May 23, 2011 | The New Yorker | Saturday Sutra
Talk story about a karma chain set in motion by Lama Pema at the PEN World Voices Festival of International Literature. >> More
May 17, 2011 | WNYC | Talk to Me: Wole Soyinka Lectures on Freedom, Myths and Metaphors at the New York Public Library
With a shock of white hair and matching beard, Wole Soyinka was a striking figure as he indulged a rapt audience at the New York Public Library as the closing speaker for the PEN World Voices Festival. >> More
May 11, 2011 | Sydney Morning Herald | Chinese author banned from visiting Sydney
The Chinese government has cited “security reasons” for banning the dissident author and poet Liao Yiwu from travelling to Australia to attend the Sydney Writers’ Festival next week. >> More
May 11, 2011 | Voice of America | Владимир Сорокин: “Я питаюсь русской метафизикой, но не представляю себя без Европы”
Этой весной в США в английском переводе вышли сразу две книги Владимира Сорокина, которого газета “Нью-Йорк Таймс” назвала “одним из самых знаменитых российских писателей”—трилогия Лед и нашумевшая повесть “День опричника.” >> More
May 10, 2011 | Publishers Weekly | Pen World Voices: Getting Real with Superheroes
New York City’s Cooper Union was the scene for “Get Super Lit,” a unique extravaganza of comic art projected bright and funny on a wide film screen, voice acting, and musical accompaniment. >> More
May 10, 2011 | WNYC | Talk to Me: The PEN World Voices Festival Takes on Corporate Publishing
While PEN is often at the forefront of debates and initiatives to do with the more obvious forms of oppression against writers—isolation, censorship, imprisonment—it is also ready to tackle the more subtle deterrents that plague the publishing industry as a whole. >> More
May 9, 2011 | Wild River Review | PEN World Voices: WikiLeaks—Is Raw, Unfiltered Data Useful?
As part of the 7th annual PEN World Voices Festival of International Literature, The Cooper Union in New York City hosted a panel discussion featuring opinions and perspectives regarding one of the most complex and important issues facing our global society: Wikileaks. >> More
May 9, 2011 | Wild River Review | Up the Creek—PEN World Voices—On the High Line: Diamonds on the Soles of Our Shoes
The brainchild of World Voices Festival Director, Jakab Orsos, and Director of Programming for the Rubin Museum of Art, Tim McHenry, the Karma Chain, based on a favorite childhood party game known as Telephone, brought together a potent combination of literature, philosophy, story-telling, and a beautiful Buddhist teaching about the ephemeral nature of our lives. >> More
May 5, 2011 | The Paris Review | A Week in Culture: Amélie Nothomb, Writer
Backstage at the Lighthouse at Chelsea Piers, I meet about a dozen prestigious writers, among them Salman Rushdie and Hanif Kureishi. >> More
May 4, 2011 | The Epoch Times | International Literary Festival Sweeps Through NYC
Literary luminaries and their admirers gathered in New York City all last week for a series of events, lectures, and presentations. >> More
May 4, 2011 | The Mantle | PEN 2011: Wole Soyinka: Push Humpty Dumpty!
