Natalie Merchant, whose Nonesuch debut album, Leave Your Sleep, is due out on April 13, will perform songs from the album at the PEN World Voices Festival's PEN Cabaret at New York City's (Le) Poisson Rouge on May 1. This year's PEN Cabaret will also include appearances by Booker Prize winner Ben Okri, Chilean story master Ariel Dorfman, and Georgian writer and performance artist Irakli Kakabadze. The PEN World Voices Festival of International Literature takes place April 26 through May 2.
Natalie Merchant, whose Nonesuch debut album, Leave Your Sleep, is due out on April 13 (available for pre-order in the Nonesuch Store), will perform songs from the album at the PEN World Voices Festival's PEN Cabaret at New York City's (Le) Poisson Rouge on May 1. This year's PEN Cabaret will also include appearances by Booker Prize winner Ben Okri, Chilean story master Ariel Dorfman, and Georgian writer and performance artist Irakli Kakabadze. The PEN World Voices Festival of International Literature takes place April 26 through May 2.
Author Salman Rushdie joined the PEN American Center today to announce the program for the sixth annual festival. Highlights of the festival's myriad events include: readings by Rushdie and many others; discussions about global warming, war reporting, and more; conversations with writers like Richard Ford and Roddy Doyle; a "translation slam"; a unique one-on-one between Patti Smith and Jonathan Lethem; and a lecture by Sherman Alexie examining the roles and responsibilities of writers in the digital age.
Steven L. Isenberg, Executive Director of the PEN American Center says, “This year’s program exemplifies the vibrancy and power of literature, and the convictions, imagination, and skill that capture attention and keep us reading.”
This year PEN celebrates the 50th anniversary of its campaigns on behalf of persecuted writers. For five decades PEN has been instrumental in freeing hundreds of writers imprisoned for their words, and today PEN continues to fight for writers around the globe. To highlight this ongoing work—and as a reminder that the silencing of writers in one country robs the entire world of their voices—there will be an empty chair onstage at each of this year’s Festival programs, dedicated to one of our colleagues currently in prison somewhere in the world.
For a full schedule of Festival events and a complete list of participating authors, visit pen.org/festival. For more upcoming appearances from Natalie Merchant, including a free event at the Barnes & Noble in New York's Union Square and a European tour, visit nonesuch.com/on-tour.
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