The 2018 Pen World Voices Festival is at multiple venues in Manhattan from April 16 – 22, 2018.
PEN America
PEN America is a national association of authors. It was founded in 1922 and is now one of over 100 centers of PEN International.
The association has a focus on human rights. It’s a bunch of very smart, very productive people of every type imaginable. Their core value is championing the freedom to write. We can’t take that for granted – even here in the United States.
PEN World Voices Festival
The PEN World Voices Festival is an annual Spring literary festival in New York City that attracts the best known writers from across the globe.
It was founded by Salman Rushdie, Esther Allen, and Michael Roberts after 9/11 to broaden the conversation between the United States and the world.
2018 PEN World Voices Festival
More than 165 writers and artists from over 50 countries gather in NYC for the 2018 Pen World Voices Festival: Resist and Reimagine. April 16 – 22, 2018. NYC
Resist and Reimagine
There are sessions for American Voices, Next Generation Now, and Women Rising.
Opening Night
Chip Rolley, Maxine Beneba Clarke (Afro-Caribbean – Australian), Adam Gopnik, Leïla Slimani (French – Moroccan), and Colson Whitehead talk about the global refugee crisis, the legacy of slavery, infanticide and more.
The Great Hall at The Cooper Union
NoHo, Manhattan
Monday, April 16, 2018 at 7 pm
$35
The Wonder of R.J. Palacio
R.J. Palacio is an American author with a Colombian heritage. She was born in Flushing, Queens and now lives and works in Brooklyn.
Palacio has a storied career as a book cover illustrator and also makes her own children’s books.
Wonder (2012) has been on the New York Times bestseller list since March 2012 and has sold over 5 million copies worldwide. It also became a 2017 movie starring Jacob Tremblay, Julia Roberts and Owen Williams.
The Great Hall at The Cooper Union
NoHo, Manhattan
Saturday, April 21, 2018 at 7 pm
$35
More Authors and Artists
Here is a sampling of the types of people at PEN World Voices.
There are international literary stars Salman Rushdie (Midnight’s Children, The Satanic Verses), Adam Gopnik (The New Yorker), Dave Eggers, celebrities Sean Penn, Chelsea Manning, and art stars Tania Bruguera (Cuban), and Laurie Anderson.
Whatever your world is, there is probably someone from it in the PEN World Voices Festival.
Marcos Aguinis
(Rio Cuarto, Argentina, 1935)
Raquel Almazan
(Costa Rican – Spanish)
Pénélope Bagieu
(French)
Tania Bruguera
(Cuban, 1968)
Edouard Elvis Bvouma
(Cameroon)
Maria Cabrera Callís
(Girona, Catalonia, 1983)
Francisco Cantú
(Mexican – American)
Third-generation Mexican – American former border patrol officer.
Zenaida Cantú
(Native American – Mexican)
Tlapanec from Guerrero who lives and works in New York City.
Sergio Chejfec
Argentine writer who lives in New York City.
Sheila Coronel
Filipina Dean of Academic Affairs at Columbia University’s Journalism School.
Patrisse Cullors
American co-founder of Black Lives Matter
Sergio de la Pava
Colombian – American public defender in New York City and author of A Naked Singularity.
Mihaela Drăgan
Romani – Romanian actress and playwright.
Álvaro Enrigue
Mexican – American award-winning author of Sudden Death.
Martín Espada
New York Puerto Rican poet, attorney and social activist.
Eric Gamalinda
Filipino novelist.
Carmen Hermo
Assistant Curator for the Elizabeth A. Sackler Center for Feminist Art at the Brooklyn Museum. She coordinated the exhibition Radical Women: Latin American Art, 1960 – 1985 now at the Brooklyn Museum.
Valeria Luiselli
Award-winning Mexico City – born author.
Julio Marzán
Puerto Rican poet and essayist.
Stefano Massini
Award-winning Italian playwright.
Tony Medina
Bronx – born, award-winning author of children’s books.
Karen Mosko
Native American Lenape speaker from Nalahii (Munsee-Delaware Nation), Ontario, Canada. The Lenape were the native New Yorkers.
Magali Mougel
French playwright.
Trifonia Melibea Obono
Journalist and professor from Equatorial Guinea who studies gender and human rights in Spain.
Daniel José Older
Award-winning New York author of the young adult series Shadowshaper Cypher.
Ana Luz Ormazábal
Chilean playwright.
Leonardo Padura
Cuban novelist and journalist. Padura is one of the world’s best known Cuban writers. The Netflix miniseries Four Seasons in Havana is based on his stories.
R.J. Palacio
The Colombian – New Yorker is a big-time book cover designer and the author of the Wonder series.
Nino Provenzano
Sicilian – American poet and president of Arba Sicula, a non-profit that promotes Sicilian language and culture.
Rubén Ríos-Ávila
NYU professor of Spanish and Portuguese.
Peggy Robles-Alvarado
Award-winning New York Puerto Rican author who teaches performance at Pratt Institute.
Saturday, April 21
4 – 5:30 pm
Nuyorican Poets Cafe
Alejo Daw’ud Rodriguez
A mentor at John Jay College who works with people getting out of prison. He earned his BA and MA while in jail.
Breakout: Voices from the Inside 2018
Sunday, April 22
12 noon – 1:30 pm
Dixon Place
Amalia Rojas
New York City-based, Mexican playwright. Her latest Waves (They Know Everything) is a play about love, immigration and growing up in the South Bronx.
Borders of Our Imagination
Friday, April 20
7 – 8:30 pm
Instituto Cervantes
For more information, visit worldvoices.pen.org