A few days ago I predicted that, if PEN World Voices Festival kept up its smart pace, at the closing night Wole Soyinka would be “pondering the discrepancies in the duality foundations of M-theory.” >> More
May 4, 2011 | Park Slope Patch Blog |“Degentrifying” Park Slope
No question: Park Slope is one of the most magnificent, architecturally and historically rich neighborhoods in the city. >> More
May 4, 2011 | The Times of India | Literature in English Has Become Diverse
Salman Rushdie reveals he is leaving the chairmanship of the PEN World Voices Festival—a part of the world's oldest international literary and human rights organisation—and that he's writing his memoirs in an interview with Sujeet Rajan. >> More
May 3, 2011 | Committee to Protect Journalists | Only Some Chinese Writers Allowed to Attend PEN Festival
The stage was full of empty chairs on Thursday at “China in Two Acts,” part of the five-day PEN World Voices Festival of International Literature in New York, which ended on Sunday. >> More
May 2, 2011 | The L Magazine | PEN World Voices: New Fiction and Apartment Envy in Westbeth
Just after work and just before sunset, the “Literary Safari,” which took place at the Westbeth Center for the Arts’ romantically crumbling apartment complex just off the Hudson River in the West Village, combined two of New Yorkers’ most beloved pastimes: attending exclusive cultural events and envying the well-appointed, divinely-located apartments of our betters. >> More
May 2, 2011 | The Mantle | Harold Bloom …Again
On the closing day of PEN World Voices Festival of International Literature, I had front row seats to listen to two giants of the literary world, Harold Bloom and Wole Soyinka. >> More
May 2, 2011 | Publishing Perspectives | 2011 Best Translated Book Award Winners Announced
The winning titles and translators for this year’s Best Translated Book Awards were announced earlier this evening at the Bowery Poetry Club as part of the PEN World Voices Festival. >> More
May 2, 2011 | Vanity Fair | PEN World Voices Festival Closes with a Night of Oral Wronging Hosted by Salman Rushdie
Every year the PEN American Center in New York City hosts the World Voices Festival, a weeklong celebration of international literature. >> More
May 1, 2011 | The Epoch Times | Chinese Writers Discuss Democracy
Only two Chinese writers—Zha Jianying and Yan Lianke—spoke during a panel discussion on April 29 during the PEN World Voices Festival. >> More
May 1, 2011 | The Epoch Times| Day Three: Minority Writers and Arab Voices
The third day of the PEN World Voices festival showcased a variety of literary talent from around the world. >> More
May 1, 2011 | The Mantle | PEN 2011: From Moldova to Pakistan
Short of traveling the world, the best way to learn about other people and cultures is through literature. >> More
May 1, 2011 | The New York Times | Royal Doings
The annual PEN Literary Gala took place at the American Museum of Natural History. >> More
April 30, 2011 | The Mantle | PEN 2011: The Value of Your Time
I am neither lonely nor in solitude, but I am alone … And I also feel a kinship with my new favorite Norwegian author, Kjersti Annesdatter Skomsvold. >> More
April 30, 2011 | The New York Times | From a Novelist, Shock Treatment for Mother Russia
One thing you can say about the novelist Vladimir Sorokin: He has the hair of an honest-to-God, old-school Russian sage. >> More
April 29, 2011 | Black Voices Newswire | What To Do This Weekend: Wole Soyinka
On its final night, the Seventh Annual PEN World Voices Festival of International Literature is appropriately ending with a flourish. >> More
April 29, 2011 | The Gothamist | Get Your Classic Lit On At The High Line This Weekend
Do you have romantic visions of meeting the man or woman of your dreams while walking through tall grasses with a dog-eared copy of Catcher in the Rye tucked under your courdory-clad arm? >> More
April 29, 2011 | The New York Times | PEN’s Instant Literary Karma
The PEN World Voices Festival of International Literature, which runs through Sunday, has brought some 150 writers from 40 countries to New York to discuss everything from Arab democracy and prison policy in the United States to the state of poetry and the future of publishing. >> More
April 29, 2011 | The New Yorker | A Night of Literotica
At half past ten on Monday night, as a thin, chilly mist settled over Manhattan, we made our way toward the Hudson River for an unlikely book event at an unlikely venue. >> More
April 29, 2011 | The New Yorker | A Literary Safari
