David Foster Wallace’s unfinished novel, THE PALE KING, will be explored in depth at the seventh annual PEN World Voices Festival of International Literature

Multiple locations
April 25 – May 1, $5 – $30
866-811-4111
www.pen.org

Celebrating the written word and freedom of expression while fighting censorship and human rights abuses, the seventh annual PEN World Voices Festival of International Literature will feature more than one hundred writers and artists from more than three dozen countries participating in seven days and nights of panel discussions, conversations, readings, and live performances. In addition, the Celluloid Literature Film Series will screen documentaries every night at the Instituto Cervantes New York, including such shorts and full-length works as Paul Bowles: Creating a Legend (Karim Debbagh, Coon Prager, 2006), Out of Place: Memories of Edward Said (Sato Makoto, 2006), Seamus Heaney: Out of the Marvellous (Charlie McCarthy, 2009), and The Erotic Man (Jørgen Leth, 2010). “We live in a time of great changes and challenges, and the need to remind ourselves of our basic values is as important as ever,” explain director László Jakab Orsós, chair Salman Rushdie, and PEN American Center president K. Anthony Appiah. “We have to reinforce our power to be able to analyze and understand the turbulent phenomena of our culture.” The festival runs April 25 – May 1, with the hubs the Standard, New York and the High Line, and consists of multiple events each day; below are our recommended highlights.

Monday, April 25, the Standard, $20, 11:00 pm: Yael Hedaya, Honor Moore, Irvine Welsh, Edmund White, and others will take part in the PEN Speakeasy “Sex; Erotic Readings,” hosted by Katie Halper, re-creating the feel of a speakeasy and sharing erotic stories.

Tuesday, April 26, St. Patrick’s Old Cathedral Gymnasium, 268 Mulberry St., $15, 7:30: Rick Moody, Michael Silverblatt, Sandro Veronesi, Michael Pietsch, and others will delve into the fascinating story behind the publication of David Foster Wallace’s unfinished final novel in “Everything and More: The Pale King by David Foster Wallace.”

Wednesday, April 27, Museum of the Moving Image, 36-01 35 Ave., $15, 7:00: HBO’s outstanding series In Treatment, starring Gabriel Byrne as a therapist in need of some treatment of his own, is based on the Israeli television series Be-tipul, written by novelist Yael Hedaya; Hedaya will be in Astoria to talk about therapy and television and screen an episode of the show.

Thursday, April 28, Westbeth Home of the Arts, Community Room, 155 Bank St., $12, 6:30: For “A Literary Safari: A Unique Experience,” sixteen writers will be situated throughout the Westbeth Center, reading from their works, including Nathacha Appanah, Rahul Bhattacharya, Abdelkader Benali, Amélie Nothomb, Ksenia Shcherbino, Teresa Solana, John Burnside, Mircea Cărtărescu, Manuel de Lope, Deborah Eisenberg, Marcelo Figueras, Jonas Hassan Khemiri, Hervé Le Tellier, Daniel Orozco, Gunnhild Øyehaug, and Lynne Tillman.

Friday, April 29, 92nd St. Y, 1395 Lexington Ave., $25, 7:30: Multidisciplinary artist and musician Laurie Anderson has curated “Poetry: The Second Skin,” an evening that explores the connections between poetry and music with John Burnside, Ernesto Cardenal, David-Dephy Gogibedashvili, Hasina Gul, Yusef Komunyakaa, Juan Carlos Mestre, Piotr Sommer, Joachim Sartorius, and Pia Tafdrup.

Saturday, April 30, the Cooper Union, Frederick P. Rose Auditorium, 41 Cooper Sq., $15, 12 noon: For “Get Super Lit: Comic Books Come Alive on Stage,” Jeff Newelt has put together a multimedia presentation of works that feature a wide range of superheroes created by Kate Beaton, Nick Bertozzi, Kevin Colden, Mike Dawson, Ludovic Debeurme, Dean Haspiel, Michael Kupperman, Benjamin Marra, R. Sikoryak, and Harvey Pekar, all of whom, save for the late Pekar, will participate in the program.

Sunday, May 1, New York Public Library, Celeste Bartos Forum, Fifth Ave. at 42nd St., $25, 3:00: Literary critic and deconstructionist Harold Bloom will talk with the NYPL’s Paul Holdengräber about writing and read some of his favorite poems, including his own, in “From the Anxiety to the Anatomy of Influence: A Conversation with Harold Bloom.”