Inside the PEN World Voices Festival of International Literature this year was a world offering solace and the promise of better things for those able to attend.
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At any given moment it may seem as if Armageddon is creeping up on the horizon. International economies are on the brink of failing. Wars erupt, including those like the genocidal efforts in Dafur. Pandemics seem to be more threatening than the Black Death. Homeland security says threat level is yellow but on some days it looks like red to this writer. The fifth annual PEN World Voices Festival of International Literature, however, offered solace and the promise of better things for those able to attend.
The festival, which featured 160 authors, speaking 18 different languages from 41 countries, featured panel discussions, readings, signings and performances, from April 27 to May 3. “How does the world change, how do we change?” This was the central theme this year for the PEN International World Voices Festival of International Literature. During the event writers explored the many meanings of change and to address an age-old question – evolution or revolution?
Edwidge Danticat. Picture Courtesy of PEN
On Wednesday, April 29, nine acclaimed writers took the stage at Cooper Union’s Great Hall to read in their original languages text that directly addressed this issue of evolution and revolution around the globe. Authors included Muriel Barbery, Nicole Brossard, Narcís Comadira, Jose Dalisay, Edwidge Danticat, Péter Nádas, Sergio Ramírez, Salman Rushdie and Raja Shehadeh.
“I enjoyed the fact that the Festival represented various writers of various languages and backgrounds,” said Kelly Nims, an English professor at Hunter who attended the Evolution/Revolution event on April 29. “This event gave people the opportunity to expand our knowledge of the world. To give English speaking readers the chance to hear literature written in its native language.”
At 8 p.m., the light’s dimmed and Kwame Anthony Appiah, the President of PEN American Center, took the stage. “Willkommen, bienvenue, welcome,” Appiah said enthusiastically to approximately 300 audience members. He also took the opportunity to tell the audience the significance of the PEN organization.
The PEN American Center, the largest branch of PEN international, is a fellowship of writers dedicated to the advancement of literature and the defense of free expression. The PEN American Center is the U.S. branch of the world’s oldest international literary and human rights organization known as International PEN.
Kwame Anthony Appia. Picture Courtesy of PEN
The PEN American Center was founded in 1922 and is the largest of the 144 PEN centers in 101 countries that together compose International PEN. International PEN works to promote friendship and intellectual cooperation among writers everywhere as well as to emphasize the role of literature in the development of mutual understanding and world culture. International PEN focus is to fight for freedom of expression and to act as a powerful voice on behalf of writers harassed, imprisoned and sometimes killed for their views.
Narcís Comadira, from Catalonia, Spain, read first, “Triomf de la vida,” or Triumph of Life. “Vida, tu, ¿d’on sorgeixes?” Comadira began, “¿Quin afany poderós pot desvetllar-te mínima al més imperceptible pósit dur de la pedra?” Speak, life, whence do you surge? What powerful urge can wake your brief core in the most imperceptible hard residue of stone? French, Haitian Creole, and various dialects of Spanish were the languages spoken during this event. Although most authors read in their native languages, some, including Salman Rushdie and Raja Shehadeh, read in English. Shehadeh read from his book, “Palestinian Walks,” about his encounter with a Jewish settler and Rushdie read from “Shalimar the Clown,” an excerpt about a man drawn to a military insurgency.
Edwidge Danticat, the only author to use another author’s work, read “Tourist” and “Boat People” in Haitian Creole by poet Feliz Morisseau-Leroy, who died in 1998. Although “Tourist” was somewhat comedic in the way it addresses tourists who are taking pictures of the poor people in Haiti, “Boat People” addresses migration and the prejudices that many people arriving in the United States on boats had to confront. Danticat believes that if Morisseau-Leroy was around today he would have loved this international festival. Danticat has a special appreciation for “Boat People” because it was written around the same time she came, at 12, from Haiti to the United States, when people in her school were actually called “boat people” regularly.
“Planning started in August with official invitations. Some booked 1 to 2 years in advance. We are an organization that is charged with what challenges are present now,” said Stacy Leigh, the director of the Readers & Writers program, which started out as a literary training program for alternative schools, transforming over time into a producer of programs that bring books and authors to high school students. “There are a lot of logistical stuff behind these events. Such as what is the likelihood that an author will be able to walk from the subway without getting loss. Some don’t read English so a number of authors will be working with an interpretor. These are the types of challenges that have to be addressed and each one is going to need to be payed attention to.”
One problem that the audience was aware of involved the screen behind the authors. It translated into English whatever they were presenting. “I was surprised by the computer screens with the English translation. It was a fine thought, but did not go over too well in practice,” said Nims.
One problem facing literature is the commodification of books. “The fact that books are objects in one country, an accessory in another country,” said Leigh. “It’s a purchase in a capital society. In others they’re status and in, yet, others they’re sources of info. When you have that variety of uses, books are part of, some transaction other than a discussion between the writer and the reader. That transaction is tied to money.”
So what is the next step in the global advancement of literature? For many authors, translation is the key.
Salman Rushdie. PIcture Courtesy of PEN