The PEN World Voices Festival kicks off in New York City today and though it’s already gotten quite a lot of unintentional publicity due to the protest against awarding Charlie Hebdo the PEN/Toni and James C. Goodale Free Expression Courage Award there is a lot else of interest going on, with Africa being the main focus of the festival, other than the polemics going back and forth over the award.
There are some very interesting events related to Central and Eastern Europe. Firstly, on Tuesday May 7, a discussion devoted to Prague-born modernist H. G. Adler, entitled, “H. G. Adler: A Survivor’s Dual Reverie”, which includes the writer’s son, Jeremy Adler, his English translator Peter Filkins, critics Ruth Franklin and Daniel Mendelsohn.
On Wednesday May 6, there will be a panel entitled, “Armenian Genocide: A Dark Paradigm” in commemoration of the Genocide’s centennial. And on Saturday May 9, you can hear “eccentric Ukrainian artist” Fedor Alexandrovich talk about the conspiracy thriller documentary, The Russian Woodpecker, directed by Chad Gracia, in which he “he unmasks a Chernobyl disaster cover-up amid clouds of war and revolution.”
Then there are a number of translation-related events that also look really interesting.
For the full schedule of events click here
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