
Europa
editions
With generous support from the Italian
Cultural Institute of New York.
www.europaeditions.com
World
Voices
PARTICIPANTS
World
Voices
PARTICIPANTS
Janne Teller (Denmark) is the author of Odin’s Island, which
has been translated into five languages. Her second novel Nothing,
written for young adults, was awarded the Danish Cultural Ministry
Prize for best children’s book of 2001, as well as the prestigious Le Prix
Libbylit 2008 for best novel for children in the French-speaking world.
Amanda Vaill (United States) is author of Everybody Was So
Anderson Tepper (United States) has been on the editorial staff
Marlene van Niekerk (South Africa) is an award-winning poet,
novelist, and short story writer. Her publications include the short story
collection The Woman Who Forgot Her Spyglass, the novella
Memorandum, and the novels Triomf and Agaat. Triomf was
a New York Times Notable Book. Agaat received the Sunday
Times Literary Prize and the Hertzog Prize.
Judith Thurman (United States) is the author of Isak Dinesen:
Melvin Van Peebles (United States) is the award-winning
founding father of modern African American cinema. His musical
Ain’t Supposed to Die a Natural Death, was compared to the
work of Langston Hughes. He wrote and directed the film Sweet
Sweetback’s Baadasssss Song. His new show is Unmitigated
Truth: Life, a Lavatory, Loves, and Ladies.
Colm Tóibín (Ireland) is the author of six novels including The Blackwater
Lightship and The Master, both short-listed for the Man Booker Prize. His
nonfiction includes The Sign of the Cross and Love in a Dark Time. He
writes frequently for such publications as The London Review of Books
and The New York Review of Books. His books have been translated into
eighteen languages. Brooklyn won the 2009 Costa Novel Award.
Mary Anne Weaver (United States) is a longtime correspondent
Noreen Tomassi (United States) is the Director of the Center for
Tommy Wieringa (Netherlands) has written several works including
the novels All About Tristan, winner of the Halewijn Prize, and Joe
Speedboat, winner of the Bordewijk Prize. He writes columns on art
and literature for the Dutch NRC Handelsblad daily newspaper. His
latest novel Caesarion, was short-listed for the AKO Literature Prize.
Jean-Philippe Toussaint (France/Belgium) has written seven
novels and several films. His work has been compared to the work of
Samuel Beckett, and the films of Jim of Jacques Tati and Jim Jarmusch.
Running Away was awarded the Prix Médicis in 2005. He is included
in Best European Fiction 2010. His forthcoming books are: SelfPortrait Abroad and The Truth About Marie.
Natasha Wimmer is the translator of Roberto Bolaño’s The
Deborah Treisman (United States) has been fiction editor of The
New Yorker since 2003. Previously, she was the managing editor of
Grand Street, and has been a member of the editorial staffs of The
New York Review of Books, Harper’s, and The Threepenny
Review. Her translations have appeared in The New Yorker, The
Nation, Harper’s, and Grand Street.
Josef Winkler (Austria) worked as an administrator at the University
of Klagenfurt from 1973 until 1982, when he began writing full time.
He was awarded the Austrian National Prize in 2007, the Georg
Büchner Prize in 2008, and the Ingeborg Bachmann Prize for his novel
Meschenkind (Human Being).
David Dante Troutt (United States) is an educator, editor, and author
of poetry, novels, nonfiction and journalistic works including The Monkey
Suit – and Other Short Fiction on African Americans and
Justice. Troutt writes political essays and analysis for a variety of national
periodicals and websites, including The New York Times, The Los
Angeles Times, and The Huffington Post, among others.
Ed Young (China/United States) is a Caldecott Medalist, a two-time
Caldecott Honor Book artist, and has been twice nominated for the
Hans Christian Andersen Award. He has illustrated many books for
children, including Cat and Rat and Hook.
Christos Tsiolkas (Greece/Australia) is a playwright, essayist, and
Lila Azam Zanganeh (United States/France) studied at the Ecole
Normale Supérieure in Paris. She moved to the U.S. to teach literature,
cinema, and Romance languages at Harvard University. She is literary
contributor to Le Monde. Her first book, Light of My Life, is a
combination of fiction and essay celebrating happiness according to
Vladimir Nabokov and will be published in 2011.
of Vanity Fair since 1998 and has written on books for a variety
of publications, including The New York Times Book Review,
the Nation, TLS, Washington Post, Village Voice, Salon,
Nextbook, and Tin House.
