Literary Events
Seen and Heard in New York
2010 PEN World Voices Festival: 150 Writers, 40 Countries, 7 Days
Monday, April 26 7 p.m. The Diversity Test: Gender and Literature in Translation With Lorraine Adams, Alex Epstein, Andrea Levy, and Norman Rush; moderated by Claire Messud Tuesday, April 27 7 p.m. The 2010 PEN Literary Gala Wednesday, April 28 10 a.m The Work Before the Work: A Special Program for High School Students With Annecy Báez, Rawi Hage, Saïd Sayrafiezadeh,... »
Experiencing Salinger: the Letters, the Criticism, and the Characters
Too often, a writer dies and, for a moment, their works can be found everywhere as people mourn before the media moves on to the next news item. Though today marks the last day that J.D. Salinger’s letters are on public display at the Morgan Library and Museum, the spate of digital and print... »
“Marguerite Duras par Hélène Bamberger” Opens “In the Words of Duras” Festival
One day, I was already old, in the entrance of a public place, a man came up to me. He introduced himself and said: “I've known you for years. Everyone says you were beautiful when you were young, but I want to tell you I think you're more beautiful now than then. Rather than... »
Making Publishing Fun Again
“In these occasionally dark days, we spend a lot of time in the book world, digital or not, talking about things that are distinctly unfun, like DRM and formatting and trade paperback original profit margins, and whether we’ll all have jobs in five years. That’s a shame. Because I suspect fun is the only... »
WRITERS TO RALLY FOR RELEASE OF CHINESE COLLEAGUE LIU XIAOBO
The PEN American Center is organizing a New Year’s Eve demonstration by prominent writers against the Chinese government’s sentencing of their colleague, Liu Xiaobo. On Christmas Day, Xiaobo was sentenced to 11 years in Chinese prison for “inciting subversion of state power.” On New Year’s Eve at 11 AM on... »
Crossing Over: The 2009 PEN Beyond Margins Celebration
Is publishing just “a bunch of white folks curious about the world?” »
Kick Off to 2009 National Book Awards Week “5 Under 35″ Showcases Major New Literary Talent
Monday night’s “5 Under 35" event at the Powerhouse Arena in Brooklyn brought together some lively literary whipper snappers that represented their age group in style. Upon entering the high-ceilinged space, DJ Jonathan Lethem (Chronic City) could be heard spinning beats from on high; below, the hip space bedecked with original art, books about art,... »
The Intersection of Family & Fiction: David Bezmogis & Jonathan Franzen at The New Yorker Festival
The New Yorker Festival brought some great conversations to the Big Apple from October 16-18. I happened to catch Friday night’s pairing of David Bezmogis and Jonathan Franzen, each reading excerpts from new, unpublished novels that deal with the quirks of family. “So Does Lenin” Bezmogis began the evening by reading from a novel he said... »
Satire and Comic Relief in 2009: Dispatches from the Brooklyn Book Festival Part II
Shteyngart was born in Russia, but soon after came to the United States where, "as a young man, I was sentenced to eight years in Hebrew School for some crime I didn’t commit.” He recounted with glee the moment when humor changed his life in America: “Exodus became Sexodus,” he recalled mischievously, “I had... »
Dispatches from the Brooklyn Book Festival: Literature in a Digital Age
“When I turned in a book in the ‘50s, my job was done. Now it’s just beginning.” -John Updike The panel “Literature In a Digital Age” at the 2009 Brooklyn Book Festival brought together Granta Editor John Freeman (The Tyranny of Email), New York Times Book Critic Dwight Garner (Read Me), and Sarah Schmelling... »