Last night I watched a talented American actor read a talented Romanian writer’s story. Neither is famous in America but they should be. >> More
April 29, 2011 | Publishing Perspectives | Russia's Literary Monster: The Wild, Unpredictable World of Vladimir Sorokin
A “living classic,” Sorokin pushes boundaries by writing about a Russia rife with violence, coprophilia, violence, rape, violence, aliens, violence, clones and more violence. >> More
April 29, 2011 | Words Without Borders | PEN World Voices 2011: The Launch of Carlos Franz’s “The Absent Sea”
A book launch at the Americas Society, on Park Avenue, has a sort of Old World gravitas to it. >> More
April 29, 2011 | Voice of America | Гарри Каспаров не видит разницы между Путиным и Медведевым
В интервью Русской службе «Голоса Америки» один из лидеров российской оппозиции Гарри Каспаров еще раз подтвердил, что является непримиримым противником нынешней власти в России. >> More
April 29, 2011 | WNYC | Sly Company
Rahul Bhattacharya, cricket journalist and author of the novel, The Sly Company of People Who Care (Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 2011), talks about his new novel about a cricket writer from Bombay who travels to Guyana. >> More
April 28, 2011 | The Epoch Times | PEN World Voices Festival Kicks Off
Literary luminaries and their admirers gathered in New York City Monday night for the first in a weeklong series of events. >> More
April 28, 2011 | The L Magazine | PEN World Voices: “There's Just Too Many Books”
Previously at the PEN World Voices Festival's “Lunchtime Literary Conversations” at NYU’s La Maison Française, we met Ludovic Debeurme and Kjersti Annesdatter Skomsvold. >> More
April 28, 2011 | The Mantle | The Democratization and Degradation of Criticism
Day three of PEN World Voices Festival of International Literature. Event number four for me, at a fourth location. >> More
April 28, 2011 | Publishing Perspectives | Free E-Books from PEN World Voices Authors
The PEN World Voices Festival has an extraordinary line up of writers this year. In case you weren’t able to make it to New York, the Festival organizers are offering free e-books summarizing some of the writing from each day’s participants and tailored to that day’s programming. >> More
April 28, 2011 | Thirteen: Bookish Blog | Low-Lit Pleasure: PEN Speakeasy’s Erotic Reading at Le Bain
Le Bain, the sleek club atop The Standard Hotel that’s popular with fashion industry types and socialites, is a strange place to host a book reading; it’s a bit glitzy for the predominately jeans and tennis shoe-clad literary scene. >> More
April 28, 2011 | This Week in New York | PEN World Voices Festival: Karma Chain
In conjunction with the seventh annual PEN World Voices Festival of International Literature, the Rubin Museum is sponsoring a rather unique game of “telephone” Saturday morning on the High Line, revolving around the idea of karma. >> More
April 28, 2011 | PBS Newshour | Conversation: PEN World Voices Festival Director Laszlo Jakab Orsos
Now in New York until May 1, more than 100 writers from around the world have gathered for the annual PEN World Voices Festival of International Literature. >> More
April 28, 2011 | WNYC | Garry Kasparov on Russian Politics
Garry Kasparov, chess grandmaster, contributor to The New York Review of Books and chairman of the United Civil Front, a Russian pro-democracy group opposing the administration of Vladimir Putin, discusses the current political and cultural climate in Russia. >> More
April 27, 2011 | Bloomberg News | Scene Last Night: Ondaatje, Siddhartha Mukherjee, Jhumpa Lahiri
Writer Barbara Goldsmith sent a chill through the Hall of Ocean Life last night. >> More
April 27, 2011 | Democracy Now | Arab Spring: A Discussion on Libya, Egypt, and the Mideast with Palestinian Writer Rula Jebreal, Author of “Miral” and Journalist Issandr El Amrani
With former Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak in detention and Libyan leader, Col. Muammar Gaddafi, under attack, we discuss the state of the region with two leading Middle Eastern writers. >> More
April 27, 2011 | The L Magazine | PEN World Voices Festival: Meet Ludovic Debeurme and Kjersti Annesdatter Skomsvold
If there is anything that mars the experience of each year’s PEN World Voices Festival—besides the fact that an increasing number of panels are not free—it’s that so many interest-piquing events are scheduled during the workday, making attendance difficult if you don’t have a few spare sick days to burn. >> More
