Just Press Play with Emily Raboteau

At a time when the COVID-19 pandemic is disrupting millions of people’s lives in unprecedented ways, PEN America’s World Voices Festival launches a new playlist series with songs selected by some of our favorite authors from around the world.

Every week, Just Press Play brings the soundtracks of poets and novelists’ writing lives into homes and offices everywhere. From the balconies of Milan to the speakers of our smartphones, these playlists remind us all that music, like books, can connect humanity from a distance.

This week, Emily Raboteau, the author of Searching for Zion and essayist who has spent the last year writing exclusively about the climate crisis, powers you through the first week of June with a playlist ranging from Sam Cooke to Bob Marley and The Wailers.

Check out her playlist on Spotify and YouTube today, and grab her American Book Award-winning book, Searching for Zion, on Bookshop or Amazon.

Emily’s Favorite: “Trouble of the World” from Mahalia Jackson

About Emily Raboteau

Emily Raboteau is a novelist, long-form essayist, and professor of creative writing at the City University of New York. Her last book, Searching for Zion, was the recipient of an American Book Award. Bylines include The New Yorker, The New York Times, New York Magazine, and The New York Review of Books. For the last year and a half, she has been writing exclusively about the climate crisis.

Join us next week for a playlist from Hari Kunzru, whose most recent novel, White Tears, was a finalist for the PEN/Jean Stein Award.