World Voices Festival
A celebration of international literature and the freedom to write.
4 Days. 40+ Events. 140+ Authors from 40+ Countries
The World Voices Festival is PEN America’s annual celebration of writers, international literature, and free expression. Taking place from April 29 through May 2, with more than 140 writers from 40 countries, this year’s festival is an insistence on the power of literature and cross-cultural dialogue. This gathering of writers from every part of the globe is a potent reminder—in fact, an antidote in an era of censorship, nativism, and renewed isolationism—that books drive culture and the stories we tell can shape and transform our lives.
The Arthur Miller Lecture
The Arthur Miller Lecture is an annual keynote session at the World Voices Festival that is a highlight of our week.
Check out coverage from recent Festival panels
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Propaganda, Isolation, Censorship, and Entertainment: What Overseas Press Know About the Authoritarian Playbook
Anna Nemzer, M. Gessen, and Yaqiu Wang discuss how media falls victim under authoritarianism, and what America should watch out for.
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Surviving the Impossible: Women Navigate Death and Grief in a Complex Healthcare System
Samina Ali and Ariel Gore discussed their memoirs, which chronicle the ways the medical system failed them.
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World Voices Festival: On Autocracy and the Slow Death of Democracy
On the second day of the World Voices Festival, five writers and scholars gathered to address the rise of fascism in the U.S.
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For Women Writers, Gender Discrimination Is No Fiction
With decades of experience and tens of books to their names, Picoult and Davis recalled all the boxes women who write are placed into.
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World Voices Festival: Towards A Trans Aesthetic
I want to help people think about gender in a way that frees them up. I want to give people thinking tools, and that’s kind of what I’m doing.
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Bold Voices: On Language and Literature in Translation at PEN World Voices Festival
Latin America is a melting pot of languages, dialects, and accents. Three authors discuss how the languages they grew up with affected their writing.
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‘History is the Shape We Give the Past’: Bernhard Schlink and Claire Messud Talk Preserving History Through Writing
Staying loyal to the truth becomes a necessity particularly when what it means to migrate and assimilate is changing in America at this moment.
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Two Acclaimed Authors Look Back at Their Older Books, Now in Reprint
I’m fascinated by mythologizing, the incessant need we have. We may be hardwired as humans to do this.
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After The Fall: Post-Apocalyptic Visions at PEN World Voices Festival
I think that the act of writing is an act of hope. If I didn't have hope personally, I wouldn't write.
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Los Angeles, Where Stories Ignite: A Reflection on the PEN World Voices Festival 2025
As our city continues to rebuild, audiences are reminded that fear is not an ending.
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Crafting Nightmares: The Art of Horror with Stephen Graham Jones & Paul Tremblay
I’m concerned that horror might change; I’m excited that horror might change, because if things don’t change, they die.
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‘Home Is Where We Carry Each Other’: Stories of Exile, Memory, and Identity from the PEN World Voices Festival Los Angeles
Home is where your loved ones are… You carry home with you.