PEN American Center - Personal Evolution, Social Revolution: A Program for High School Students

An association of writers working to advance literature, defend free expression, and to foster international literary fellowship.

Personal Evolution, Social Revolution: A Program for High School Students

April 30 | Instituto Cervantes | NYC

With Edwidge Danticat, Dany Laferrière, Laila Lalami, and Colum McCann; moderated by Benjamin Anastas

Emerson said “every revolution was first a thought in one man’s mind.” For some writers, every thought committed to the page is an act of revolution. A panel of acclaimed authors considers how literature has liberated them and brought them into courageous dialogues with their own communities.

Thank you to our sponsors: The Kaplen Foundation; the Horace Goldsmith Foundation; the New York Department of Cultural Affairs; Axe-Houghton Foundation; Spanish Cultural Mission in New York; Starbucks Coffee; Algonquin Books; Picador; Random House Publishing Group; volunteers Heather Ewing, Preety Sengupta, and Jess Sullivan; and PEN interns Victoria McCoy and Kate Clairmont.

READINGS

Edwidge Danticat reads from her book, Brother, I Am Dying.

Benjamin Anastas reads from the Dany Laferrière book, An Aroma of Coffee.

DISCUSSION HIGHLIGHTS

Finding Yourself in Literature: Laila Lalami remembers the years when "fiction felt foreign" because of her language and ethnicity.

The Important, Ordinary Story: Colum McCann recounts how a bike trip across the United States taught him about imaginative access into others' stories.

Life Begins With Reading: Dany Laferrière identifies his first inspirations for becoming a writer: an adventure story and his grandmother.

The Fear to Fail and the Fear to Finish: Edwidge Danticat recalls how a teacher helped her overcome obstacles.

Insider/Outsider and Learning to Fail Better: Colum McCann, Edwidge Danticat, and Laila Lalami discuss the burden to write about a community in its entirety and the writer's effort to constantly improve.

Writing and Place: Laila Lalami explains how returning to a place helps her write it anew. Dany Laferrière explains how libraries inspire readers, but he had to "leave the library" to find a unique authorial voice.


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