The PEN World Voices Literary Festival (the Festival) is the premier celebration of international literature in the United States, a landmark event on New York City’s cultural calendar. Each spring, the Festival presents writers from here and around the world in a week of cross-cultural exchanges and events across the city—from lively debates that delve into the most pressing issues of our time to intimate conversations that awaken us to the quiet beauty and power of literature. An engaging program of talks, panels, conversations, and performances draws a vibrant and diverse crowd of socially engaged and intellectually curious New Yorkers eager to be challenged, inspired, and entertained.
Over the years, many of the world’s greatest writers, artists, and public figures have celebrated and helped PEN America in this way, including Toni Morrison, Patti Smith, Sonia Sotomayor, Orhan Pamuk, Steve Martin, Ian McEwan, Wole Soyinka, Trevor Noah, Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie, Colm Toibin, Tom Stoppard, Margaret Atwood, Don DeLillo, Jeffrey Eugenides, Roxane Gay, Masha Gessen, and many others.
The PEN World Voices Literary Festival celebrates its 15th anniversary in 2019, a powerful testament to the continued relevance of its mission to celebrate world literature and combat cultural isolationism. The Festival was founded by Salman Rushdie in New York City after 9/11 to broaden channels of dialogue between the United States and the world.