April 27, 2011 | The Mantle | PEN 2011: Tidbits on David Foster Wallace
While I have gleefully immersed myself in his nonfiction and long-form essays, I have not read The Broom of the System, Infinite Jest, or The Pale King. >> More
April 27, 2011 | New York Daily News | Ernesto Cardenal's Poetry Is Evolving
Priest, revolutionary, minister of culture and, above all, a poet, Nicaraguan Ernesto Cardenal is a man of many callings. >> More
April 26, 2011 | AM New York | Q&A with Andrea Levy, author of The Long Song
Andrea Levy's The Long Song is an intimate look at slavery and its end in Jamaica in the early half of the 19th century. >> More
April 26, 2011 | Electric Literature | PEN Opening Night
When Malcolm Gladwell took the stage Monday night for the opening of the PEN World Voices Festival, he squinted out at the crowd. >> More
April 26, 2011 | Forbes | Salman Rushdie Criticizes China, Kicks Off PEN World Voices Festival
Salman Rushdie, Malcolm Gladwell and a bevvy of literary luminaries presented an evening of readings, music and art Monday night to kick-start the seventh annual PEN World Voices Festival, a week-long celebration of the written word that takes place throughout New York City. >> More
April 26, 2011 | France-Amérique | Amélie Nothomb: Mes romans sont engagés au degré atomique
Chapeau haut de forme, teint pâle et rouge à lèvres vif. Fidèle à elle-même, Amélie Nothomb participe au World Voices Festival of International Literature organisé du 25 avril au 1er mai par le Pen American Center, à New York. >> More
April 26, 2011 | The Mantle | PEN 2011: Why We Need PEN World Voices Festival
PEN American Center is taking it up a couple of notches this year. >> More
April 26, 2011 | The Mantle | PEN 2011: The Public Intellectual, Today
For me, PEN’s World Voices Festival of International Literature began two hours before the “official” opening night event. >> More
April 26, 2011 | Metro New York | PEN World Voices Festival in Full Swing
A celebration of literature as a means of freedom, the seventh annual PEN World Voices Festival is taking place in New York City through May 1. >> More
April 26, 2011 | The New York Times Magazine | Asked & Answered: Laszlo Jakab Orsos
Last September, Laszlo Jakab Orsos, 46, assumed the directorship of the PEN World Voices Festival, New York’s first literary festival, now in its seventh year. >> More
April 25, 2011 | DNAinfo | PEN World Voices Literary Festival Kicks Off in Chelsea
The PEN World Festival of International Literature is set to begin Monday night at Chelsea Piers, bringing 100 writers from over 40 countries to Manhattan. >> More
April 25, 2011 | The Examiner | PEN World Voices Festival 2011
Today marks the beginning of the 7th annual Pen World Voices Festival that will take place across the city including hot spots like The Standard and the 92nd Street Y. >> More
April 25, 2011 | France-Amérique | Abdellah Taïa: Il y a un réveil générationnel avec les révolutions arabes
Invité à s'exprimer sur “Les révolutions dans le monde arabe” dans le cadre du World Voices Festival of International Literature organisé du 25 avril au 1er mai par le PEN American Center à New York, l'écrivain marocain Abdellah Taïa (Prix de Flore 2010 pour Le Jour du Roi), seréjouit de la liberté d'expression retrouvée du peuple maghrébin. >> More
April 25, 2011 | The Huffington Post | The Public Intellectual in a Corporatized and Privatized Society
The PEN World Voices Festival of International Literature, held annually in New York, is particularly good this year. >> More
April 25, 2011 | WNYC | Written On the Water, Heard in the Wind: PEN World Voices Festival
The annual event is a bold reminder that writing is not just a leisure art resulting in a commodity, but an instrument of change, a tool for probing everything from revolution to the human psyche, and a vital bridge between nations and individuals. >> More
April 24, 2011 | This Week in New York | PEN World Voices Festival of American Literature 2011
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. >> More
April 23, 2011 | The Wall Street Journal | Mightier than the Sword
Liao Yiwu hasn't been arrested—yet. But the Chinese writer and musician, who served prison time in the 1990s for his work, is currently facing a variety of Chinese censorship measures, including a ban on his books and a travel ban. >> More
April 23, 2011 | WNYU | PEN World Voices Festival
This week I had Jakab Orsos and Michael F. Moore in the studio to talk about the PEN World Voices Festival. >> More
