November 8, 2005 | Cooper Union's Great Hall | NYC

With Edward Albee, Paul Auster, Sandra Cisneros, Don DeLillo, Dave Eggers, Martín Espada, Philip Gourevitch, Jessica Hagedorn, Heidi Julavits, Nicole Krauss, Rick Moody, Walter Mosley, Grace Paley, Emma Reverter, Salman Rushdie, Martha Southgate, and Colson Whitehead

PEN American Center's 2005 State of Emergency event offered a special evening of readings in opposition to United States policies on the treatment of detainees in this country and abroad. A stellar group of writers came together to read and bring national attention to abusive government policies including torture, arbitrary detention, and extraordinary rendition.
 

LISTEN
• Salman Rushdie: Introduction
• Edward Albee on Federico Garcia Lorca
• Paul Auster reads “Route” from Of Being Numerous by George Oppen
• Sandra Cisneros reads “Los Nadies/The Nobodies” from Book of Embraces by Eduardo Galeano
• Don DeLillo reads “Dreaming of Richard” by Janette Belmar from the play Guantánamo
• Dave Eggers reads from The Blindfold’s Eyes: My Journey From Torture to Truth by
Diana Ortiz
• Martín Espada reads “Pastoral of Chile XI” by Raúl Zurita
• Philip Gourevitch reads “Address to the Young Men’s Lyceum of Springfield, Illinois, January 27, 1838” by Abraham Lincoln
• Jessica Hagedorn reads from “Exhibit D,” legal documents from a prisoner at Guantánamo Bay
• Heidi Julavits reads “Some of Us Had Been Threatening Our Friend Colby” from Amateurs by Donald Barthelme
• Nicole Krauss reads from At the Mind’s Limits: Contemplations by a Survivor on Auschwitz and Its Realities by Jean Amery
• Rick Moody reads from The Skin by Curzio Malaparte
• Walter Mosley reads “Hope” by Ariel Dorfman
• Emma Reverter reads “No One Is Alone” by Juan Goytisolo
• Martha Southgate reads “The Colonel” by Carolyn Forché
• Colson Whitehead reads from Blindness by Jose Saramago
• Salman Rushdie reads from Dispatches by Michael Herr