PEN World Voices

On May 3, the French Institute Alliance Française will co-sponsor a series of panel discussions and conversations as part of the annual PEN World Voices festival, featuring the brightest international writers. Started by the PEN American Center, PEN World Voices is a festival of international literature featuring 170 writers, 51 countries, and 82 events coming to venues across New York City, from April 29 to May 4, 2008. Two of these events, African Wars and Writing Out Loud are included in FIAF’s inaugural World Nomads series, taking place from May 1-27, 2008.

Fiction from Fact

Saturday, May 3 at 12pm

Le Skyroom

With Jo Nesbø, Nina Revoyr, Juan Gabriel Vásquez, Sasa Stanisic
Moderated by Lila Azam Zanganeh

Novelists are those rarest of literary alchemists, able to blend elements of historical fact with personal truths and intimate visions. Four authors discuss how historical events have informed their works, helping to reclaim and reshape aspects of their countries’ past.

Buy Tickets    |    More Info    |    Tell a Friend

News from The Hub

Saturday, May 3 at 1pm

Florence Gould Hall

With Yousef Al-Mohaimeed, Biljana Srbljanovic, Thant Myint-U
Moderated by Sameer Padania
Introduced by Mary Robinson, former President of Ireland & Elder

PEN World Voices teams up with Witness, the international human-rights organization that uses video and online technologies to expose human rights abuses, for a look at some of the best grassroots human rights reporting from around the world.

Buy Tickets    |    More Info    |    Tell a Friend

Memoir and Reportage:
An African Perspective

Saturday, May 3 at 1:30pm

Tinker Auditorium

With Rian Malan, Alexandra Fuller
Moderated by Anderson Tepper, Vanity Fair

A conversation with two of southern Africa’s most original voices as they discuss the mix of personal memoir and public reportage that has fueled their work -- from the fall of apartheid, to the eras of Mandela, Mbeki, and Mugabe.

Buy Tickets    |    More Info    |    Tell a Friend

Fractures: Psychic Rifts/Writerly Riffs

Saturday, May 3 at 3pm
Le Skyroom

With Young-Ha Kim, Evelyn Schlag, Anja Sicking,
Amanda Michalopoulou
Moderated by Victoria Redel

Four international authors discuss how the private woes of modern life are expressed in the works of contemporary writers. Each will address the concepts of fragmentation, alienation, mental anguish, and collapse, through their own writings and those of their peers.

Buy Tickets    |    More Info    |    Tell a Friend

Learning to Speak

Saturday, May 3 at 5pm
Tinker Auditorium

With Xiaolu Guo, Halfdan Freihow, Carme Riera
Moderated by Sam Tanenhaus, The New York Times

This panel focuses on the difficulty each writer faced in learning to speak a new language, both literary and figuratively, as an adult. Language has helped each to grow, as they faced upheaval from heart break to international genocide.

Buy Tickets    |    More Info    |    Tell a Friend

The Sexual Life of Catherine M

Saturday, May 3 at 6:30pm

Florence Gould Hall

Catherine Millet is a prominent French art critic and editor of the Art Press, whose autobiographical account of sexual exploration caused a sensation. She joins Adam Gopnik of The New Yorker  for a candid discussion about jealousy, art, French politics, and sex.

Buy Tickets    |    More Info    |    Tell a Friend

All events are in English

Ticket Price
FIAF & PEN Member $8
Non-Member $12
Student with ID $8

Buy Tickets
Ticketmaster.com
Call 212 307 4100

Venues
Le Skyroom, 22 East 60th Street
Florence Gould Hall, 55 East 59th Street
Tinker Auditorium, 55 East 59th Street

Co-presented with:
PEN World Voices Festival (all events)
Cultural Services of the French Embassy (1, 5 & 6:30pm)
The International Forum on the Novel (6:30pm)
Images courtesy of Pen American Center