Israeli Writers Participate in PEN World Voices Festival

The Diversity Test: Gender and Literature in Translation
Participants: Lorraine Adams, Alex Epstein, Andrea Levy, and Norman Rush; Moderated by Claire Messud.
April 26

Join novelist Claire Messud and a prestigious panel for a lively debate on gender, culture, and literature in translation. Joining Messud are National Book Award winner Norman Rush, novelist and Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist Lorraine Adams, Orange Prize winner Andrea Levy, and Israeli novelist Alex Epstein, who take on some of the toughest questions facing world literature today

Homesick: Eshkol Nevo in Conversation with Michael Orthofer
Participants: Eshkol Nevo and Michael Orthofer
April 29

Eshkol Nevo is one of Israel’s most exciting new voices. Since 2008, he has been the chosen artist of Israel’s Cultural Excellence Foundation — one of Israel’s highest recognitions for excellence in the arts. He’ll be joined by Michael Orthofer, managing editor at The Complete Review and its Literary Saloon for a discussion about art, home, living under threat, and of course the art of breaking up.

Utopia and Dystopia: Geographies of the Possible
Participants: Inga Kuznetsova, Jonathan Lethem, Eshkol Nevo, and Andrzej Stasiuk
April 30

These writers from Russia, the US, Israel, and Poland will consider these among many questions: Can the novel — in this ironic age — still give voice to such strong feelings about societies? Are ideals themselves— whether uplifting or despairing — incompatible with the novelist’s inquisitive tack? And isn’t every utopia someone else’s dystopia?

Short Stories: Past, Present, and Future
Participants: Preston L. Allen, Alex Epstein, Alexander Hemon, Yiyun Li, and Martin Solares; Moderated by Deborah Treisman
April 30

What virtues and challenges are unique to the short story? How flexible is the form? Join acclaimed practitioners of the form from Bosnia, Israel, China, Mexico, and the United States, for a conversation with The New Yorker fiction editor, Deborah Treisman about the past, present, and future of the short story.

The Translation Slam
Participants: Alex Epstein, Assaf Gavron, Barbara Harshav, Cathy Park Hong, Thomas Pletzinger, and Martin Pollack; Moderated by Michael F. Moore.
April 30

Back for the third year running is the fast, fascinating, and fun Translation Slam. Joining us for tonight’s tussle are Thomas Pletzinger from Germany and Martin Pollack from Austria who will be translating Cathy Park Hong, and Assaf Gavron and Barbara Harshav, who will tackle the work of Alex Epstein in Hebrew. >>More Information

War and the Novel
Participants: Bernardo Atxaga, Filip Florian, Assaf Gavron, and Atiq Rahimi; Moderated by Susan Kunklin.
May 1

Scandinavia House, 58 Park Avenue—Free!

Why have novelists so long been drawn to the subject of war? And how do writers engage with this fraught and complicated subject? Join novelists from Afghanistan, Spain, Romania, and Israel as they discuss these and many other questions.

(More information HERE.)