Welcome to the 2020 digital World Voices Festival, These Truths.
The PEN World Voices Festival of International Literature traditionally brings hundreds of writers from around the world to New York and Los Angeles each spring, drawing audiences of thousands to book talks, readings, and lectures. With those in-person events now impossible to convene, PEN America has curated an ongoing digital version of the Festival that includes a suite of podcasts, videos, interviews, and musical playlists, with live events and other features to be rolled out over the coming weeks.
In an era when the agreed-upon factual basis of our daily news is constantly undermined, there has never been a greater need for us to hear the deeper truths afforded by literature. This virtual edition of America’s premier international literary festival will engage with contested histories and memory, challenge the fabrications of truth served to us on an almost daily basis, and celebrate the beauty and power of storytelling.
What’s New
[VIRTUAL] DREAMing Out Loud: Virtual Reading & Book Release
Dare to Speak: A Reading List
A Linked History: A World Voices Festival Reading List From Jeremy Tiang
The Best of Just Press Play
Editor’s Picks
These Truths: DREAMing Out Loud with Álvaro Enrigue
PEN to Paper: The Discipline of the Haiku with Mark Nowak
These Truths: Realizing a New Theatre with Lynn Nottage and Jeremy O. Harris
Next Generation Now Virtual Storytime with Nic Stone
The World Voices podcast convenes important writers to debate the most central questions of our time, like the meaning of freedom in a post-truth age and the vulnerability of language in a time of tyranny.
These Truths: Navigating Truths with Ishmael Beah and Alexis Okeowo
These Truths: Round and Round Together with Fatima Shaik, Amy Nathan, and Sharon Langley
These Truths: Realizing a New Theatre with Lynn Nottage and Jeremy O. Harris
These Truths: Prison & Justice Writing with Reginald Dwayne Betts
From the balconies of Milan to the speakers of our smartphones, these playlists from writers around the world remind us all that music, like books, can connect humanity from a distance.
The Best of Just Press Play
Just Press Play with Abdellah Taïa
Just Press Play with Chigozie Obioma
Just Press Play with Bela Shayevich
Each workshop provides a single, unique exercise to jumpstart your writing practice. Through these videos, our audiences gain brief, intimate connections to their favorite writers and exclusive insights into their craft.
PEN to Paper: Authentic Voices with James Hannaham
PEN to Paper: Hot Tips from Mona Simpson
PEN to Paper: The Revision Cycle with Emily X. R. Pan
PEN to Paper: Writing Through Intuition with Ananda Naima González
Explore life beyond the writing desk in this home video series, which introduces audiences to writers’ interior lives and hidden talents in a time of quarantine.
Writers in Residence: Basically Delicious with Jennifer Egan
Writers in Residence: Digging in the Country with Jan Stocklassa
Writers in Residence: Preserving Memories with Si’an CHEN
Writers in Residence: A Poem-From-Home with Oksana Vasyakina
In these virtual storytimes from our Next Generation Now series, writers read aloud stories that captivate the imagination of kids, teens and young adults.
Next Generation Now Virtual Storytime with Mae Respicio
Next Generation Now Virtual Storytime with Kevin Noble Maillard
Next Generation Now Virtual Storytime with Isaac Fitzgerald
Next Generation Now Virtual Storytime with Nic Stone
The Community of Literary Magazines and Publishers’ annual book fair at the World Voices Festival goes digital in these weekly reading lists featuring independent presses and small publishers.
Indie Lit Fair, Vol. Six
Indie Lit Fair, Vol. Five
Indie Lit Fair, Vol. Four
Indie Lit Fair, Vol. Three
Translating the Future
The art of translation takes center stage in this weekly series of virtual talks, marking the 50th anniversary of PEN America’s historic World of Translation conference.
A Celebration of Kamau Brathwaite
In this tribute to the late Kamau Brathwaite, one of the great poet-thinkers of our time, acclaimed writers Honor Ford-Smith, Aracelis Girmay, M. NourbeSe Philip, Roger Guenveur Smith, and Christian Campbell celebrate his 90th birthday with readings, remembrances, and conversation about his legacy.
Interviews: The PEN Ten
The PEN Ten: An Interview with Lynn Steger Strong
The PEN Ten: An Interview with Silvia Moreno-Garcia
The PEN Ten: An Interview with Jean Kyoung Frazier
The PEN Ten: An Interview with Mark Doty
Further Reading
Dare to Speak: A Reading List
A Linked History: A World Voices Festival Reading List From Jeremy Tiang
Drama as Reading: A World Voices Festival Reading List from Si’an CHEN
Finding Meaning: A World Voices Festival Reading List from Peter Stamm
Become a World Voices Festival Insider
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About the PEN World Voices Festival
The PEN World Voices Literary Festival is the premier celebration of international literature in the United States, a landmark event on New York City’s, and now Los Angeles’s, cultural calendar. Each spring, the Festival presents writers from the United States and around the world in a week of cross-cultural exchanges and events—from lively debates that delve into the most pressing issues of our time, to intimate conversations that awaken us to the quiet beauty and power of literature. An engaging program of talks, panels, conversations, and performances draws a vibrant and diverse crowd of socially engaged and intellectually curious New Yorkers and LA audiences, who are eager to be challenged, inspired, and entertained.
PEN America thanks the following sponsors for their support of the 2020 PEN World Voices Festival:
The National Endowment for the Arts
New York State Council on the Arts
The New York City Department of Cultural Affairs
The Mayor’s Office of Media and Entertainment (New York City)
Amazon Literary Partnership
The Horace W. Goldsmith Foundation
Acton Family Giving
Join Us
Becoming a PEN America Member today means becoming a supporter of the PEN World Voices Festival. Sign up now as a reader or writer Member and join thousands across the country in defending our freedom of expression.