It is with a heavy heart that we write to you to say that we are cancelling this year’s World Voices Festival.
We could not be prouder of the program we put together this year with the theme “These Truths” promising a chance for the writers of the world to gather together and speak out in this time of disinformation and political turmoil.
However, with events cancelling all around us, and a less rosy picture emerging about the progress of the pandemic, it is now plain that proceeding as planned is neither realistic nor safe for our participants and our audiences.
We will begin issuing refunds for your paid tickets immediately. There is no action needed. Please allow several business days for the credit to appear on your statement. If you are able, we hope you will consider making a donation to PEN America to help us recover from the loss of revenue, upon which this non-profit organization relies. Simply click on the link, and write FESTIVAL in the Notes field.
Right now, we’re working hard to find ways to carry the spirit of the World Voices Festival through these difficult times. The novelists, poets, essayists, translators, and journalists we had hoped to present still have important things to say. Our commitment is in no way diminished, and we are seeking new means to bring their words, their ideas, their artistry directly to you - through a variety of digital means. Please join us on PEN.org and across our digital channels @PENAmerica to find new ways to engage.
If you have any questions or concerns, please don’t hesitate to reach out. And please take care of yourself.
All best,
Chip, Clarisse, Nancy, Nicole, Jenn, Jared, and Viviane
PEN World Voices Festival Team
Margaret Atwood, Roxane Gay, and Jia Tolentino—three generations of hugely admired writers—talk feminism, literary activism, social media mania, and the future of women’s liberation in a world where misogyny is resurging. The Handmaid’s Tale (now also an award-winning television adaptation) and The Testaments (2019 Booker Prize co-winner), Atwood’s dystopian novels where women’s reproduction is enslaved to an authoritarian state, are looking less and less like fiction. Gay’s journalism and bestselling books, including Hunger and Difficult Women, explore the impacts of wide-ranging social issues and personal trauma, while New Yorker staff writer Tolentino’s essay collection Trick Mirror examines how millennials deal with self-deception, the internet as a simulacrum of reality, and other modern quandaries. They speak to New York magazine writer Rebecca Traister, author of Good and Mad: The Revolutionary Power of Women’s Anger.