And now for the coverage on the coverage. Our own reports are still coming in, so continue to check over the next couple of days. I have posts due on Kafka’s Amerika, Enrique Vila-Matas and Paul Auster, Richard Ford and Nam Le, and David Grossman on Bruno Shultz, so you’ll be witness to a minor miracle when that all comes in.
The past week has introduced me to several authors who I can’t wait to read–Clemens Meyer, Alvaro Enrigue, Petina Gappah and Vila-Matas–and though it’s been truly exhausting, I’m already looking forward to next year (as Bud says, too).
Here’s some of what’s out there:
FictionThatMatters has several lengthy posts on the festival, beginning with a nicely outlined discussion of Nawal El Saadawi’s appearances at three separate events. Reading their coverage of readings and panels that I missed gave me a Borgesian sense that the past week was actually composed of many parallel festivals, each informing one another, layers to peel back that reveal new worlds.
Mediabistro’s GalleyCat offers video footage of Salman Rushdie’s introduction to this year’s festival; the L Magazine covers Readings from Around the Globe; Time Out New York has a nice one on Adam Gopnik and Jean-Marie Gustave Le Clézio, and another with the quote, “A couple of interesting PEN World Festival events happened over the weekend” (a COUPLE??); Sam Jones got to Kafka in America before I did, with a great post; Literary Saloon covered the Anagrama event and Writers on the Great Works; here’s Andrew Marantz on the Moth event for The Huffington Post; Collazo Projects on PEN’s gala; The National Book Critics Circle’s blog Critical Mass covered several events, including Cabaret Night, Le Clézio, The Economic Crisis and How to Deal with It, and the podcast of Jeffrey Sachs.
Other roundups are available from the LA Times, who came to PEN rather than cover the Los Angeles Book Fair, Scott Esposito, and lanew-yorkaise.
And finally, a summary of our own coverage (more to come):
On the Edge: Writing in Reunified Germany, by David Varno; Is Nonfiction Literature? by Geoff Wisner; Best of Contemporary Mexican Fiction, by Bud Parr; Defiance: The Spirit of è89, by Austin Woerner; Writers Who Are Translators and On Translation, by Austin Woerner; PEN Cabaret, by Nicolle Elizabeth; Celebrating Anagrama at Instituto Cervantes, by David Varno; This Critical Moment (Part II), by David Varno; This Critical Moment (Part I), by David Varno; Photos from 1,000 Words: The Power of Visual Storytelling, by Bud Parr; Leaps, Fits, and Starts: The Evolution of a Children’s Book Writer, by Austin Woerner; Evolution/Revolution Readings, by David Varno; The Moth Revolution: Stories of Change, by Geoff Wisner; Festival Roundup for Friday, by Bud Parr; Evolution/Revolution Event Photos, by Bud Parr; PEN World Voices Festival, by Bud Parr; and Jean-Marie Gustave Le Clézio in Conversation with Adam Gopnik, by James Marcus.
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Also, in case you missed yesterday’s coverage of the London Book Fair:
Talking Translation at the London Book Fair, by A.M. Correa
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And if that’s not enough, beginning this Thursday at the America’s Society is a month-long series on Latin-American culture, including three literary events:
From Conflict to Discovery, A Poetry Reading by Javier Campos, Martín Espada, Demetria Martínez and Jessica Treat (in English and Spanish)
Thursday, May 7, 7:00 pm, free admission
Review: Literature and Arts of the Americas, Issue 78 U.S. Latino Culture
Thursday, May 14, 7:00 pm, free admission
Gabriel García Márquez: A Life, Alfred A. Knopf, by Gerald Martin
Wednesday, May 27, 7:00 pm , free admission
More info here