Today marks the kickoff of the 13th annual PEN World Voices Festival in New York City. Founded by Esther Allen, Salman Rushdie, and Michael Roberts in the aftermath of 9/11, the festival brings together over 150 writers from around the world to join in conversation and to share their work in venues all over the city.
We’re very excited to announce that we will be hosting an event in conjunction with our May 2017 Food Issue. Join us on Wednesday, May 3 at 7:00pm at Archestratus Books for A Woman’s Place: In Food, Power and Writing, a conversation with the guest editor of our May issue Rohan Kamicheril; May contributors Mariana Enriquez and Allison Markin Powell; and Chitrita Banerji and Sonya Kharas.
On Tuesday, May 2, WWB partners with Cinema Tropical to present a screening of the controversial Brazilian film Aquarius, starring Sonia Braga, followed by a conversation with Lucrecia Zappi, Elissa Schappell, and D.W. Gibson, moderated by WWB editor Eric M. B. Becker.
And on Friday, May 5 at 6:00pm, we are partnering with Slice Literary to present a multiligual Exquisite Corpse reading as a part of the festival’s Lit Crawl. Featuring writers Filip Springer, Francisco Cantú, Abdourahman Waberi, and Karolina Ramqvist, and translators Sean Bye, Saskia Vogel, Elisabeth Jaquette, David Ball, and Nicole Ball.
Here’s our WWB itinerary for the festival, so you can keep up with the dozens of WWB contributors who are participating in panels, readings, and even a translation slam. We’ve linked to some of the work they’ve published with us, so you can read up before coming out. See you there!
MONDAY, MAY 1
International Play Festival, Day One
4:00–10pm; Segal Theatre, GC CUNY, 365 5th Avenue, New York, NY
The first of three days of readings of plays from around the world.
United Against Hate
7:00–8:30pm; The Cooper Union Great Hall, 7 E. 7th Street, New York, NY
The opening of the 13th annual festival, featuring Patti Smith, Jesse Paris Smith, Ani DiFranco, Marlon James, Colum McCann, Suphala, Andrew Solomon, Suzanne Nossel, and Salmon Rushdie.
TUESDAY, MAY 2
Screening & Discussion of “Aquarius,” Starring Sonia Braga
6:00pm; Alamo Drafthouse, 445 Albee Square W #4, Brooklyn, NY
With WWB’s Editor Eric M. B. Becker, as well as Elissa Schappell, Lucrecia Zappi, and D.W. Gibson.
Corrosive Power
7:00pm; Poets House, 10 River Terrace, New York, NY
With WWB contributors Noemi Jaffe, Julia Sanches, and Ellen Elias-Bursać, as well as Athena Farrokhzad and Jennifer Hayashida.
Girl-Powered Fiction
7:00pm; Shakespeare & Co., 939 Lexington Avenue, New York, NY
With WWB contributor Han Yujoo, as well as Hannah Tinti, Steph Opitz, Naomi Jackson, and Karolina Ramqvist.
WEDNESDAY, MAY 3
An Evening with Adonis, Winner of the PEN/Nabokov Award for Achievement in International Literature
6:30pm; Albertine Books, 934 5th Avenue, New York, NY
With WWB contributor Adonis, as well as Jessica Hagedorn.
Monkey Business: New Writing from Japan
6:30pm; Asia Society, 725 Park Avenue at East 70th Street, New York, NY
With WWB contributor Motoyuki Shibata, as well as Jamaica Kincaid, Hiromi Ito, Hiroko Oyamada, Ted Goosen, Roland Kelts, and Brian Evenson.
A Woman’s Place: In Food, Power and Writing
7:00pm; Archestratus Books, 160 Huron Street, Brooklyn, NY
An evening hosted by Words Without Borders with the guest editor of our May food issue, Rohan Kamicheril, and contributors Mariana Enriquez and Allison Markin Powell, joined in conversation by Chitrita Banerji and Sonya Kharas.
Women and War
7:30pm; Nuyorican Cafe, 236 E 3rd St, New York, NY
With WWB contributor Maaza Mengiste, as well as Athena Farrokhzad, Helon Habila, Alia Malek, Nimmi Gowrinathan, and Jennifer Percy.
THURSDAY, MAY 4
Resonances: Writers and Their Influences
6:00pm; Baruch College Engelman Recital Hall, 55 Lexington Ave, Level B2, New York, NY
With WWB contributor Samanta Schweblin, as well as Teju Cole, Marilyn Nelson, Oddny Eir, and Bridgett Davis.
