PEN World Voices

Last updated

The PEN World Voices Festival of International Literature is an annual week-long literary festival held in New York City and Los Angeles. [1] The festival was founded by Salman Rushdie, Esther Allen, and Michael Roberts and was launched in 2005. The festival includes events, readings, conversations, and debates that showcase international literature and new writers. The festival is produced by PEN America, a nonprofit organization that works to advance literature, promote free expression, and foster international literary fellowship.

Contents

World Voices 2005

The inaugural event was held in New York City from April 18 to April 25, 2005. Participating authors came from 45 countries and included: Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie, Jonathan Ames, Paul Auster, Breyten Breytenbach, Nuruddin Farah, Gish Jen, Ryszard Kapuściński, Khaled Mattawa, Azar Nafisi, Elif Shafak, Wole Soyinka, Ali Bader and Ngũgĩ wa Thiong'o.

Selected 2005 Programs

PEN America offers audio downloads and photos from select events on their website. [2] Issue 7 of the PEN America literary journal also published selections from the 2005 programs. [3]

World Voices 2006

The second World Voices Festival was held in New York City from April 26 to April 30, 2006. The Festival theme was Faith & Reason. The Festival featured 137 writers from 41 countries in 57 programs. International participants included: Martin Amis, Margaret Atwood, Gioconda Belli, Hans Magnus Enzensberger, David Grossman, Ayaan Hirsi Ali, Etgar Keret, Elias Khoury, Henning Mankell, Adam Michnik, Orhan Pamuk, Anne Provoost, Zadie Smith, Dương Thu Hương, Colm Tóibín, Ko Un, and Jeanette Winterson.

Immediately following the 2006 festival, Bill Moyers hosted a television series on PBS entitled "Faith & Reason," which featured participants from the festival.

Selected 2006 Programs

PEN America offers audio downloads and photos from select events on its website. [4]

World Voices 2007-2011

In late 2006, Caro Llewellyn was recruited from Australia to be the festival director and organized the third through seventh Festivals with founder Salman Rushdie. This period saw great growth in the Festival's attendance and reach with guests including Nobel prize-winners such as Nadine Gordimer, Orhan Pamuk, Toni Morrison, and Mario Vargas Llosa, who appeared on stage with Umberto Eco and Salman Rushdie for an event at the 92Y called The Three Musketeers. During this period, the popular Translation Slam was introduced. The PEN Cabaret increased its cache with guests such as Patti Smith, Saul Williams, Bill T Jones, Natalie Merchant, and Sam Shepard. The Festival also extended its reach during this time with satellite events in Chicago, Portland, Albany, Pittsburgh, Miami, L.A., and other cities. An extensive program of year-round events was introduced including the first public appearance of scholar Tariq Ramadan since the State Department's ban on his exclusion from the United States. Ramadan's appearance took place at a sold-out event on April 8, 2010, at the Great Hall of Cooper Union in New York City, and was organized in collaboration with the ACLU.

PEN World Voices 2012

Organized by festival director Laszlo Jakab Orsos and founder Salman Rushdie, PEN World Voice Festival 2012 took place throughout New York City from April 30 to May 6 and featured Margaret Atwood, Jennifer Egan, Tony Kushner, Herta Müller, Paul Auster, Giannina Braschi, Martin Amis, Michael Cunningham, E.L. Doctorow, and Colson Whitehead. Highlights included a performance at the Metropolitan Museum of Art that paired the Kronos Quartet with writers Tony Kushner, Marjane Satrapi and Rula Jebreal to explore the boundaries between music and literature. Festival-goers participated in a literary safari, trolling through the halls of Westbeth, a West Village artists community, where they experienced readings by a range of authors, including Elias Khoury, Giannina Braschi and Peter Schneider. A Processional Arts Workshop opened the festival with a procession of giant bibliomorphic puppets, illuminated objects, and projections on the High Line at sundown.

