fiaf.org > Cultural Events

Talks
PEN World Voices at FIAF
Saturday, May 2, 2009, various times
Part of PEN World Voices Festival of International Literature
Co-sponsored by FIAF

PEN World Voices Festival of International Literature (April 27-May 3) is a week-long celebration, featuring 160 writers, from 41 countries, speaking 18 different languages, exploring the theme of "Evolution/Revolution". Chaired by Salman Rushdie, and celebrating its fifth anniversary, the festival will present a stellar lineup of established and emerging authors at venues across New York City. For complete festival info, please visit pen.org.

On Saturday, May 2, FIAF hosts a full day of PEN World Voices panel discussions, readings, and more. Three of the events, Writing and Reading Multilingual Haiti, Frankétienne–Haitian Identity, and Krik ? Krak !, are presented as part of FIAF's World Nomads Haiti series.

Related Event
Performing Arts/Talks: The PEN Cabaret, May 2

In Conversation:
Mark Z. Danielewski and Rick Moody

Saturday, May 2, from 1–2pm
Co-sponsored by FIAF

Mark Z. Danielewski’s House of Leaves was one of the most ambitious and eagerly awaited debuts of 2000. His second book, Only Revolutions, one of the great American road novels, was called “A masterpiece” by the Washington Post Book World. Don’t miss this rare public appearance by Mark Z. Danielewski in conversation with fellow author Rick Moody.

General Admission $10
FIAF or PEN Members $8
Students with ID $8

Florence Gould Hall
55 East 59th Street

Writing and Reading
Multilingual Haiti

Saturday, May 2, from 1–2:30pm
Co-sponsored by FIAF as part of World Nomads Haiti

Participants: Dany Laferrière and Madison Smartt Bell
Moderator: Kaiama L. Glover
More Info

Where Truth Lies:
A Conversation on the Art of Fiction

Saturday, May 2, from 1–2:30pm
Co-sponsored by the Center for Fiction and FIAF

Moderator: Noreen Tomassi
Participants: Marlon James, Jan Kjærstad,
Horacio Castellanos Moya, and Roxana Robinson

This conversation between writers dealing with challenging subject matter explores the human need to tell stories, why fiction seems to be hard-wired into us as a species, and where truth lies in the most compelling stories of our time. It is the first in a series of launch events for the new Center for Fiction in New York City (formerly the Mercantile Library Center for Fiction).

Free and open to the public.
Tickets distributed on a first come, first served basis.

Tinker Auditorium
55 East 59th Street

Writers Who are Translators

Saturday, May 2, from 3–4:30pm
Co-sponsored by Dalkey Archive Press, the Center for Translation Studies at the University of Illinois, and FIAF

Participants: Brian Evenson, Forrest Gander, Cole Swenson, and Paul Verhaeghen. Moderated by Martin Riker

Translators are artists. They do not simply transfer the sentences of a work into a new language, they must truly create a new work of art based upon the original. Join American and foreign writers/translators to discuss the intersection of literary writing and translating, how the two contribute to one another, and the particular value of translating another writer’s work, or even one’s own.

Free and open to the public.
Tickets distributed on a first come, first served basis.

Tinker Auditorium
55 East 59th Street

Enrique Vila-Matas and Paul Auster in Conversation

Saturday, May 2, from 2:30–3:30pm
Co-sponsored by FIAF

Moderator: Eduardo Lago
Participants: Paul Auster and Enrique Vila-Matas

For years Enrique Vila-Matas and Paul Auster have been engaged in an extended literary conversation, spanning continents and several languages. And in the ingenious short story by Eduardo Lago, which borrows its title, Brooklyn Trilogy, from Auster, the two are even brought together as fictional characters. Two years ago, they met in person for the first time and discovered that they do, indeed, share many common obsessions. Come eavesdrop on this continuation of that first live conversation. Moderated by Eduardo Lago, who will read from the short story that unites these two writers.

General Admission $10
FIAF or PEN Members $8
Students with ID $8

Florence Gould Hall
55 East 59th Street

Frankétienne–Haitian Identity

Saturday, May 2, from 3–4pm
Co-sponsored by FIAF as part of World Nomads Haiti

More Info

On Translation

Saturday, May 2, from 5–6pm
Co-sponsored by FIAF

Moderator: Michael F. Moore, PEN Translation Committee Chair
Participants: Morten Ramsland, Santiago Roncagliolo,
Antje Rávic Strubel, and Joseph Boyden

How are authors translated and reimagined across languages, cultures, eras? And what leads authors themselves to become translators, the messengers of other literary voices and places? Join a distinguished panel of writers—some of whom are translators as well—for a discussion of the transformation of literature and its myriad linguistic guises.

Free and open to the public.
Tickets distributed on a first come, first served basis.

Tinker Auditorium
55 East 59th Street

Krik ? Krak !

Saturday, May 2, from 5–6pm
Co-sponsored by FIAF as part of World Nomads Haiti

Host: Michele Voltaire Marcelin
Master of Ceremonies: Etienne Télémaque
Participants: Alix Buyu Ambroise and Martina Bruno
More Info

Co-sponsored with PEN World Voices Festival of International Literature, New York City

World Nomads Haiti is generously supported by American Airlines, the official airline of FIAF; Afrique & Caraïbes en créations; and Organisation internationale de la francophonie.

FIAF Spring 2009 Season Sponsors: American Airlines, the official airline of FIAF; Florence Gould Foundation; The Herbert J. Seligmann Trust; New York State Council of the Arts

Images courtesy of Pen American Center