PEN World Voices Festival!‏

One Week Until PEN World Voices Festival!‏

The PEN World Voices Festival starts next week! From April 30 to May 6, 100 writers from around the globe are coming to New York City to celebrate the power of the word in action. Join the celebration online. Follow us on Facebook, Twitter, and Tumblr, and don't forget to share your favorite events with friends.    Wednesday, May 2  |  4 events Opening Night—The Kronos Quartet: Exit Strategies In this Festival’s signature event, the string quartet will team up with writers Tony Kushner, Marjane Satrapi, and Rula Jebreal to further explore the boundaries between these two arts. >> Event details Thursday, May 3  |  13 events In Conversation: Herta Müller and Claire Messud In her first New York appearance in over a decade, 2009 Nobel Laureate Herta Müller will read from her forthcoming novel The Hunger Angel and will converse with literary titan Claire Messud. >> Event details Understanding Egypt: Mona Eltahawy, Elias Khoury and Rula Jebreal What is really happening inside the most populous country in the Arab world? How accurate is the American media’s portrayal of events as they unfold? Mona Eltahawy joins authors Elias Khoury and Rula Jebreal to discuss the Egyptian revolution and the future of the country. >> Event details Friday, May 4  |  9 events John Cage: How to Get Started In honor of John Cage’s centennial, PEN will revive for the first time ever John Cage’s How To Get Started—a collaborative experiment on improvisation and the origin of ideas, featuring David Harrington of Kronos Quartet, Aleksander Hemon, Etgar Keret, Sonia Sanchez, and you! >> Event details In Conversation: Ludmila Ulitskaya and Anderson Tepper Recipient of the Russian Booker Prize, Ludmila Ulitskaya is considered the heir to Chekhov and among the most important writers in Russia today. Ulitskaya will read from her writing and discuss with Anderson Tepper the current political, cultural, and social situation in Russia. >> Event details Saturday, May 5  |  14 events Memory in Harlem Food for thought, food for the palate—Sonia Sanchez, Etgar Keret, Adam Manbach, Sharifa Rhodes-Pitts, and 2012 Pulitzer prize-winning Tracy K. Smith read from their works dealing with the complexities of memory. With Chef Marcus Samuelsson of Red Rooster Harlem. >> Event details Sunday, May 6  |  4 events A Place Out of Time: Gregor von Rezzori’s Bukovina Trilogy Born in the Ukraine on the eve of World War I, novelist Gregor von Rezzori built his reputation as a chronicler of the fading Austro-Hungary Empire. Explore Rezzori's lost worlds in his Bukovina trilogy with a stellar line-up of admirers: Michael Cunningham, Deborah Eisenberg, Daniel Kehlmann, and Edmund White. Moderated by Edwin Frank. >> Event details Translation Matters Translation increase cultural understanding and the exchange of ideas. Come hear some of the best minds in translation today in four translation-related festival events. Translating Poets Alive Four seminal voices of American poetry—Yusef Komunyakaa, Charles Simic, Tracy K. Smith, and Anne Waldman—will read excerpts of their work together with their translators. Reviewing Translations When a translated work is under review, what exactly is being critiqued? With Ruth Franklin, Julya Rabinowich, Lorin Stein; moderated by Eric Banks and Susan Bernofsky. Translation Slam Don't miss this duel to the translation death! With Laurie Sheck and others; hosted by Michael F. Moore. Go the F**k to Sleep: A Translation Event A panel of writers and translators explore the swear words we use and how they affect what we read. With Ricardo Cortés, Cobina Gillitt, Adam Mansbach, Murat Nemet-Nejatand, and others. Moderated by Dale Peck. Also Coming Up   NYWW Perfect Pitch Fiction Conference April 27-29 in NYC: The New York Writers Workshops offers a three-day Pitch Conference for writers of fiction (adults and children’s/YA fiction). Participants refine pitches for their proposals or manuscripts, then meet with and pitch to three different editors from major New York publishing houses. >> Event details   PEN American Center | 588 Broadway, Suite 303 | NY, NY 10012 | (212) 334-1660