PEN World Voices 2017

Organized by festival curatorial chair Rob Spillman, the PEN World Voices Festival 2017 focused on vital issues of the political period, with a special focus on the restive relationship between gender and power. Taking place in New York City May 1–7, 2017, the weeklong festival used the lens of literature and the arts to confront new challenges to free expression and human rights—issues that have been core to PEN America’s mission since its founding. During a historic moment of both unprecedented attacks on core freedoms and the emergence of new forms of resistance, the festival offered a platform for a global community of writers, artists, and thinkers to connect with a concerned public to fight back against bigotry, hatred, and isolationism. The event featured Samantha Bee, Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie, Carrie Brownstein, Teju Cole, Masha Gessen, Cecile Richards, Patti Smith, Gabourey Sidibe, Andrew Solomon, Saeed Jones, and many more.

Selected 2017 Programs

PEN World Voices 2018

In 2017, PEN America recruited Chip Rolley, the former artistic director of Sydney Writers Festival, to take the position of Senior Director of Literary Programs and Director of World Voices Festival. The 2018 Festival featured an unprecedented breadth of literary and cultural luminaries under the banner of “Resist and Reimagine.” The theme captured the political division and discord apparent in the US and around the world, as well as the hope, energy, and activism shown by people coming together in powerful new ways to resist the encroachments on rights, liberties, and values. More than 200 writers, poets, artists, and thinkers representing 50 nationalities gathered in New York City for over 90 conversations, readings, debates, and discussions celebrating the best of the year’s literature and covering many different kinds of resistances—the internal and the external, the political and the personal—in different cultures, identities, and communities. The festival featured new streams of programming: one, American Voices, focused on American writers addressing the complex and polarizing issues in the US; another, Next Generation Now, aimed to nurture young people as agents of change. Festival participants included celebrated figures such as Laurie Anderson, Paul Auster, Hillary Rodham Clinton, Jelani Cobb, Jennifer Egan, Dave Eggers, Roxane Gay,  Xiaolu Guo, Siri Hustvedt,  Ryszard Krynicki, Jhumpa Lahiri, Salman Rushdie, Dag Solstad, Ngũgĩ wa Thiong’o, Colm Tóibín, Colson Whitehead, and many others. The concluding lecture was delivered by Hillary Rodham Clinton, who then engaged in conversation with Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie. [5]

Selected 2018 Programs

Cancellation of the 2024 festival

PEN America has canceled its World Voices festival after twenty-eight of the 61 nominated authors withdrew their books from consideration in the annual PEN America Awards ceremony as they condemned America's Pen for failing to strongly condemn what they called the genocide in Palestine. The cancellation comes days after the organization canceled the 2024 annual awards festival. The festival was supposed to be held on May 8 in New York City and Los Angeles. [6]

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Salman Rushdie</span> Indian-born British-American novelist (born 1947)

Sir Ahmed Salman Rushdie is an Indian-born British-American novelist. His work often combines magic realism with historical fiction and primarily deals with connections, disruptions, and migrations between Eastern and Western civilizations, typically set on the Indian subcontinent. Rushdie's second novel, Midnight's Children (1981), won the Booker Prize in 1981 and was deemed to be "the best novel of all winners" on two occasions, marking the 25th and the 40th anniversary of the prize.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie</span> Nigerian writer (born 1977)

Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie is a Nigerian writer, novelist, poet, essayist, and playwright of postcolonial feminist literature and public speaker. She is the author of the award-winning novels Purple Hibiscus (2003), Half of a Yellow Sun (2006) and Americanah (2013). Her other works include the book essays We Should All Be Feminists (2014); Dear Ijeawele, or A Feminist Manifesto in Fifteen Suggestions (2017); a memoir tribute to her father, Notes on Grief (2021); and a children's book, Mama's Sleeping Scarf (2023).

