2021 PEN World Voices Festival: Frequently Asked Questions

“PEN America World Voices Festival” logo and “Power to the People” (pink font) on top of blue background

Thanks for joining us for the 2021 PEN World Voices Festival. Please review our FAQs below.

Audience Code of Conduct

PEN America stands at the intersection of literature and human rights to celebrate and defend free expression in the United States and worldwide. As such, we aim for our events to stimulate robust dialogue and debate, and to foster environments where authors and attendees from diverse backgrounds feel free to speak their minds. Harassment and abuse, including hateful speech that targets people based on their identity, are antithetical to free expression and undermine open exchange; as such, we retain the right to remove anyone who engages in such behavior during our public events, including the PEN World Voices Festival. Please do not share the event link with non-attendees. This is for everyone’s safety in our community, and ensures that we respect the space reserved by other registered attendees. We appreciate you respecting and abiding by this code of conduct.

Tickets and Registration

Do tickets for this year’s World Voices Festival include additional registration fees?

All ticket sales will go through Eventbrite. You can purchase them directly on PEN.org, or by going to the Eventbrite page for that event. You can also view all events at pen.org/festival.

Eventbrite charges ticket buyers a service fee and a processing fee. Since these are electronic tickets, there will be no shipping or handling fees.

When will I receive my order confirmation? And my link to the events?

Order confirmations will be sent from Eventbrite. If a confirmation email hasn’t appeared within an hour, please check your spam/promotions folder.

You will receive your private event attendee link within 24 hours of the event.

Can I access recordings of the events?

Ticket buyers can access the recordings via Crowdcast until June 1, 2021.

Are tickets refundable?

Contact us at [email protected] to request a refund for electronic tickets.

Please note, however, that Eventbrite’s fees, tickets that include a book purchase, and tickets to Blindness are not refundable.

Are discounts available?

Discounts are available for students and attendees facing economic hardship. Please email [email protected] for your discount code.

PEN America Members will receive their discount code via email. To become a member, visit pen.org/membership.

Authors and Q&As

Where can I purchase the books?

The confirmation email you receive after purchasing a ticket will contain links to buy participants’ books directly from our independent bookstore partners.

I never received my book.

Please note that book orders from the Jhumpa Lahiri event will be processed after the event takes place. If you do not receive your book within two weeks of May 19, please contact [email protected] for assistance.

Am I able to meet the authors?

Most events will feature a Q&A component with authors.

Connection/Technical Issues

Accessibility

The PEN World Voices Festival is pleased to provide live captioning for all virtual events. Please contact [email protected] if you have any questions or need assistance.

Will the events be available in languages other than English?

Select events will be live captioned in foreign languages. Others will be conducted in the preferred language of our participating writers. See individual event pages for more information.

Can I watch the event from my phone?

Yes, Crowdcast has an official mobile app for Apple. It can also be accessed from your mobile device’s browser.

Contact Information

For all concerns not addressed here, please contact [email protected]. And thank you again for attending the 2021 PEN World Voices Festival!