April 22, 2011 | The Examiner | PEN World Voices Festival 2011 Next Week
Next Monday, April 25th, kicks off a six-day long literary festival held in New York City at the PEN American Center. >> More
April 21, 2011 | Complex Blog | PEN World Voices Festival of International Literature Begins Monday (4/25) in NYC
Salman Rushdie chairs this year's PEN World Voices Festival of International Literature, the largest celebration of the written word in North America. >> More
April 21, 2011 | Lalla Lydia Blog | PEN World Voices Featuring Arab Authors
I've always wanted to attend the annual PEN literary festival of international literature, and this year more than ever. >> More
April 20, 2011 | France-Amérique | Les voix du monde littéraire résonnent à New York
120 écrivains du monde entier se retrouvent à New York du 25 avril au 1er mai pour la septième édition du festival PEN World Voices. >> More
April 20, 2011 | The New York Times | Dangerous Arts
The great Turbine Hall at London’s Tate Modern, a former power station, is a notoriously difficult space for an artist to fill with authority. >> More
April 20, 2011 | Time Out New York | PEN World Voices Festival
The seventh annual PEN World Voices Festival is a sprawling mass of readings, workshops, lectures, panels, and participatory events that hits town from Monday 25 to May 1. >> More
April 19, 2011 | French Morning | Les auteurs francophones convergent à New York
Ils seront plusieurs auteurs français et francophones, à participer à l'édition 2011 du World Voices Festival qui se tiendra à New York, du 25 Avril au 1er Mai. >> More
April 19, 2011 | The Guardian | Salman Rushdie Services New York Hotel Rooms with Books
Guests staying at New York’s luxury Standard hotel next week will not have to resort to copies of the Gideon Bible if they find themselves short of reading material. >> More
April 19, 2011 | Reuters | Salman Rushdie Reading Picks to Stock New York Hotel's Rooms
Acclaimed novelist Salman Rushdie has come to the aid of guests who check into a trendy Manhattan hotel with nothing to read, choosing 13 celebrated American books for their rooms. >> More
April 19, 2011 | The New York Observer | Rushdie Offers Standard Book Selections
The Standard Hotel reached out to Salman Rushdie ahead of the PEN World Voices festival next week and asked him to select a number of books to be placed on guests’ bedside tables. >> More
April 19, 2011 | The New York Observer | The Eight-Day Week: April 20-April 27
Meanwhile, those with a literary bent will be flocking to the opening-night party for PEN’s World Voices Festival, featuring ubiquitous party-boy Salman Rushdie and trend-spotter Malcolm Gladwell. >> More
April 19, 2011 | Translationista Blog | Translation at the PEN World Voices Festival
The PEN World Voices Festival was co-founded by a translator (Esther Allen, then Chair of the PEN Translation Committee, in 2005), and since then, literary translation has always been an essential element of this festival devoted to international writing. >> More
April 14, 2011 | i-Italy | An Interview with Margaret Mazzantini on the Eve of Her Arrival in New York
Writers of the world, unite! The PEN World Voices Festival is just around the corner (April 25-May 11). >> More
April 14, 2011 | The New York Post | Rushdie’s Picks
Salman Rushdie knows his way around the jet set as well as he does the literary world. >> More
April 13, 2011 | Germany in NYC | PEN World Voices Festival of International Literature
More than 100 writers from 40 nations will convene to New York City to celebrate the power of the writer’s voice as a bold and vital element of public discourse. >> More
April 13, 2011 | NYC & Company | PEN World Voices Festival 2011
In the mid-2000s, then PEN President Salman Rushdie and his colleagues were disturbed by what they saw as a rift between the United States and the rest of the world. >> More
April 13, 2011 | The Village Voice | Power of Words
When the Chinese political prisoner Liu Xiaobo received the Nobel Peace Prize last year, it was yet another victory for PEN, the world’s oldest literary and human rights organization, which had been campaigning for months, alongside others, to persuade the Nobel committee. >> More
April 11, 2011 | The Afterword Blog | A Preliminary PEN World Voices 2011 Schedule