The Life of a Storyteller, winner of the National Book Award, and
Secrets of the Flesh: A Life of Colette. A staff writer at The New
Yorker, she lives in New York City.
Fiction. Her books are Money for International Exchange in the
Arts and American Visions/Visiones de las Americas and she
was a contributor to America’s Membership Libraries.
screenwriter who has written five novels: Loaded, which was made into the
feature film Head-On, The Jesus Man, and Dead Europe. He has been
awarded the Commonwealth Writer’s Prize for South East Asia and the Pacific
region, was short-listed for the 2009 Miles Franklin Literary Award, and won
the Australian Literary Society Gold Medal for his latest novel, The Slap.
48
Young: Gerald and Sara Murphy -- A Lost Generation Love
Story and Somewhere: The Life of Jerome Robbins, as well
as the screenplay for the Emmy-winning PBS documentary, Jerome
Robbins: Something to Dance About. She is currently at work on a
new book, Hotel Florida: Love and Death in Spain, 1936-1939.
for The New Yorker, and the author of A Portrait of Egypt: A
Journey Through the World of Militant Islam and Pakistan:
Deep Inside the World’s Most Frightening State. She has
reported from some 30 countries over as many years.
Savage Detectives, 2666, and Antwerp. She has also translated
fiction and non-fiction by Mario Vargas Llosa, Rodrigo Fresán, Laura
Restrepo, Gabriel Zaid, and Pedro Juan Gutiérrez.
49
World
Voices
VENUE INFORMATION
92nd St Y Unterberg Poetry Center
New York City, New York 10016
212.817.1860
1395 Lexington Avenue (at East 92nd Street)
New York, NY 10128
212.415.5500
B/D/F/N/Q/R/V/W TO 34TH Street
—Herald Square
6 to 33rd Street
4/5/6 to 86th Street
6 to 96th Street
CUNY Segal Theatre
Austrian Cultural Forum
365 Fifth Avenue (at 34th Street)
New York City, NY 10016
212.817.1860
11 East 52nd Street (between 5th Ave and
Madison Ave)
New York, NY 10022
212.319.5300
***No tickets, but please make reservation at
212-319-5300 ext. 222***
B/D/F/N/Q/R/V/W TO 34TH Street—Herald
Square
6 to 33rd Street
E/V to Fifth Avenue—53rd Street
B/D/F/V to 47-50 Street—Rockefeller Center
E/V/6 Train to 51st Street—Lexington Avenue
Deutsches Haus at NYU
Baruch College
A/B/C/D/E/F/V to West 4th Street
—Washington Square
N/R/W to 8th Street NYU
42 Washington Mews (between 5th Ave and
University Place)
212.998.8660
One Bernard Baruch Way
55 Lexington Ave (at East 25th Street)
New York, NY 10010
646.312.1000
The French Institute Alliance Française:
Tinker Auditorium and Florence Gould
Hall
1/6/F/N or R to 23rd Street Station
Bowery Poetry Club
55 East 59th Street (between Madison Ave
and Park Ave)
New York, NY 10022
212.355.6160
308 Bowery (between Bleecker and Houston
Street)
New York, NY 10012
212.614.0505
***Money at the door***
4/5/6 to 59th & Lexington
N/R to 5th Ave/59th Street
E/V to 5th Ave/53rd Street
6 to Bleecker Street
F/V to 2nd Avenue
The French Institute Alliance Française:
Le Skyroom
Brooklyn Public Library- Dweck Center
@ Central Library
22 East 60th Street (between Madison Ave
and Park Ave)
New York, NY 10022
212.355.6160
10 Grand Army Plaza (between Flatbush Ave
and Plaza Street West)
Brooklyn, NY 11238
718.230.2100
2/3 to Grand Army Plaza
Q to 7th Ave
4/5/6 to 59th & Lexington
N/R to 5th Ave/59th Street
E/V to 5th Ave/53rd Street
Center for Jewish History
