Press Mentions

Author Sigrid Nunez Says Julianne Moore’s The Room Next Door Character Was Based On Her (People, May 5, 2025)

Call Me By Your Name Author André Aciman Almost Didn’t Write That Infamous Peach Scene (People, May 5, 2025)

Why Am I Still Teaching Journalism? (Amitava Kumar, Substack, May 4, 2025)

Jennifer Egan Says Reading George Orwell’s 1984 as a Kid Was ‘a Political Awakening’ (People, May 2, 2025)

How three top novelists are creating and finding joy through literature in times of crisis (Christa Avampato, Medium, May 2, 2025)

Radu Vancu Joins PEN World Voices 2025: A Romanian Voice for Truth and Beauty (Romanian Authors in English, Substack, May 1, 2025)

‘If we silence ourselves, there’s very little to look forward to’: How some writers are resisting censorship (Amanpour., CNN, April 29, 2025)

Guadalupe Nettel on Capturing the (Vaguely) Surreal Side of Contemporary Life (LitHub, April 29, 2025)

The World Voices Festival from PEN America! (For Book Sake, April 28, 2025)

PEN World Voices Festival 2025 Celebrates International Literature (New York Latin Culture Magazine)

Best Things to do in NYC this Week (Time Out New York, April 28, 2025)

7 things to do in NYC this weekend: May 2-4 (NY Daily News, May 1, 2025)

World Voices Festival 2025 takes over The Village! (Village Alliance, April 25, 2025)

Authors to Discuss Post-Apocalyptic Literature at World Voices Festival (The Steampunk Explorer, April 24, 2025)

Things To Do – PEN World Voices Festival (Time Out NY, April 15, 2025)

PEN World Voices Festival Reveals Author Lineup (Kirkus Reviews, April 17, 2025)

The Past and Future of Jamaican Literature (Repeating Islands, April 19, 2025)

20th Anniversary World Voices Festival Brings 80+ Writers from 35+ Countries to NYC ad Los Angeles April 30-May 3

Bestselling Authors and Influential Thinkers Include Lara Aburamadan, André Aciman, Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie, Jennifer Finney Boylan, Fiona Davis, Ava DuVernay, Jennifer Egan, M. Gessen, Sheila Heti, Murray Hill, Siri Hustvedt, Shiori Ito, Stephen Graham Jones, Moisés Kaufman, Dinaw Mengestu, Claire Messud, Lynn Nottage, Sigrid Nunez, Joyce Carol Oates, Jodi Picoult, Ben Rhodes, Burhan Sönmez, Héctor Tobar, Paul Tremblay, Jeff VanderMeer, D.J. Waldie, and Weike Wang

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

April 16, 2025 (New York)

PEN America’s 20th Anniversary World Voices Festival, April 30–May 3, convenes 80+ writers from more than 35 countries for events in New York and Los Angeles that exemplify literature’s ability to bridge human experiences and bring perspective to urgent issues. Honoring PEN America’s history of uniting writers and readers in celebration of creative expression and the freedom to write, the World Voices Festival was co-founded in the aftermath of 9/11 by Salman Rushdie, who serves as an honorary chair this year. The festival facilitated powerful conversations between international literary luminaries at a moment when the United States was sinking into cultural isolationism. For this anniversary, organizers envision the festival as a counternarrative to increasing nationalism and growing social polarization. New York’s Greenwich Village will be abuzz with conversation as writers gather in the neighborhood to address literature’s place in the current moment.

The festival’s accessibly-priced, high-quality literary programming—including discussions, film screenings, and public activations—fills bookstores, schools, parks, and historic venues and locations across both the Village and Los Angeles. The lineup offers a wide range of opportunities—whether for book lovers seeking up-close conversations with bestselling authors or those seeking voices of clarity amidst a surge of authoritarianism.

Director of the World Voices Festival and Literary Programs at PEN America Sabir Sultan said, of the Festival’s range of thematic explorations, “The PEN World Voices Festival is a celebration of stories and books, and of the ways writers capture the possibilities, realities, and fantasies of our lives. These events challenge us to look at our world and reckon with inequity, repression, and censorship. They also invite us to celebrate the magic of novelists, poets, essayists, translators and journalists—the powers of voice and story that are material, wondrous, thought provoking, eye-opening, enchanting and a million other adulatory and expansive adjectives.”

The 2025 World Voices Festival embodies PEN America’s belief that literature is a bulwark against the rising tide of autocratic leaders intent on silencing and censoring. For the opening night on April 30th PEN America Interim Co-CEO Clarisse Rosaz Shariyf moderates The PEN and the State: The Role of Novelists in Times of Political Crisis, featuring Chimamanda Ngozi Adiche, former president of PEN America Jennifer Egan, and President of PEN International Burhan Sönmez. They join to discuss the intersection of art and activism and the question of a writer’s responsibility to respond to the political climate around them.