By now, you (New Yorkers, at least) have almost certainly marked your calendar and set aside all of your free time at the end of April for the annual PEN World Voices Festival, that annual literary celebration of writers the world over who get together for a host of small, intimate panels featuring frequently esoteric subject matter (i.e. “Poetry and Yoga”) and often incongruously paired authors (i.e. David Almond and Sofi Oksanen) to almost universally delightful effect. >> More
March 26, 2011 | The Matador Network | High Line + PEN World Voices Festival in NYC
I love the annual PEN World Voices Festival, which brings together writers and other creative folks from around the world for readings, roundtables, and other events each April in NYC to talk about intersections of politics, culture, and the written word. >> More
March 25, 2011 | French Culture | Best Translated Book Awards: Three French Authors Shortlisted
On April 29th, 2011 the winners of the 5th edition of the Best Translated Book Awards will be announced as part of the PEN World Voices Festival. >> More
March 24, 2011 | The Los Angeles Times | Finalists for Best Translated Book Awards Announced
The finalists for the Best Translated Book Awards have been announced. >> More
March 11, 2011 | Cape Cod Writers' Center | The Seventh Annual PEN World Voices Festival Celebrates the Power of the Writer's Voice to Revitalize Public Debate on Critical World Issues
More than 100 writers from 40 countries will convene for the seventh annual PEN World Voices Festival of International Literature, celebrating the transformative power of the writer’s voice—both on the page and as an essential element of public discourse. >> More
March 2, 2011 | Translationista Blog | 2011 PEN World Voices Festival, New York
The PEN American Center has just announced the dates for this year’s PEN World Voices Festival: April 25–May 1, 2011. >> More
March 1, 2011 | Books in Media Blog | PEN World Voices Festival Announces Lineup
A lecture by the Nigerian author and Nobel Prize winner Wole Soyinka, readings by Wallace Shawn and Malcolm Gladwell, a debate on the prison industry, and an evening on the topic of sex led by Edmund White are among the offerings at this year’s PEN World Voices Festival of International Literature. >> More
February 24, 2011 | Poets & Writers | World Book Night, the Tahrir Book Festival, PEN World Voices, and More
The PEN World Voices Festival lineup has been announced with Malcolm Gladwell, Wallace Shawn, and Nobel laureate Wole Soyinka among those slated to perform. >> More
February 24, 2011 | Words Without Borders | PEN World Voices Festival announces Seventh Annual Program
More than 100 writers from 40 countries will convene for the seventh annual PEN World Voices Festival of International Literature, celebrating the transformative power of the writer’s voice—both on the page and as an essential element of public discourse. >> More
February 23, 2011 | The Los Angeles Times | PEN World Voices announces 2011 lineup
Laurie Anderson, Malcolm Gladwell, Hanif Kureishi, Cynthia Ozick, Deborah Eisenberg, Irvine Welsh, Francine Prose and Wallace Shawn are among the writers and performers who will participate in the PEN World Voices festival, it was announced Wednesday. >> More |
I was standing on the curb, uptown, my hand raised for a cab. It was evening, and the sky was clear and the air cool. I had plenty of time, and I was happy: I was on my way to an international literary festival. 
To respect the humanity and religious beliefs of minorities is not to suggest that we should limit freedom of thought on their behalf. 
I don't see myself playing a political role, but I do think that it's vital to contribute to a broader understanding of freedom of expression and of cultural tolerance and exchange, especially given the extent to which these values have been threatened in recent times.
We are creating a world divided between faith-based fanaticism on the one hand, and amoral science and global market “logic” on the other. 
The story that began when a group of university students founded Basque Homeland and Liberty, the organization known as ETA, has finally come to an end with its announcement last week of a permanent cease-fire. 
At the annual meeting of the PEN American Center on Thursday night, the organization of writers and editors is expected to ratify Ron Chernow, the best-selling biographer of J. P. Morgan, John D. Rockefeller and Alexander Hamilton, as its next president. 
A butterfly flaps its wings in India, and we feel the breeze on our cheeks here in New York. A throat is cleared somewhere in Africa and in California there's an answering cough. 
In January 1986 I came to New York for a gathering of writers that has become a literary legend. 
