Authors’ Picks: Reading lists from World Voices Festival authors

Drama, first and foremost, is an art of language and performance, which requires face-to-face communication with the audience. However, because of the pandemic, what most people have never witnessed in their whole lives has just happened: theatre around the world remains closed, and it is uncertain when it will return to normal. We still need drama and literature, perhaps now more than ever. Reading the scripts may become the way we get close to drama now.

In this reading list, I have selected five collections of plays, which come from five writers of different styles from different countries. They all have diverse identities, not only as playwrights, but also as novelists and poets. More importantly, the writers all share these characteristics in common: Their plays are full of energy, and their words are profound; readers will find themselves completely immersed even in the form of reading.
—Si’an CHEN