Also visit the following blogs for ongoing extensive coverage of the PEN World Voices Festival: Book Dwarf Chekov's Mistress Critical Mass The Elegant Variation Flash Fiction J's Theater John Hodgman Laila Lalami Literary Kicks Literary Saloon Maud Newton MetaxuCafe Modal Minority Neil Gaiman NY Brain Terrain The Old Hag  Wild River Review Home > PEN World Voices > World Voices Blogs Mindy Aloff: Constructions and Expressions Granta: Best Young American Writers The young men of The New School’s maintenance staff—seeing that the Tishman Auditorium was only a third filled by 8:30 p.m., when the Granta reading by some of “The Best of Young American Novelists of 2007” was supposed to begin—tied off the last three rows of seats with Tyger Twine... >> Go to the blog  Jane Ciabattari: Scribe Remembering Ryszard Kapuscinski Friends and admirers of Ryszard Kapuscinski, the Polish wire service reporter turned literary genius who died in January, gathered Sunday at the New York Public Library to toast him with a bottle of vodka provided by Philip Gourevich of the Paris Review, all part of PEN's World Voices Festival. (The panel made a point of finishing the bottle, signalling there was not a KGB agent in the lot.) >> Go to blog  Luke Epplin: Off the Shelf Phillips and Gurnah At the start of the conversation with Caryl Phillips and Abdulrazak Gurnah, the moderator Radhikah Jones made a comment that reminded me of the cultural differences between the United States and the United Kingdom, where both of the participants live: “We’ll try to end on time this afternoon, because I know that both Caryl and Abdulrazak are eager to watch the Cricket World Cup.” >> Go to the blog  Aaron Hamburger: The View from Aaron Hamburger's Head Reporting from Iraq, Life in Terror “When I’m distant from it, I understand it. When I’m there, I’m subjected to a blend of sensory experiences, and after a few days, I know nothing, and that’s where my work begins.”—Reporter Mark Danner. >> Go to the blog  Will Heinrich: Adventures of Barnaby Sandwich Pissing and Moaning   Barnaby Sandwich has been kept up several nights running by what sounds like an orgy of rats in his sheet rock; and he recently learned the hard way that sauerkraut and sour cream do not mix; but despite sleeplessness and a stomach amok, he has pressed his way through half a dozen more PEN events, among them “Every Day in Africa,” “Voices from Today’s Iran,” “Humor Out of Context,” and “A Believer Nighttime Event.”  >> Go to the blog  Anne Landsman Prison Writing I came to the Prison Writing panel at the Instituto Cervantes in part because I had recently interviewed Breyten Breytenbach for the November issue of The Believer and he was going to be one of the panelists. Like Breytenbach, I was born in South Africa and have always been intrigued by the circumstances surrounding his imprisonment, and the writing that arose from it. >> Go to the blog  Timothy Liu: Fly On The Wall Green Thoughts: On the Environment The PEN World Voices Festival got off to a good start last night in the dim cavernous reaches of Cooper Union’s Great Hall. Hard to account for the numerous seats that had fully obstructed sightlines to the podium at center stage, but I suppose something was needed to keep the ceiling from caving in. >> Go to the blog  Victoria Redel: PEN World Voices Per Petterson,Marilynne Robinson I went off to this conversation as an eager fan. I've read and reread and taught Robinson's Housekeeping umpteen times. I adore it and also adore-- for entirely different reasons- the achievement of Giliad. Just last night I'd begun Peterson's Out Stealing Horses and was already under the spell of Peterson's immediacy with  place and character. >> Go to the blog  Claudio Remeseira Claudio Remeseira: A Tribute to Pedro Pietri Pedro Pietri (1944-2004) was (is) one of the greatest representatives of the Nuyorican poetry movement, arguably the most important contribution made by Puerto Rican Diaspora to US literature.   >> Video clip on Metaxucafe.com >> Go to blog  Martha Southgate: My Visit to the World Young and Strong The “Youth on the Frontlines” panel was absolutely packed! So full, in fact, that I ended up sitting with my 12-year-old son upstairs watching the event on a grainy videotape (though the image was poor, the sound was good). The unfortunate conditions (for me anyway) didn’t rob the panel of any of its power. >> Go to the blog  Catherine Texier The Most Dangerous game Wayne Koestenbaum opened the sex and danger panel with a reading of the most sensational lines of Antonin Artaud’s Momo poem Between the ass and the shirt / between the gism and the under-bet, / between the member and the let down, / between the membrane and the blade… / between the ass and everyone's /seizure / of the high-pressure trap / of an ejaculation death rattle / is neither a point/nor a stone.." >> Go to the blog  Home | Site Map | Copyright / Privacy Policy | Contact Us © 2004-2012 PEN American Center. All rights reserved.