<span class="mw-page-title-main">PEN America</span> American association of writers

PEN America, founded in 1922, and headquartered in New York City, is a nonprofit organization whose goal is to raise awareness for the protection of free expression in the United States and worldwide through the advancement of literature and human rights. PEN America is the largest of the more than 100 PEN centers worldwide that together compose PEN International. PEN America has offices in New York City, Los Angeles, Washington, D.C., and since late 2023 also in Florida.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">James Mustich Jr.</span>

James Mustich, Jr. is a bookseller, editor, and writer. In October 2018, Mustich's book 1,000 Books To Read Before You Die: A Life-Changing List was published by Workman Publishing, receiving starred reviews from Publishers Weekly, Booklist, and Library Journal, as well as the praise of other notable independent reviewers. The Washington Post listed it as one of the 50 best nonfiction books of the year.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Nadeem Aslam</span> British Pakistani novelist

Nadeem Aslam FRSL is a British Pakistani novelist. His debut novel, Season of the Rainbirds, won the Betty Trask and the Author's Club First Novel Award. His critically acclaimed second novel Maps for Lost Lovers won Encore Award and Kiriyama Prize; it was shortlisted for International Dublin Literary Award, among others. Colm Tóibín described him as "one of the most exciting and serious British novelists writing now".

<i>Bookforum</i> American book review magazine

Bookforum is an American book review magazine devoted to books and the discussion of literature. After announcing that it would cease publication in December 2022, it reported its relaunch under the direction of The Nation magazine six months later.

The Jaipur Literature Festival, or JLF, is an annual literary festival which takes place in the Indian city of Jaipur each year in the month of January. It was founded in 2006.

Kachifo Limited is an independent publishing house based in Lagos, Nigeria. It was founded in 2004 by Muhtar Bakare. Its imprints include Farafina Books, Farafina Educational, and Prestige Books. From 2004 to 2009, it published the influential Farafina Magazine.

<i>Half of a Yellow Sun</i> 2006 novel by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie

Half of a Yellow Sun is a novel by Nigerian author Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie. Published in 2006 by 4th Estate in London, the novel tells the story of the Biafran War through the perspective of the characters Olanna, Ugwu, and Richard.

Founded in 1921, English PEN is one of the world's first non-governmental organisations and among the first international bodies advocating for human rights. English PEN was the founding centre of PEN International, a worldwide writers' association with 145 centres in more than 100 countries. The President of English PEN is Margaret Busby, succeeding Philippe Sands in April 2023. The Director is Daniel Gorman. The Chair is Ruth Borthwick.

PEN America: A Journal for Writers and Readers is an annual literary journal that features fiction, poetry, conversation, criticism, and memoir. It is published by PEN America in New York City. Contributors include Yousef Al-Mohaimeed, Paul Auster, Michael Cunningham, Lydia Davis, Petina Gappah, Nikki Giovanni, Rawi Hage, Shahriar Mandanipour, Colum McCann, Michael Ondaatje, Marilynne Robinson, Salman Rushdie, Susan Sontag, John Edgar Wideman, and many others.

The PEN Pinter Prize and the Pinter International Writer of Courage Award both comprise an annual literary award launched in 2009 by English PEN in honour of the late Nobel Literature Prize-winning playwright Harold Pinter, who had been a Vice President of English PEN and an active member of the International PEN Writers in Prison Committee (WiPC). The award is given to "a British writer or a writer resident in Britain of outstanding literary merit who, in the words of Pinter’s Nobel speech ['Art, Truth and Politics'], casts an 'unflinching, unswerving' gaze upon the world and shows 'a fierce, intellectual determination … to define the real truth of our lives and our societies'." The Prize is shared with an "International Writer of Courage," defined as "someone who has been persecuted for speaking out about [his or her] beliefs," selected by English PEN's Writers at Risk Committee in consultation with the annual Prize winner, and announced during an award ceremony held at the British Library, on or around 10 October, the anniversary of Pinter's birth.

