tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-37759493508476207422024-03-14T02:05:45.727-04:00PEN AmericaA Blog for Writers and ReadersUnknownnoreply@blogger.comBlogger227125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3775949350847620742.post-74580307082233761792011-11-02T11:28:00.001-04:002011-11-02T12:21:23.305-04:00Don't miss: The 'Chindia' Dialogues<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;">Coming up this weekend: <a href="http://asiasociety.org/"><b>Asia Society</b></a> will bring 20 leading authors and critical thinkers from China and India to NYC to engage in vital literary and cultural dialogue, as part of the inaugural <a href="http://asiasociety.org/arts/literature/inaugural-asian-arts-ideas-forum-chindia-dialogues"><b>Asian Arts & Ideas Forum: The 'Chindia' Dialogues</b></a>. Here are two events not to miss:</span><br />
<div>
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div>
<b><a href="http://asiasociety.org/calendars/underground-undercover-literary-reportage"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">UNDERGROUND & UNDERCOVER: LITERARY REPORTAGE</span></a></b><br />
<b style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;">Friday, November 4, 12:30-2:00 PM</b><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;">Free. No reservation required. </span><br />
<b style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;">Featuring <a href="http://www.newschool.edu/lang/faculty.aspx?id=3862">Siddhartha Deb</a>, <a href="http://www.randomhouse.com/book/204464/china-in-ten-words-by-yu-hua#abouttheauthor">Yu Hua</a>, <a href="http://www.allenandunwin.com/default.aspx?page=311&author=592">Murong Xuecun</a>, and <a href="http://www.pen.org/author.php/prmAID/1274/prmID/2126">Zha Jianying</a></b></div>
<div>
<div>
<div>
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: left; margin-right: 1em; text-align: left;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><img border="0" src="http://asiasociety.org/files/imagecache/medium/111014_artsandideas_orangebackground.jpg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;" /></span></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #999999; line-height: 14px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: small;">©2011 Asia Society</span></span></td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;">Literary reporters bear witness to the effects of modernization –</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;">
from massive internal migration and the commercialization of culture to the
ravages of corruption and environmental degradation – with
novelist/essayist </span><b style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><a href="http://www.randomhouse.com/book/204464/china-in-ten-words-by-yu-hua#abouttheauthor">Yu Hua</a></b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;"> (</span><i style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><a href="http://www.randomhouse.com/book/204464/china-in-ten-words-by-yu-hua#aboutthebook">China In Ten Words</a>)</i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;">; author and media
critic </span><b style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><a href="http://www.pen.org/author.php/prmAID/1274/prmID/2126">Zha Jianying</a> </b><i style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;">(<a href="http://www.amazon.com/Tide-Players-Movers-Shakers-Rising/dp/1595586202">Tide Players</a>,</i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;"> and a participant in PEN's 2011 World Voices Festival event: </span><a href="http://www.pen.org/viewmedia.php/prmMID/5677/prmID/2126" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;">China in Two Acts</a><i style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;">)</i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;">; </span><b style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><a href="http://www.newschool.edu/lang/faculty.aspx?id=3862">Siddhartha Deb</a></b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;">, who
survived a stint as a “cybercoolie” at a call center in Mumbai to write </span><i style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><a href="http://www.newyorker.com/online/blogs/books/2011/08/siddhartha-debs-publishing-odyssey.html">The Beautiful and the Damned</a></i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;">; and China’s pioneering cyber
novelist-turned-investigative journalist </span><b style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><a href="http://www.allenandunwin.com/default.aspx?page=311&author=592">Murong Xuecun</a></b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;"> (best-selling
novel, </span><span style="color: #030303; font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><i><a href="http://www.allenandunwin.com/default.aspx?page=94&book=9781741755541">Leave Me Alone: A Novel of Chengdu</a></i></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;">), who reported on a mafia-style “direct-selling” pyramid scam
in Jiangxi that exposed the inequities in China's capitalistic
development. </span><o:p style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;"></o:p><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;">Moderated
by </span><b style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><a href="http://orvilleschell.com/">Orville Schell</a></b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;">, Director of Asia
Society’s Center for U.S-China Relations. </span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><br /><b>Asia Society</b><b> </b>is located at 725 Park Avenue at 70th Street (directions)<span class="apple-style-span"><span style="float: none;">│212-517-ASIA</span></span><span class="apple-style-span"><span style="float: none;">│<a href="http://www.asiasociety.org/artsandideas">www.AsiaSociety.org/artsandideas</a></span></span></span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><span class="apple-style-span"><br /></span></span><br />
<a href="http://asiasociety.org/calendars/amitav-ghosh-and-jonathan-spence-%E2%80%93-dialogue"><b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">AMITAV GHOSH IN CONVERSATION WITH JONATHAN SPENCE</span></b></a><br />
