Search
An association of writers working to advance literature, defend free expression, and to foster international literary fellowship.
Pen Blogs
Recent Posts
PEN Blogroll
Browse by Subject
View by Post Title
World Voices Blogs
PEN Member Profiles
FAQ
Sign In
spacer
Newsletter

Home > Browse Member Blog Tags



MEMBER BLOG TAG: letters

Friday, May 6, 2011 5:25PM
 
Bloomerang
Tags: Harold Bloom, Kafka, letters, falling in love with literature
 

     "Let's get to the business at hand. I'm old, and I may collapse at any minute!" So says the critic Harold Bloom, settling into his chair with a portmanteau majesty. The very last event of the 2011 PEN World Voices Festival begins. I feel as if I've gotten lost on the set of a Woody Allen movie.

     Maybe that's because the people seated with me in the Celeste Bartos Forum of the New York Public Library are well wedded to the word--and to their very own words. Also, everyone here appears to be a person of some importance to themselves. Except for me. Silent and self-skeptical, I am busy writing a letter. My letter is addressed to--but wait a little. We'll see . . . .

    ...

 
More | 1 Comment | Add a Comment
 
Friday, April 23, 2010 12:11PM
 
Recommendation of a Book
Tags: Holocaust, genocide, 20th century, Hidden Letters, Flip Slier, Mandelstam, Borowski, Babel, Zdena Berger
 
In thinking about many of the offerings in this year's PEN festival, I'd like to mention my experience as a teacher of a freshman seminar in the personal essay. Each year, I include a different volume of memoir or autobiographical fiction about one of the human-rights cataclysms of the 20th century: Nadezhda Mandelstam's "Hope against Hope," Tadeusz Borowski's "This Way for the Gas, Ladies and Gentlemen," Isaac Babel's "Red Cavalry Stories," Zdena Berger's luminous "Tell Me Another Morning." One book spoke to the students immediately. It is called "Hidden Letters," and it consists of a compendium of messages written by a teenaged boy in Holland, named Philip (Flip) Slier, who, caught up in the Holocaust, wrote to friends and family from labor camps until he escaped, was apprehended, and...
 
More | 0 Comments | Add a Comment
 
Home | Site Map | Copyright / Privacy Policy | Contact Us © 2004-2012 PEN American Center. All rights reserved.