Numerous other events address rampant threats to free expression at home and abroad:

• Tectonic Theater Project founder Moisés Kaufman (The Laramie Project), Carlyle Brown & Company founder Carlyle Brown (Down in Mississippi), two-time Tony winner Lisa Kron (Fun Home), and Pulitzer Prize-winning moderator Lynn Nottage (Sweat) discuss forces of censorship in American theater (April 30).
• In Los Angeles, former Deputy National Security Advisor Ben Rhodes and UCLA political scientist Lynn Vavreck join moderator Peter Hamby to confront the escalating attacks on democratic norms in the United States and the global forces that echo them (April 30).
• Surviving Autocracy author M. Gessen, human rights and democracy researcher and advocate Yaqiu Wang, and journalist and co-founder of the Russian Independent Media Archive Anna Nemzer delve into the alarming rise of media erasure by authoritarian governments (May 3).
• The closing night discussion on the perils of journalism in an age of state repression brings Rana Ayyub and George Packer into conversation with PEN America interim Co-CEO and Chief Program Officer, Free Expression, Summer Lopez (May 3).

Many discussions will explore gender and power:

• Bestselling authors Jodi Picoult and Fiona Davis examine cases of women’s literary achievements being misappropriated or sidelined, in a conversation moderated by bestselling author Adriana Trigiani (May 1).
• In Los Angeles, a conversation with filmmaker and journalist Shiori Itō and Emmy Award–winning writer, director, and producer Ava DuVernay follows a special screening of the 2024 Oscar-nominated documentary Black Box Diaries (May 1).
• Memoirists Samina Ali and Ariel Gore share their personal, eye-opening experiences with the healthcare system with moderator Tanya Selvaratnam (May 2).
• PEN America President Jennifer Finney Boylan (Cleavage), Meredith Talusan (Fairest), Bishakh Som (Spellbound), Kate Bornstein (A Queer and Pleasant Danger) and Oliver Radclyffe (Frighten the Horses) explore how their experiences within the transgender community have shaped their aesthetics as memoirists, in a time where trans lives and stories are facing increasing political and legislative attacks (May 2).
• Mexican novelist Guadalupe Nettel, Argentinian novelist Gabriela Cabezón Cámara, and Uruguayan author Fernanda Trias discuss a new wave of Latin American literature led by women, with moderator Lily Philpott (May 3).

As borders are ever more violently fortified, the festival gives voice to experiences of immigration and exile:

• Weike Wang (Rental House), Javier Fuentes (Countries of Origin), and PEN America Board Vice President Dinaw Mengestu (Someone Like Us) join for a riveting discussion exploring how immigration and class intersect in America, moderated by writer and curator Anderson Tepper (May 2).
• In Los Angeles, Miss Burma author Charmaine Craig, Palestinian photographer and journalist Lara Aburamadan, and Pulitzer Prize winning writer Héctor Tobar ask: what do we owe our homelands and what happens when we are displaced from them? (May 2).
• Uyghur poet and memoirist Tahir Izgil Hamut and Iraqi American poet Dunya Mikhail discuss how their writing challenges dominant political narratives and preserves stories of displacement, exile, and perseverance with moderator Mojgan Ghazirad (May 3).

Authors convene around questions of literary craft:

• Joyce Carol Oates and Carmen Boullosa discuss revisiting their works in a world vastly different from when they were first released, with Director of the World Voices Festival and Literary Programs at PEN America Sabir Sultan moderating (May 1).
• Cultural critic Soraya Nadia McDonald speaks with authors Sigrid Nunez (The Friend) and André Aciman (Call Me by Your Name) about their experiences with film adaptations (May 2).
• Sheila Heti and Vigdis Hjorth discuss how they transformed the raw material of their lives into creative work with Jenny Niven, Director of the Edinburgh International Book Festival, who serves as moderator (May 2).

Writers examine bold approaches to genre, and genre’s relationship to the urgent stakes of our moment:

• Fernanda Trias (Pink Slime), Pol Guasch (Napalm in the Heart), and Jeff VanderMeer (Absolution) join for an international conversation about the ways post-apocalyptic landscapes lay bare societal hierarchies, raise climate concerns, and both reflect and respond to the tribulations of contemporary life (May 2).
• NPR’s Gabino Iglesias moderates a conversation with horror masters Stephen Graham Jones and Paul Tremblay about subverting horror tropes and pushing the genre in exhilarating new directions (May 2).
• Poet Marie Howe, biologist Ayana Elizabeth Johnson, and author Emily Raboteau convene for a cross-genre moderated conversation by James Tager about writing in response to climate change (May 3).

About PEN America

PEN America stands at the intersection of literature and human rights to protect free expression in the United States and worldwide. We champion the freedom to write, recognizing the power of the word to transform the world. Our mission is to unite writers and their allies to celebrate creative expression and defend the liberties that make it possible. Learn more at pen.org.

Press Contacts

Blake Zidell, Adriana Leshko, and Caitlyn Tella at Blake Zidell & Associates:  [email protected], 917.572.2493; [email protected], 917.294.0544; [email protected], 408.806.2486.

At PEN America: Suzanne Trimel, [email protected], 201-247-5057