PEN World Voices: Rian Malan
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PEN World Voices
I read My Traitor’s Heart by Rian Malan not long after it came out in 1990. It was recommended by my ex-boss, a white South African exile who headed up the US office of the International Defense and Aid Fund. The book was frighteningly honest,…
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leave a comment PEN World Voices, The Three Musketeers, again
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Alexander Dumas, J. K. Rowling, Mario Vargas Llosa, PEN World Voices, Salman Rushdie, Three Musketeers, Umberto Eco
Others have posted their reports, so I’m indulging myself with impressions. There was a time when I might have scoffed at the false glamour of going to hear three literary giants read and talk. This year, I jumped at the chance. After all, when Mario…
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1 commentPEN World Voices: Books That Changed My Life
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PEN World Voices
This was my last session for this year’s PEN festival, and it was a pleasant change of pace from the panels on wars and genocide that I’d attended earlier. Spurred and challenged and interrupted by the multilingual and irrepressible Paul Holdengräber, five authors spoke of…
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PEN World Voices: Truth and Reconciliation: A National Reckoning
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PEN World Voices
The panel on Truth and Reconciliation had all the substance and detail I had hoped for from the panel on African Wars – in part, perhaps, because the subject was more specific, and in part because of the efforts of moderator Paul van Zyl. Van…
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PEN World Voices: African Wars
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PEN World Voices
The panel for African Wars brought together two writers whose work I had known and respected for years – Nuruddin Farah and Chenjerai Hove – with another, Abdourahman Waberi, whom I had met the day before and found sharp and engaging. I expected some harrowing…
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PEN World Voices Report: A Tribute to Robert Walser
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PEN World Voices
By Garth Risk Hallberg. After four World Voices events in as many days (scaled down from a perhaps overly ambitious six), I was about ready to hang up my spurs. Nonetheless, I dragged myself back into midtown’s London-style drizzle for Saturday afternoon’s “Tribute to Robert…
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PEN World Voices: Reading the World, again
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Francesc Seres, Hafdan Freihof, PEN World Voices, Peter Carey, Rachel Donadio
If Resonances rambled like an old jalopy, Reading the World clicked along with all the professionalism and friendliness of a Volvo. I don’t have much of an ethnicity nor a lot of ethnic pride, but what little I have lies in being half Scandinavian by…
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PEN World Voices: Resonances
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Antonio Munoz Molina, Charles Simic, Fatou Diome, Ma Jian, PEN World Voices
Well, 2 out of 3 isn’t bad. I thought the Crisis Darfur event was informative and worthwhile: as enjoyable as being lectured at on genocide can rightly be. And the Witness event was a model of how to engage students in reading and activism: I…
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Writing Genocide, A Discussion at the PEN World Voices Festival
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Christian Jungersen, Lieve Joris, PEN World Voices
Writing Genocide: a discussion between Christian Jungersen and Lieve Joris took place Thursday, May 1st at CUNY’s Elebash Recital Hall. Genocide is as vast a topic as it is an intractable problem, yet fortunately, our two speakers on Thursday’s “Writing Genocide” panel brought a particular…
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PEN World Voices: Reading the World
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PEN World Voices
As the title should have alerted me, this session was a collection of short readings rather than a discussion of some literary or political topic. My attention span for being read to is limited – I go to readings more to see what the author…
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PEN World Voices: Writing Genocide
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PEN World Voices
I read several books on the genocide in Rwanda while I was working on A Basket of Leaves, and Machete Season by Jean Hatzfeld was one of the most striking. Instead of interviewing the survivors (as he does in another book), he talked to the…
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PEN World Voices: Rushdie, Eco, and Vargas Llosa
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PEN World Voices
When I saw that Salman Rushdie, Umberto Eco, and Mario Vargas Llosa were to appear together at the PEN World Voices festival, I bought tickets immediately, and I’m glad I did — the event was fabulous. Even before the event itself began, good things were…
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PEN World Voices: The Secret Lives of Cities
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PEN World Voices
Participants: Juan de Recacoechea, Yousef Al-Mohaimeed, Francisco Goldman, and Joshua Furst. Moderated by Matt Weiland. The Secret Lives of Cities brought together authors whose work has focused on particular city: Recacoechea on La Paz, Al-Mohaimeed on Riyadh, Goldman on Guatemala City, and Furst on Minneapolis.…
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PEN World Voices: Short Stories
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PEN World Voices
Participants: Young-ha Kim, Etgar Keret, Abdourahman Waberi, and Ingo Schulze. Moderated by Radikha Jones. Tall and striking in an elaborately figured dress or robe, Radikha Jones of the Paris Review began this session with a spirited defense of the health of the short story, noting…
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Witness: A Special Program for High School Students
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Amanda Michalopoulou, human rights, Jutta Richter, Kashmira Seth, Patricia McCormick, PEN World Voices, Uzodinma Iweala, Witness
I thought that the Crisis Darfur event was moving, interesting, and ideal. Nonetheless, as I hovered, famished, near the food table, scarfing down puff-pastry cheese straws (from Murray’s!), I could see why the whole scene reminded Levi to ask me if I’d yet read the…
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