Press Inquiries

The Sixth Annual PEN World Voices Festival of International Literature

April 26 to May 2, 2010


150 writers from 40 countries in more than 50 events

With Sherman Alexie, Maziar Bahari, Alina Bronsky, Philippe Djian, Ariel Dorfman, Roddy Doyle, Richard Ford, Shirley Hazzard, Mohsin Hamid, Aleksandar Hemon, Yiyun Li, Daniele Mastrogiacomo, Natalie Merchant, Toni Morrison, Ben Okri, Sofi Oksanen, Richard Price, Salman Rushdie, Patti Smith, and Jean-Philippe Toussaint among this year’s participants. 

New York City, March 18, 2010—Salman Rushdie and The PEN American Center today announce the program for the Sixth Annual World PEN Voices Festival of International Literature taking place this year Monday, April 26 through Sunday, May 2.

Salman Rushdie says, “Here we are in year six of the PEN World Voices Festival and it's a matter of great personal pride to be able to say, we did it! The Festival has gone from strength to strength, and is plainly offering New Yorkers something they want. In the immortal words of Kevin Costner, ‘if you build it, they will come.’ We built it, and they are coming in ever increasing numbers. We are delighted to welcome the world’s writers and the audiences who want to hear them.”

To read the full press release, go here. 


For a full schedule of Festival events and a complete list of participating authors, please go to www.pen.org/festival.

Follow the Festival on Twitter: #PENWVF

Many events are free but some events require paid tickets and/or reservations and are likely to sell out.

To order tickets: www.smarttix.com or (212) 868-4444

Events held at FIAF are sold through Ticketmaster: www.ticketmaster.com.

Events held at Joe’s Pub are sold at: www.joespub.com.

Events held at WNYC Jerome L Greene Performance Space are sold at www.ovationtix.com or (212) 352-0255.

Events at (Le) Poisson Rouge are sold at lepoissonrouge.com or (212) 505-3474.

Events at Skirball are sold at www.skirballcenter.nyu.edu or (212) 352-3101.

Free events are seated on a first-come, first-served basis.

The PEN World Voices Festival is made possible by the generous support of many co-sponsors, partner organizations, cultural agencies, and individual donors. The Sponsors for this year’s Festival are Bloomberg, The Kaplen Foundation, LJK Literary Management, Stephen & Ann Pleshette Murphy, Random House, Arthur Ross Foundation, Annette Tapert & Joseph Allen and The Roger Smith Hotel.

For PEN  World Voices Festival logos, visit www.pen.org/logos.

For publicity photographs of authors as they appear in the program guide, please go here. See each photo for proper credit.

PRESS ACCOMMODATION

Members of the press who would like to attend and cover ticketed events at PEN World Voices Festival:

Please e-mail the following information to elizabeth@pen.org:

• your name

• your media affiliation

• a link to your web site

• your e-mail address and cell phone number

• names of event(s) you would like to attend and cover, in order of priority.

If we are able to accommodate your request(s), a media ticket(s) will be issued for the event(s) you want to cover.

There are no “All Access” passes available for the Festival.

You will be notified via e-mail the week before the festival begins if we are able to accommodate your comp request.


VIDEO/AUDIO RECORDING AT EVENTS

Video/audio recording is only permitted by previous arrangement. Please request permission to record audio or video of any of the World Voices Festival events by April 23 via e-mail to elizabeth@pen.org.


PHOTOGRAPHY

Photographers must gain prior permission to take photographs at any Festival event. Photographers who do not have prior confirmation of their attendance will not be permitted to shoot. Please send requests to shoot events by April 23 via e-mail to elizabeth@pen.org.

Photos of the Festival will be available on PEN’s Flickr stream here or on the PEN web site. Please direct all inquiries and request for permission to use or reproduce photographs to media@pen.org. Fees for reproduction may apply.

For publicity photographs of authors as they appear in the program guide, please go here. See each photo for proper credit.


INTERVIEWING FESTIVAL PARTICIPANTS

All media interviews must be requested and arranged by April 19.

Members of the press requesting an interview must be on assignment.

Please e-mail the following information to elizabeth@pen.org:

• your name, media affiliation, contact information

• which festival participant you’d like to interview

• where and when your article will run

• the assigning editor’s name and contact information

Please note: Interviews will not be arranged for journalists working on spec.