Galapagos
15 West 16th Street (between 5th and 6th Ave)
New York, NY 10011
212.294.8301
16 Main Street (at the corner of Water Street)
Brooklyn, NY 11201
718.222.8500
4/5/6/L/N/Q/R/W to 14th Street Union
Square
F/V to 14th Street
F to York Street
A to High Street
2/3 to Clark Street
Cooper Union Great Hall
Idlewild Books
12 West 19th Street (between 5th and 6th Ave)
New York, NY 10011
212.414.8888
7 East 7th Street (between 2nd and 3rd Ave)
New York, New York 10003
212.353.4195
6 to Astor Place
F to 23rd Street
N/R/W to 8th Street
CUNY Elebash Recital Hall
World
Voices
VENUE INFORMATION
Instituto Cervantes New York
W/R to Whitehall Street
1 to South Ferry
211–215 East 49th Street (between 2nd and 3rd
Ave)
New York, New York 10017
212.308.7720
National Arts Club
15 Gramercy Park South
New York, NY 10003-1796
212.475.3424
E/V to 53rd St.-Lexington
6 to 51st St-Lexington Avenue
L/N/Q/R/W or 4/5/6 to Union Square 14th
Street
Istituto Italiano Di Cultura
powerHouse Arena
686 Park Avenue (between East 68th & 69th
Street)
New York, NY 10065
212.879.4242
37 Main Street (between Water and Front
Street)
Brooklyn, NY 11201
718.666.3049
6 to 68th Street Hunter College
F to York Street
2/3 to Clark Street
A to High Street
Joe’s Pub
425 Lafayette (between East 4th and Astor
Place)
New York, NY 10003
212.539.8778
Scandinavia House
58 Park Avenue (at 38th Street)
New York, NY 10016
212.879.9779
6 to Astor Place
N/R/W to 8th St
6 to 33rd Street
4/5/6/Shuttle to 42nd St/Grand Central
Station
La Maison Française, NYU
16 Washington Mews (off University Place)
New York, NY 10003
212.998.8750
Skirball Center for the Performing Arts
at NYU
A/C/E/B/D/F/V to West Fourth StreetWashington Square Station
N/R/W to 8th Street—NYU
566 LaGuardia Place (at Washington Square
South)
New York, NY 10012
212.352.3101
Le Poisson Rouge
158 Bleecker Street
New York, NY 10012
212.505.3474
A/B/C/D/ E/F/V to West 4th Street
1 to Christopher Street
N/R to 8th Street
The Metropolitan Museum of Art
WNYC - Jerome L. Greene Performance
Space
A/B/C/D/E/F/V to West 4th Street
44 44 Charlton Street (at Varick Street)
New York, NY 10013
Grace Rainey Rogers Auditorium
1000 Fifth Avenue
New York, NY 10028
Enter for the event at Fifth Avenue and 83rd
Street
212.535.7710
E/C to Spring Street
1 to Houston
4/5/6 to 86th Street
225 Madison Avenue (between East 36th
and East 37th Street)
New York, NY 10016
212.685.0008 ext. 560
6 to 33rd Street
Museum of Jewish Heritage — A Living
Memorial to the Holocaust
36 Battery Place
New York, NY 10280
646.437.4200
4/5 to Bowling Green
365 Fifth Avenue (at 34th Street)
50
51
World
Voices
SPONSORS
World
Voices
SPONSORS
SPONSORS
CONTRIBUTORS
Bloomberg The Kaplen Foundation
LJK Literary Management Stephen & Ann Pleshette Murphy Random House
Annette Tapert & Joseph Allen
The 92nd Street Y Unterberg Poetry Center
Hungarian Cultural Center New York
The Austrian Cultural Forum
Institut Ramon Llull
Deutsches Haus at NYU
Consulate General of Israel
Foundation for the Production and
Translation of Dutch Literature
Italian Cultural Institute
FJC, a Foundation of Donor-Advised Funds
New York City Department of
Cultural Affairs
Cultural Services of the French Embassy
New York State Council of the Arts,
a State Agency
New Zealand Book Council
German Book Office New York, Inc.
