PEN WORLD VOICES FESTIVAL | A LITERARY SAFARI

This year marks the 8th edition of the PEN World Voices of International Literature Festival. Returning every year since 2004, this major festival has established its place in the hearts and minds of New Yorkers, with the help of the world’s most compelling writers. The 2012 PEN World Voices Festival runs from April 30th to May 6th, featuring scores of writers from Austria, Russia, Germany, Puerto Rico, The Lebanon, Mexico, Spain, Denmark, Israel, Bosnia Herzegovina, Colombia, and the United States.

This event at New York’s legendary Westbeth gallery, titled A Literary Safari, will include the talents of authors Julya Rabinowich, Haykanush Avetisyan, Giannia Braschi, Deborah Dahl Edwardson, Stéphane Hessel & Edgar Morin, Wenguang Huang, Wojciech Jagielski, Etgar Keret, Elias Khoury and many others.

Guests are invited to take an expedition to observe artists in their natural habitat and take a rare peek inside Westbeth Center for the Arts Housing, wander the hallways of this converted industrial space, map in hand, to find an entire evening’s worth of literary events. Audience members will enjoy intimate readings by Festival authors inside the homes of famous Westbeth residents and end the night hobnobbing over cocktails with their favorite authors at the event’s closing party inside Westbeth’s legendary gallery.

“Westbeth, a jumble of five industrial buildings and once the home of Bell Laboratories, opened 41 years ago as the first and largest federally subsidized artists’ colony in the United States. A young architect named Richard Meier remodeled the complex on Bethune Street, not far from where he would build three controversial glass towers. The city’s landmarks commission gave landmark status to the complex on Oct. 25. Westbeth was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 2009. The landmark status means the buildings cannot be torn down or altered without the commission’s approval, and will make it more difficult for a developer to make a play for any of the buildings.” (- The New York Times, Nov 21, 2011) Around half of the residents of the 383 apartment-studios are original tenants still living at Westbeth. Some artists have handed their apartments down to children and grandchildren.

Julya Rabinowich was born in what used to be Leningrad (Saint Petersburg), but has lived in Vienna, since 1977. Apart from her career as a writer she also works as a translator for refugees. Rabinowich has written several plays which have been performed at renowned institutions such as the Schauspielhaus and the Volkstheater in Vienna. Her debut novel Spaltkopf (first published in 2008, and translated into English – Splithead – in 2011) won the Rauriser Literaturpreis 2009. Herznovelle (The Story of my Heart), her second novel, was released in 2011.

For more information on the schedule and other events please visit >> http://www.pen.org/page.php/prmID/1096

VENUE
Westbeth Gallery
Westbeth Center for the Arts
57 Bethune or 155 Bank

Tickets: $15/$10 PEN Members and students with valid ID; Westbeth residents admitted by donation.
For tickets please call (866) 811-4111 or visit www.pen.org