<i>The Thing Around Your Neck</i> 2009 short-story collection by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie

The Thing Around Your Neck is a short-story collection by Nigerian author Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie, first published in April 2009 by Fourth Estate in the UK and by Knopf in the US. It received many positive reviews, including: "She makes storytelling seem as easy as birdsong" ; "Stunning. Like all fine storytellers, she leaves us wanting more".

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Jeffery Renard Allen</span> American poet

Jeffery Renard Allen is an American poet, essayist, short story writer and novelist. He is the author of two collections of poetry, Harbors and Spirits and Stellar Places, and four works of fiction, the novel Rails Under My Back, the story collection Holding Pattern a second novel, Song of the Shank, and his most recent book, the short story collection “Fat Time and Other Stories”. He is also the co-author with Leon Ford of “An Unspeakble Hope: Brutality, Forgiveness, and Building A Better Future for My Son”.

Louisiana Literature Festival is an annual literary festival which takes place around the third weekend of August at the Louisiana Museum of Modern Art, 35 km north of Copenhagen, Denmark. The festival began in 2010, and each year it features around forty writers from all over the world over a span of four days.

<i>Americanah</i> 2013 novel by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie

Americanah is a 2013 novel by the Nigerian author Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie, for which Adichie won the 2013 U.S. National Book Critics Circle Award for fiction. Americanah tells the story of a young Nigerian woman, Ifemelu, who immigrates to the United States to attend university. The novel traces Ifemelu's life in both countries, threaded by her love story with high school classmate Obinze. It was Adichie's third novel, published on May 14, 2013, by Alfred A. Knopf.

<i>We Should All Be Feminists</i> Book by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie

We Should All Be Feminists is a book-length essay by the Nigerian author Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie. First published in 2014 by Fourth Estate, it talks about the definition of feminism for the 21st century.

The Calabash International Literary Festival, inaugurated in Jamaica in 2001, is a three-day festival that was held annually for its first decade, before being staged on a biennial basis on even years, until 2018. With the 2020 and 2022 festivals having to be cancelled due to the COVID-19 pandemic, 2023 is scheduled to mark the festival's return for its 15th staging. The scope of Calabash encompasses "readings and music with other forms of storytelling folded in the mix".

<i>Dear Ijeawele, or A Feminist Manifesto in Fifteen Suggestions</i> Book by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie

Dear Ijeawele, or A Feminist Manifesto in Fifteen Suggestions is an epistolary form manifesto written by Nigerian author Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie. Dear Ijeawele was posted on her official Facebook page on October 12, 2016, was subsequently adapted into a book, and published in print on March 7, 2017. Before becoming a book, Dear Ijeawele was a personal e-mail written by Adichie in response to her friend, "Ijeawele", who had asked Adichie's advice on how to raise her daughter as a feminist. The result of this e-mail correspondence is the extended, 62-page Dear Ijeawele manifesto, written in the form of a letter. While the manifesto was written to a female friend, the work's audience scope has been recognized to extend beyond only the mothers of daughters.

<i>Freshwater</i> (novel) 2018 novel by Akwaeke Emezi

Freshwater is a 2018 autobiographical fiction novel by Nigerian writer Akwaeke Emezi. Emezi's debut novel, it tells the story of Ada, a girl with multiple ogbanje dwelling inside her. A TV series based on the novel is under development by FX.

References

  1. "PEN World Voices Festival". PEN America. 2019. Archived from the original on December 14, 2019. Retrieved December 14, 2019.
  2. Photo Gallery & Audio Library.
  3. "Journal of a Prisoner - PEN America". pen.org. 28 July 2005. Retrieved 2018-10-17.
  4. "PEN American Center - World Voices 2006 Media Library". 2006-10-11. Archived from the original on 2006-10-11. Retrieved 2018-10-17.
  5. Schuessler, Jennifer (27 February 2018). "Hillary Clinton to Speak at PEN World Voices Festival". The New York Times. Retrieved 2018-10-17.
  6. Oladipo, Gloria (26 April 2024). "PEN America cancels festival after authors drop out in support of Gaza". The Guardian.