Creative New Zealand
Consulate General of the Federal Republic
of Germany
BENEFACTORS
The Bank of New York Mellon
Condé Nast Publications
The Diller-von Furstenberg Family Foundation
Fritt Ord
The Horace W. Goldsmith Foundation
Instituto Cervantes New York
National Endowment for the Arts
The New York Review of Books
NYRB Classics
Penguin Group USA
Roger Smith Hotel
The Arthur Ross Foundation
WNYC/The Jerome L. Greene Performance Space
Anonymous
Royal Norwegian Consulate General
Goethe-Institut New York
Rodale
HarperCollins Publishers
Romanian Cultural Institute in New York
PATRONS
Australian Consulate General
Embassy of Australia
City Lights Publishers
Danish Arts Council
Royal Danish Consulate General
The Martin E. Segal Theater, The Graduate Center, CUNY
Mexican Cultural Institute
Polish Cultural Institute
Portuguese Institute for Books & Libraries
Pro Helvetia
Québec Government Office in New York
Consulate General of Switzerland
The Wylie Agency
52
53
PEN BOARD & STAFF
World
Voices
PEN BOARD OF TRUSTEES
The American-Scandinavian Foundation
at Scandinavian House
K. Anthony Appiah, President
Laurence J. Kirshbaum, Executive Vice President
Jessica Hagedorn, Vice President
Victoria Redel, Vice President
Maria Campbell, Treasurer
Roxana Robinson, Secretary
PARTNERING ORGANIZATIONS
American Civil Liberties Union
Baruch College
Berkley Arts & Letters
Blue Metropolis Montreal International
Literary Festival
Ron Chernow, Wendy Gimbel, Beth Gutcheon, Jhumpa Lahiri, Joanne Leedom-Ackerman,
Jaime Manrique, Claudia Menza, Michael F. Moore, Steven Pleshette Murphy, John Oakes, Hannah Pakula,
Walter Pozen, Susanna Reich, Hamilton Robinson, Jr., Esmeralda Santiago,
Elissa Schappell, Annette Tapert, Lynne Tillman, Monique Truong, Danielle Truscott
Bookforum
British Council
The Bowery Poetry Club
Brooklyn Public Library
CEC ArtsLink, Inc.
Steven L. Isenberg, Executive Director
Leon Friedman, General Counsel
Center for Jewish History
City of Asylum/Pittsburgh
FESTIVAL ADVISORY COMMITTEE
Nicole Aragi, Susan Bernofsky, Maria Campbell, Morgan Entrekin, Jonathan Safran-Foer, Jessica
Hagedorn, Susan Kuklin, Christina McInerney, Jaime Manrique, Fran Manushkin, Michael F. Moore, George
Packer, Rakesh Satyal, Ben Schrank, Jeff Seroy, Anderson Tepper
The Cooper Union for the Advancement
of Science and Art
Dalkey Archive
Europa Editions
Galapagos Art Space
PEN STAFF
Genesis Foundation
Maggie Abam (Staff Accountant), Antonio Aiello (Web Site Editor), Nick Burd (Manager of Membership and
Literary Awards), Robyn DesHotel (Director of Finance and Administration), Jonathan Dozier-Ezell (Prison
Writing Coordinator), David Haglund (Managing Editor of PEN America and Communications Coordinator),
Sarah Hoffman (Freedom to Write Coordinator), Steven L. Isenberg (Executive Director), Meghan Kyle-Miller
(Development Associate), Chuck Leung (Associate Web Site Editor), Stacy Leigh (Readers & Writers and Open
Book Director), Caro Llewellyn (PEN World Voices Festival and Public Programs Director), M. Mark (PEN
America Editor), Linda Morgan (Development Director), Jessica Rotondi (Executive Assistant), Geoff Schmidt
(Prison Writing Mentorship Program Coordinator), Larry Siems (Freedom to Write and International Programs
Director), Stefanie W. Simons (Readers & Writers Associate), Jackson Taylor (Prison Writing Program Director),
Lara Tobin (Membership Associate and Writers’ Fund Coordinator), Elizabeth Weinstein (PEN World Voices
Festival and Public Programs Manager); Emily Biging, Lejla Foric, Cheyl Milani, Kate Roselli, Leonora Zoninsein
(Festival interns); Jenny Langsam (program guide editor)
PHOTO CREDITS
Sherman Alexie © Chase Jarvis
David Almond © Sara Jane Palmer
Deb Amos ©2007 NPR, by Steve Barrett
Bernardo Axtaga © Gorka Salmeron
Paul Auster © Lotte Hansen
Ian Buruma © Stefan Heijdendael
Ernie Colón © Ruth Ashby
Philippe Djian© Catherine Helie
Roddy Doyle © Mark Nixon
Alex Epstein © Thomas Langdon
Imad Farajin © Simon Kane
Rodrigo Fresán © Isabel Caroll
Richard Ford © Robert Yager
Assaf Gavron © Moti Kikayon
Barry Gifford © Matt Dillon
Rigoberto González © Ettlinger
Philip Gourevitch © Andrew Bruckner
Rawi Hage © Milosz Rowicki
Frederic Hauge © Marcus Bleasdale
Mohsin Hamid © Ed Kashi
James Hansen ©Arnold Adler
Shirley Hazzard © Nancy Crampton
Aleksander Hemon © Velibor Božović
Michael Hofmann © Jonathan Evans
A.M. Homes © Marion Ettlinger
Cathy Park Hong © Thomas Sayers Ellis
Laila Hourani © Hermann Huber
Siri Hustvedt © Marion Ettlinger
Major Jackson © Marion Ettlinger
Sid Jacobson © Shure Jacobson
Randa Jarrar © Bering
Sebastian Junger © Michael Kamber
Piper Kerman © Sam Zalutsky
Kamal Khalladi © Simon Kane
Karl Knausgaard © Thomas Wågström
Adrian Nicole LeBlanc © MacArthur
Foundation
Jonathan Lethem ©Mara Faye Lethem.
