The World Voices Festival, founded in 2004 by Salman Rushdie, Michael Roberts, and Esther Allen, is PEN America’s celebration of international literature and writers. Honoring our organization’s hundred-year history of uniting writers and readers to celebrate creative expression and the freedom to write for all, the Festival was founded in the wake of 9/11 to counter U.S. isolationism and broaden the channels of dialogue between the United States and the world.

Featuring more than 100 writers from 27 countries, the 2023 festival will celebrate great writing and the power of storytelling against the current headwinds of attacks by those who seek to censor and silence. This gathering of writers from every part of the globe is a potent reminder—in fact, an antidote in an era of censorship—that books drive culture and identity, while empowering and transforming our lives.

Ayad Akhtar, the Pulitzer Prize-winning playwright and PEN America president, is this year’s festival chair, with Marlon James and Ottessa Moshfegh as guest chairs. Each will curate a signature event: Moshfegh will explore what, if anything, writers owe to their audience, and James will discuss a novelist’s journey to and from their second novel. Akhtar will speak with Eboo Patel about sustaining creative expression in an environment of contentious debates. The festival’s keynote, the annual Arthur Miller Freedom to Write Lecture, will be delivered by Ta-Nehisi Coates, who will address the current climate of book bans and censorship.

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This year, we are excited to offer festival wide passes, which will allow the purchaser to attend any event they are interested in, all for one low price.

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