27
Apr/14

PEN WORLD VOICES FESTIVAL: ON THE EDGE

27
Apr/14

PEN WORLD VOICES FESTIVAL OF INTERNATIONAL LITERATURE
Multiple locations
April 28 – May 4, free – $20
www.worldvoices.pen.org

“I want to stand as close to the edge as I can without going over. Out on the edge you see all the kinds of things you can’t see from the center,” Kurt Vonnegut wrote in his debut novel, 1952’s Player Piano. That sentiment is the theme for the tenth annual Pen World Voices Festival of International Literature, a week of lectures, workshops, readings, debates, conversations, performances, and more celebrating writers who are not afraid to go out on the edge and take risks, both personal and political. Sponsored by the PEN America Center, which supports freedom of expression throughout the world, the festival will feature more than 150 writers from 30 nations participating in nearly five dozen events. “Many of the finest writers in the world, the ones whose voices speak most eloquently to us, are also, all too often, the most exposed and vulnerable, because they are so prominently visible,” festival chairman and founder Salman Rushdie said in a statement. “Yet these are the voices we must listen to, the voices that show us how the world joins up.” Among those taking part in the festival are Colm Tóibín, Noam Chomsky, Elinor Lipman, Saul Williams, A. M. Homes, Bob Holman, Judith Thurman, Shirin Neshat, Paul Muldoon, Eileen Myles, Siri Hustvedt, Martin Amis, Parker Posey, Jay McInerney, Rosario Dawson, Joseph O’Neill, Francine Prose, and Rushdie. There’s always a lot to do and see at this annual celebration of the power of the written word; below are just some of the highlights.

Monday, April 28

Opening Night: On the Edge, with Adonis, Gado, Sofi Oksanen, Colm Tóibín, Noam Chomsky, Salman Rushdie, Judith Butler, and Paul Berman delivering seven-minute orations, the Great Hall of the Cooper Union, $15-$20, 7:00

Tuesday, April 29

A Literary Safari, with Kevin Barry, Eliane Brum, Christopher Farley, Justin Go, Frédéric Gros, Joanne Hillhouse, Barbara Jenkins, Sharon Leach, Geert Mak, Vanessa Manko, Andrés Neuman, Jaap Scholten, Gabrielle Selz, Francesc Serés, Sue Shapiro, Kenan Trebincevic, Igor Stiks, Bae Suah, Elinor Lipman, and Deji Olukotun, taking place in rooms throughout the Westbeth Center for the Arts, $15-$20, 6:30

Obsession: Eileen Myles on Spoilage and Ruination of Other Kinds, with Eileen Myles, hosted by Mike Albo, Chez André at the Standard, $15-$20, 9:00

Wednesday, April 30

The FBI Was Never the Same: 1971 Screening and Discussion, with Johanna Hamilton, Bonnie Raines, John Raines, Larry Siems, and Betty Medsger, NYU Cantor Film Center, $15-$20, 7:00

Literary Death Match, with Kevin Barry, Alona Kimhi, Bae Suah, Parker Posey, Michael Ian Black, and Jay McInerney, Ace Hotel, $15-$20, 7:00

Thursday, May 1

The Nuyorican Poets Café, with Saul Williams, Rome Neal, Jive Poetic, Rosario Dawson, Gado, Natasha Trethewey, participants from Mark Nowak’s workshops with Domestic Workers United and Alliance for Taxi Drivers, Nuyorican Poets Café, $10-$20, 6:00

Obsession: Jennifer Boylan on Lost Loves, with Jennifer Boylan, hosted by Mike Albo, Chez André at the Standard, $15-$20, 9:00

Friday, May 2

The Literary Mews, with Clayton Eshleman, Deji Olukotun, Ed Pavlić, Yacouba Sissoko, Dan Neely, Tine Kindermann, Albert Behar, Paula Deitz, Mark Jarman, RS. Gwynn, Johanna Keller, Jeff Kline, Alexa de Puivert, Eddie Mandhry, Chinelo Okparanta, Godfrey Mwampembwa, Tope Folarin, Mukoma Wa Ngugi, Tarfia Faizullah, Luis Francia, April Naoko Heck, Hieu Minh Nguyen, George Prochnik, Eric Jarosinski, Stacey Knecht, Richard Sieburth, Chuck Wachtel, Jill Schoolman, Sebastian Barry, Maxim Leo, Yascha Mounk, Atina Grossmann, Benjamin Moser, Eric Banks, and Kevin Barry, Washington Mews, NYU, free, 10:00 am – 8:00 pm

Dylan Live: A Tribute to Dylan Thomas, with Paul Muldoon, Aneirin Karadog, Martin Daws, and Daniel Williams, the Auditorium at the New School, $15-$20, 8:00

Obsession: Dan Savage on Plaques and Trophies, with Dan Savage, hosted by Mike Albo, Chez André at the Standard, $15-$20, 9:00

Saturday, May 3

Broken Dreams in Two Acts: 25 Years since the Fall of the Berlin Wall, with Timothy Garton Ash, György Konrád, Geert Mak, Adam Michnik, and Elzbieta Matynia, Frederick P. Rose Auditorium at the Cooper Union, $15-$20, 3:00

Interview Magazine: The Re-Interview with Martin Amis and Michael Stipe, the Auditorium at the New School, $15-$20, 7:30

Sunday, May 4

Sex and Violence in Children’s Books: Where the Wild Things (Really) Are, with Sarwat Chadda, Robie Harris, Susan Kuklin, Niki Walker, and Sharyn November, Frederick P. Rose Auditorium at the Cooper Union, $10-$15, 12:30

In Conversation: Timothy Garton Ash and Salman Rushdie, Anspacher Theater at the Public Theater, $12-$15, 4:00

Arthur Miller Freedom to Write Lecture: Colm Tóibín, the Great Hall at the Cooper Union, $15-$20, 6:00