Our 2019 PEN World Voices Festival Itinerary

The fifteenth annual PEN World Voices Festival kicks off today in New York City. From May 6–12, writers from around the world will participate in conversations, readings, translation slams, and performances on this year’s theme: Open Secrets.

On Saturday, May 11 at 4:00pm at Albertine Books, we’re looking forward to hosting Voices of the Silenced. WWB executive director Karen Phillips will moderate a conversation with Idra Novey, Scholastique Mukasonga, and Marcia Tiburi, all of whom use fiction to explore timely stories of violence and resilience, giving voice to the silenced and encouraging both reckoning and resistance.

Also on Saturday, join WWB and many other literary magazines and presses for the Community of Literary Magazines and Press’s Press Fest! From 1–6pm outside the Brooklyn Public Library at 10 Grand Army Plaza.

Trying to decide which events to attend at a festival of this size can be overwhelming. To help, here’s our itinerary of events you should not miss. There are dozens of WWB contributors participating and we’ve linked to some of the work they’ve published with us, so you can read up before catching them in person. See you there!

MONDAY, MAY 6

Behind Berlin’s Gorki Theater
6:30pm; Segal Theatre, GC CUNY, 365 5th Avenue, New York, NY
The kick-off discussion for the World Voices: International Play Festival 2019, with Shermin Langhoff, Jens Hillje, Christopher-Fares Köhler, and Frank Hentschker.

The Laws of Desire
7:00pm; The Great Hall, Cooper Union, 41 Cooper Square, New York, NY
With Masha Gessen, Édouard Louis, Carolin Emcke, and Bill T. Jones.

TUESDAY, MAY 7

Meditatons on War, Presented with The Guardian
6:30pm; Albertine Books, 972 5th Avenue, New York, NY
With Sinan Antoon, Laurent Gaudé, Wu Ming-yi, and Julian Borger.

Love in the Time of Tinder
7:00pm; Nuyorican Poets Cafe, 236 East 3rd Street, New York, NY
With Gabriela Wiener, Niviaq Korneliussen, Mary H.K. Choi, and Isaac Fitzgerald.

Oppression Rewritten
7:00pm; Poets House, 10 River Terrace, New York, NY
With Kwame Dawes, Valzhyna Mort, and Kaitlyn Greenidge

Rise Up: Tiananmen’s Legacy of Freedom and Democracy
7:00pm; The Cathedral of St. John the Divine, 1047 Amsterdam Avenue, New York, NY
With Wang Dan, Liao Yiwu, Ma Jian, Zhang Boli, Zhou Fengsuo, Fang Zheng, Michael Martin Day, the Reverend Dr. William J. Barber, II, and more.

The Library of Borges
7:00pm; Subculture, 45 Bleecker Street, New York, NY
With Claudia Salazar Jiménez, Rodrigo Rey Rosa, Rodrigo Fresán, and Inmaculada Lara Bonilla.

WEDNESDAY, MAY 8

The Politics of Poetry: Dissenting Poetics
7:00pm; The Old American Can Factory, 232 3rd Street, Brooklyn, NY
With Valzhyna Mort, Simone White, Kirill Medvedev, and Marianna Kiyanovska.

The Migration Chronicles
7:00pm; McNally Jackson Books, 76 North 4th Street, Unit G, Brooklyn, NY
With Christos Ikonomou, Najat El Hachmi, and Pajtim Statovci.

Raúl Zurita
8:00pm; The Sanctuary, St. Mark’s Church-in-the-Bowery, 131 East 10th Street, New York, NY
With Raúl Zurita, William Rowe, and Norma Cole.

THURSDAY, MAY 9

Resonances
6:00pm; Mishkin Galery, Baruch College, 135 East 22nd Street, New York, NY
With Esther Allen, Gabrielle Bell, Niviaq Korneliussen, Bridgett M. Davis, and Willivaldo Delgadillo.

Literary Quest: Westbeth Edition
6:30pm; Westbeth Center for the Arts, Westbeth Gallery, 55 Bethune Street, New York, NY
With Rodrigo Rey Rosa, Najat El Hachmi, Gabriela Wiener, Jennifer Croft, Rowan Ricardo Phillips, Felicity Castagna, Inês Pedrosa, Pajtim Statovci, Wu Ming-yi, Binnie Kirshenbaum, Helen Phillips, Jen Silverman, Darcey Steinke, Dana Czapnik, and more.

Translation Slam
7:00pm; Nuyorican Poets Cafe, 236 East 3rd Street, New York, NY
With Kanako Nishi, Allison Markin Powell, Björn Halldórsson, K.B. Thors, Larissa Kyzer, Terry Gallagher, Iyasu Adair Nagata, and Gerður Kristný.

Cry, the Beloved Country
7:00pm; Jerome L. Greene Performance Space at WNYC, 44 Charlton Street, New York, NY
Christos Ikonomou, Raúl Zurita, Ma Jian, Kirill Medvedev, Ahmed Naji, Marianna Kiyanovska, and Jennifer Clement.

FRIDAY, MAY 10

Terrible Truths: Confronting History and Memory
6:00pm; La Maison Française, New York University, 16 Washington Mews, New York, NY
With Domenico Starnone, Daniel Blaufuks, Catherine Filloux, Tanisha C. Ford, and Ulrich Baer.

Reinvent and Rediscover: A View from Elsewhere
7:30pm; Deutsches Haus, New York University, 42 Washington Mews, New York, NY
With Elif Shafak, Pénélope Bagieu, Brian Keith Jackson, Takis Würger, and Rebecca Falkoff.

SATURDAY, MAY 11

CLMP Press Fest!
1:00–6:00pm; The Brooklyn Public Library, 10 Grand Army Plaza, Brooklyn, NY
Join WWB and many other publishers and publications for the Council of Literary Magazine’s and Press’s third annual indie book fair.

Voices of the Silenced
4:00pm; Albertine Books, 972 5th Avenue, New York, NY
With WWB executive director Karen M. Phillips, Idra Novey, Marcia Tiburi, and Scholastique Mukasonga.

Women Uninterrupted
5:00pm; Subculture, 45 Bleecker Street, New York, NY
With Elif Shafak, Jennifer Egan, and Inês Pedrosa.

SUNDAY, MAY 12

The Art of Violence
2:30pm; The Frederick P. Rose Auditorium, The Cooper Union, 41 Cooper Square, New York, NY
With Rodrigo Rey Rosa, Tommy Orange, and Mohammed Hanif.

Arundhati Roy: The Arthur Miller Freedom to Write Lecture
6:00pm; The Apollo Theater, 253 West 125th Street, New York, NY
With Arundhati Roy and Siddhartha Deb.