Literary Quest: Westbeth Edition
6:30pm; Westbeth, 55 Bethune Street, New York, NY
With WWB contributors Idra Novey, Han Yujoo, Peter Cole, and Dubravka Ugrešic, as well as Pajtim Statovci, Filip Springer, Bae Suah, Minae Mizumura, Rita Mae Brown, Oddny Eir, Haroon Moughul, Moustafa Bayoumi, Emanuel Xavier, Farah Jasmine Griffin, Tanwi Nandini Islam, Abeer Hoque, Igor Stiks, Thomas Meinecke, and Gabby Rivera.
Viet Thanh Nguyen and Chinelo Okparanta in Conversation
7:00pm; Center for Fiction, 17 E. 47th Street, New York, NY
With WWB contributor Chinelo Okparanta, as well as Viet Thanh Nguyen and Parul Sehgal.
Identity in the Age of Globalization: An African Diasporic Perspective
7:00pm; Medgar Evers College, Center for Black Literature, Edison O. Jackson Auditorium, 1638 Bedford Avenue, Brooklyn, NY
With WWB contributors Maaza Mengiste and Andy Tepper, as well as Mona Eltahawy and Peter Kimani.
Crises of Empathy: Translation and Migration
7:30pm; McNally Jackson Books, 52 Prince Street, New York, NY
With WWB contributors Jonathan Blitzer and Allison Markin Powell, as well as Lina Mounzer and Sahand Keshavarz Rahbar.
FRIDAY, MAY 5
A Most Exquisite Corpse
6:00pm; Court Street Grocers, 540 LaGuardia Place, New York, NY
A multilingual reading hosted by Words Without Borders and Slice Literary. Join four writers and their translators who have stitched together an Exquisite Corpse story. Writers Filip Springer, Francisco Cantú, Abdourahman Waberi, and Karolina Ramqvist and translators Sean Bye, Saskia Vogel, Elisabeth Jaquette, David Ball, and Nicole Ball will read their joint story written in multiple languages. Free food will be served.
Argentina on the Edge
7:00pm; McNally Jackson Books, 52 Prince Street, New York, NY
With WWB contributors Samanta Schweblin and Mariana Enriquez, as well as Pola Oloixarac and Lina Meruane.
Translation Slam
7:00pm; Nuyorican Poets Cafe, 236 E. 3rd Street, New York, NY
With WWB contributors Michael Moore, Noemi Jaffe, Gregory Pardlo, as well as Hiromi Ito, Keith Vincent, Janine Beichman, and Katrina Dodson.
Translating Women’s Voices
7:00pm; Washington Mews, Deutsches Haus at NYU, 42 Washington Mews, New York, NY
With WWB contributors Susan Bernofsky, Alta L. Price, Tess Lewis, and Katrine Jensen, as well as Kaiama L. Glover.
Female Writers and Resistance
7:30pm; La Maison Française, 16 Washington Mews, New York, NY
With WWB blog editor Jessie Chaffee, as well as Lila Zemborain, Mariela Dreyfus, Simone Lappert, Maïa Mazaurette, and Rebecca Falkoff.
Mysticism and Mastery in Middle Eastern Poetry
8:00pm; Washington Mews, Deutsches Haus at NYU, 42 Washington Mews, New York, NY
With WWB contributor Peter Cole, as well as Brad Gooch.
SATURDAY, MAY 6
Forbidden: Too Nationalistic
12:00pm; Cooper Union Rose Theater, 41 Cooper Square, New York, NY
With WWB contributor Dubravka Ugrešic, as well as Aleksandar Hemon, Igor Stiks, and John Freeman.
US Borders and the Central America Diaspora
12:00pm; Nuyorican Poets Cafe, 236 E. 3rd Street, New York, NY
With WWB contributors Francisco Goldman and Valeria Luiselli, as well as Reyna Grande, Rebecca Sosa, Francisco Cantu
Women in Ink
12:00pm; Dixon Place, 161A Chrystie St, New York, NY
With WWB contributor Liana Finck, as well as Liza Donnelly, Emily Flake, Rayma Suprani, and Roz Chast.
Dreaming Out Loud
2:00pm; Nuyorican Poets Cafe, 236 E. 3rd Street, New York, NY
With WWB contributor Álvaro Enrigue.
