PEN World Voices Festival Goes on Tour, Stops at The Writer’s Center May 2

From May 1-3, 2011, the PEN World Voices Festival, which takes place each spring in New York City, is once again extending the reach of this powerful week-long celebration of literature by taking the Festival on the road with the PEN World Voices Festival Tour. Thirteen up-and-coming international writers will participate in events in twelve cities in a dynamic cross-cultural literary exchange. As the sole tour location in DC, The Writer’s Center hosts Sudanese writer Leila Aboulela, Swedish writer Jonas Hassen Khemiri, and American writer Daniel Orozco in an event moderated by the President of the Pen/Faulkner Board of Directors, Lisa Page.

MONDAY, MAY 2
7pm The Writer’s Center, 4508 Walsh Street, Bethesda, MD, 20815
Jonas Hassen Khemiri, Montecore
Daniel Orozco, Orientation: And Other Stories
Leila Aboulela, Lyrics Alley
Moderated by Lisa Page, President of PEN/Faulkner

Price: Members/Students (with a valid ID) $5; Non-members $10.

Visit this page at www.writer.org for information or to purchase your ticket.
For additional details call 301.654.8664. Seating is limited; please register early. High resolution images of the authors are available upon request.

PEN is working with some of the most esteemed literary centers around the nation—including sister centers PEN/New England and PEN/Faulkner—to reach out to local audiences. In Iowa City, events are being held in collaboration with Prairie Lights and UNESCO City of Literature; in Pittsburgh with the unique literary refuge, City of Asylum; in Minneapolis, the Loft Literary Center; Open Letter Books, the publisher of literary translations, in Rochester; Talking Leaves Books in Buffalo; in Chicago, with 57th Street Bookstore; The Writer’s Center in Washington, D.C., Penn Bookstore in Philadelphia; Harvard Bookstore in Boston; Powell’s Bookstore in Portland; in San Francisco, with the literary journal ZYZZYVA, and The Friends of the San Francisco Library; and Elliot Bay Book Company in Seattle. Established writers such as Sherman Alexie and Aleksandar Hemon have been recruited to help introduce these promising new writers to new audiences.

World Voices Festival convenes more than a 100 of the most exciting and prestigious writers from around the world; with the Festival tour, we seek to further enrich our national dialogue with this diverse and international range of voices. In the wake of September 11, 2001, the unique ability of literature to foster human understanding and empathy is all the more important for articulating and defending peace and justice. In each city of the tour, PEN will pay tribute to readers and writers locally, nationally, and around the globe and demonstrate the necessity of a world in translation.

About PEN American Center
PEN American Center has a membership of 3,400 poets, editors, essayists, novelists, and translators and is the largest of the 141 centers of International PEN, the world’s oldest human rights organization and the oldest international literary society. International PEN was founded in 1921 to dispel national, ethnic, and racial hatreds and to promote understanding among all countries. PEN American Center was founded one year later. www.pen.org.