For Writers, a Voice Beyond the Page

Seven years ago, Moniru Ravanipur, a novelist and short-story writer, was put on trial in her native Iran. Her supposed crime: threatening national security while attending a political conference… More

The Way We Love Now: Who Wrote the Book of Sex?

WAYNE KOESTENBAUM: This panel’s title pays oblique homage to the late Susan Sontag, whose 1986 short story “The Way We Live Now” itself honored Anthony Trollope’s 1875 novel, The… More

A History of Trauma

KHALED MATTAWA: What’s ringing in my ear now is the adverb “originally,” and I want to discuss with Hanan and Fadhil the issue of origins. My question for them… More

Enormous Changes: Ha Jin & Eliot Weinberger

ELIOT WEINBERGER: Your life has had such an amazing trajectory from semi-literate Chinese soldier to distinguished American novelist in such a short amount of time. You joined the army… More

Inappropriate Appropriation

RICK MOODY: I think the pressing question of the PEN World Voices Festival is “Why, exactly, are we bothering?” The United States of America has become a culture that… More

PEN Event Features Rushdie, Steve Martin

NEW YORK -- Nobel laureate Nadine Gordimer, Salman Rushdie and Steve Martin will be among the many writers and performers featured at the third annual PEN World Voices festival,… More