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Introducing World Voices
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Welcome to the debut of PEN World Voices: the New York Festival of
International Literature, a confluence of remarkable writers from more
than 45 countries who will come together for seven days of discussions,
tributes, readings, and conversations that will expand the literary
horizons of American audiences.
As Arthur Miller said at a PEN gathering of world authors almost 40
years ago, “None of us comes here as the representative of a country.”
PEN World Voices hopes to open a global conversation in which the
shared human concerns that are central to literature take precedence
over issues of ideology or nationality.
PEN World Voices grows out of more than 80 years of work by PEN
American Center to promote international cultural exchange and literary
translation. PEN members have long been dismayed by the striking dearth
of translated writing in this country. Translations account for less
than three percent of all literary books published annually in the
United States. It is difficult not to connect this phenomenon, in which
we stand apart from almost every other country, with increasing
American cultural and political isolation. A recent anonymous gift has
enabled PEN to create a program of grants to promising translation
projects and to focus greater efforts on raising American awareness of
the extraordinary breadth of literary talent available to us from
beyond our national and linguistic borders. PEN World Voices represents
a major phase in this campaign.
This year’s festival will be the first in what is planned as a series
of annual events that will take on new dimensions as each year’s new
group of writers is assembled. No single festival can be entirely
representative of the vast spectrum of world literature, but we do
hope, from year to year, to be as fully inclusive as all the arbitrary
external factors that affect an event of this magnitude will allow us
to be.
PEN is deeply grateful to the dozens of institutions and hundreds of
individuals whose time, resources, and hard work have made this
Festival possible, many of whom are acknowledged elsewhere in this
Program. PEN is a worldwide organization of writers, editors, and
translators, with a mission to advance literature and defend the free
expression that is its essential prerequisite. This mission depends
upon and radiates out to the much larger community of all those who
read and care about books. We gratefully present this Festival to that
community.
Sincerely,
Esther Allen
Chair, PEN Translation Committee
Co-Director, PEN World Voices Festival
Michael Roberts
Executive Director, PEN American Center
Co-Director, PEN World Voices Festival
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