Andrea Levy © Laurie Fletcher
Yiyun Li © Randi Lynn Beach
Bjorn Lomborg © Emil Jupin
valter hugo mãe © Nélio Paulo
Column McCann © Matt Valentine
Bill McKibben © Nancie Battaglia
Natalie Merchant © Mark Seliger
Toni Morrison © Timothy Greenfield-Sanders
Eshkol Nevo © Moti Kikayon
Sofi Oksanen © Toni Härkönen
Darryl Pinckney © Dominique Nabokov
Thomas Pletzinger © Juliane Henrich
54
Martin Pollack ©Katarzyna Dzidt
Richard Price © Ralph Gibson
Francine Prose © Stephanie Berger
Monique Proulx © Martine Doyon
Atiq Rahimi © Helene Bamberger
Roxana Robinson © Marion Ettlinger
Salman Rushdie © Beowulf Sheehan
Gabriel Sanders © Len Small
Rakesh Satyal © Tara Leigh
Peter Schneider © Peter Peitsch
Patti Smith © Steven Sebring
Laila Soliman © Herman Huber
Francisco Stork © Anna Stork
Miguel Syjuco © Marcos Townsend
Jackson Taylor © Tom Cocotos
Jonathon Taylor © Cocotos
Anderson Tepper © Melanie Dunea
Judith Thurman © Brigitte Lacombe
David Troutt© Thomas Dallal
Jean-Phillippe Toussaint © Matsas
Christos Tsiolkas © Zoe Ali
Tommy Wieringa © Viviane Sassen
Josef Winkler © Jerry Bauer
Lila Azam Zanganeh © Hans Gan
Granta
Guernica Magazine
Inter-American Development Bank
Joe’s Pub
La Maison Française, NYU
(Le)Poisson Rouge
Literary Arts
The Loft Literary Center
Los Angeles Times Book Fair
Museum of Jewish Heritage –
A Living Memorial To The Holocaust
The National Book Critics Circle
The Paris Review
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powerHouse Books Arena
Royal Court Theatre
Washington College/Rose O’Neill Literary House
Words Without Borders
Sherman Alexie
Alina Bronsky
Roddy Doyle
Mohsin Hamid
Sebastian Junger
Jonathan Lethem
Andrea Levy
Ben Okri
Sofi Oksanen
Colm Tóibín
Celebrating Our PEN World Voices
Coming in
May from
FSG
A startling
eye-witness
’s
account of Iran tial
esiden
stolen 2009 pr its
election and
tests,
aftermath: pro d
an
imprisonment, ced
erien
torture, as exp an.
m
by one young
AfsAneh MoqAdAM Is A
PseUdonYM adopted to protect the
SARAH
CRICHTON
BOOKS
www.fsgworldvoices.com
PAID
Permit #3
New York, NY
588 Broadway
Suite 303
New York, NY 10012
PEN American Center
Non-profit Org.
U.S. Postage
FSG
identity of the author, who witnessed
and participated in many of the
events described in this book.

World Voices

Transcription

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