NBCC at PEN World Voices
by David Varno | May-04-2009
Photo copyright © 2009 Beowulf Sheehan/PEN American CenterAs a participant in this year’s PEN World Voices festival, a week-long marathon of 80 events featuring twice as many authors from over 40 countries, the NBCC held a unique role. The panel that took place this past Friday at the Scandinavian House, titled “This Critical Moment,” featured board members Eric Banks and Rigoberto Gonzalez along with past Balakian candidate Laila Lalami, Allisa Valles speaking for Kevin Prufer, and board president Jane Ciabattari serving as moderator.
Each panelist presented on select authors who were in town for World Voices to give readings and lectures, exploring their literary context as well as that of the festival’s programming. Eric Banks discussed the latest generation of German-language literature, and commented that PEN is giving an introduction with this year’s festival to several authors who don’t yet have a wide readership in the states; Rigoberto Gonzalez talked about the three main groups of Mexican (or part-Mexican) writers, and made a plea for fiction writer Álvaro Enrigue to be more widely translated; Laila Lalami explored the many aspects of Nawal El Saadawi; and Alissa Valles discussed the new Basque canon and made the afternoon’s second plea for translation: the poetry of Bernardo Atxaga. Jane Ciabattri concluded with her “notes on Z”: a celebration of Zimbabwean short story writer Pettina Gappah.
Full coverage of the panel, including lengthy quotes from each talk, is available on my earlier posts for Words Without Borders in two parts: Part One, Part Two. Laila Lalami comments on the panel here.
Comments
No Comments yet.
Commenting is not available in this section entry.About the Critical Mass Blog
Commentary on literary criticism, publishing, writing, and all things NBCC related. It's written by independent members of the NBCC Board of Directors (see list of bloggers below).
Subscribe
Categories & Archives
- Adventures in E-Reading |
- Awards |
- 2007 Awards |
- 2008 Awards |
- 30 Books in 30 Days |
- Live announcement of NBCC Awards finalists |
- 2009 Awards |
- What I'm Looking Forward to Reading |
- Conversations with Literary Websites |
- Critical Library |
- Critical Outtakes: Discussions With Writers |
- In Retrospect |
- Industry News |
- Interviews |
- NBCC 35th Anniversary |
- NBCC Featured Review |
- NBCC News |
- Q&A |
- Remembrances |
- NBCC Reads |
- Roundups |
- The Critical I: Conversations With Critics and Review Editors |
- The Next Decade in Book Culture |
- Thinking About New Orleans: A Series About New Orleans Writers Post Katrina |
- Small Press Spotlight
Upcoming Events
NBCC’s Name that Author, Brooklyn Book Festival: September 12th, 2010
NBCC at the Fall for the Book Festival at George Mason University.: September 21st, 2010
NBCC Reads at The Center for Fiction: September 22nd, 2010
NBCC Awards Reading, Minneapolis: November 03rd, 2010
NBCC Awards
- » See all award winners
- » Find out how to submit
- » Read how we select
- » Frequently Asked Questions
- » Awards news