<b style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;">Thursday, November 3, 6:30-8:00 PM</b><br />
<a href="https://tickets.asiasociety.org/public/auto_choose_ga.asp?area=31" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;">Tickets purchasable here</a><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;">. $15 (non-members), $12 (students/seniors), $10 (members)</span></div>
<div>
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: left; margin-right: 1em; text-align: left;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><img alt="Jonathan Spence (L) and Amitav Ghosh (R). " height="155" src="http://asiasociety.org/files/imagecache/medium/spence%20and%20ghosh.jpg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;" width="200" /></span></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #999999; font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: small; line-height: 14px;">©2011 Asia Society</span></td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 0in;">
<div class="MsoNormal" style="display: inline !important; font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 0in;">
</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="display: inline !important; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 0in;">
<div style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-weight: normal;">
<span class="Apple-style-span"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">
</span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="display: inline !important; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 0in;">
<div style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;">
<span class="apple-style-span" style="font-weight: normal;">One
of India’s best known writers, </span><a href="http://www.amitavghosh.com/"><b>Amitav
Ghosh</b></a><span class="apple-style-span" style="font-weight: normal;">, joins leading Chinese scholar and
Sterling Professor of History at Yale </span><b><a href="http://www.nybooks.com/contributors/jonathan-d-spence/">Jonathan Spence</a><span class="apple-style-span"> </span></b><span class="apple-style-span" style="font-weight: normal;">to discuss Ghosh’s landmark
historical novel, </span><i style="font-weight: normal;"><a href="http://www.riverofsmoke.com/">River of Smoke</a> </i><span class="apple-style-span" style="font-weight: normal;">(Farrar, Strauss & Giroux,
October 2011), the Sino-Indian relations during the Opium Wars, and the
relevance of the legacy of capitalism and colonialism to Asia’s emerging role
in the 21st Century. Introduced by </span><a href="http://orvilleschell.com/"><b>Orville
Schell</b></a><span class="apple-style-span" style="font-weight: normal;">, Director of Asia Society’s Center
for U.S.-China Relations. </span></div>
<div style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-weight: normal;">
<b>Asia Society </b>is located at 725 Park Avenue at 70th Street (directions)<span class="apple-style-span"><span style="float: none;">│212-517-ASIA</span></span><span class="apple-style-span"><span style="float: none;">│<a href="http://www.asiasociety.org/artsandideas">www.AsiaSociety.org/artsandideas</a></span></span></div>
<div style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif; margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 0in;">
</div>
<div style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;">
<b><br /></b></div>
<div>
<b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">For a complete list of 'Chindia' events, visit <a href="http://asiasociety.org/calendar">Asia Society's Calendar</a> </span></b></div>
</div>
</div>
</div>
</div>
</div>
</div>Leilyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17697461020459675000noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3775949350847620742.post-86397447232597060632011-11-01T15:40:00.000-04:002011-11-02T12:20:24.714-04:00Brian Dettmer: Solo Show in ChicagoIf you happen to be in the Chicago area between Nov. 4 through 20, don't miss <i>Paper Back</i>, <a href="http://briandettmer.com/">Brian Dettmer's</a> solo show at the <a href="http://packergallery.com/dettmer4/">Packer Shopf Gallery</a>:<br />
<div>
<br /></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-JxT1BCA5TFA/TrBH_OPB13I/AAAAAAAAAAg/ZEJWSwwFfCo/s1600/dettmer.bmp" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="293" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-JxT1BCA5TFA/TrBH_OPB13I/AAAAAAAAAAg/ZEJWSwwFfCo/s400/dettmer.bmp" width="400" /></a></div>
<div>
<br />
<div>
<br /></div>
<div>
Here's a quotation from Brian's artist's statement:</div>
<div>
<br /></div>
<i>The book’s intended function has decreased and the form remains linear in a non-linear world. By altering physical forms of information and shifting preconceived functions, new and unexpected roles emerge. This is the area I currently operate in. Through meticulous excavation or concise alteration I edit or dissect communicative objects or systems such as books, maps, tapes and other media. The medium’s role transforms. Its content is recontextualized and new meanings or interpretations emerge.</i></div>
<div>
<br />
<div>
Brian's art graced the cover and inner pages of <i><a href="http://www.pen.org/page.php/prmID/150">PEN America: The Good Books</a>.</i> Learn more about his surgical processes by watching this <i><a href="http://www.cbsnews.com/video/watch/?id=7366166n&tag=mncol;lst;1">CBS Evening News</a></i><a href="http://www.cbsnews.com/video/watch/?id=7366166n&tag=mncol;lst;1"> report</a> and by reading <a href="http://www.newyorker.com/online/blogs/books/2011/03/postmodern-deconstruction-1.html">"Postmodern Deconstruction"</a> from <i>The New Yorker.</i></div>
<div>
<i><br /></i></div>
<div>
<br /></div>
</div>Leilyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17697461020459675000noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3775949350847620742.post-72534861213507353352011-11-01T12:12:00.002-04:002011-11-02T12:19:44.880-04:00New Members New BooksTonight PEN will be welcoming its newest members at <a href="http://www.pen.org/viewmedia.php/prmMID/5265/prmID/1873">PowerHouse Arena</a>. Among them are poets Sandra Beasley, whose poem <a href="http://www.poetryfoundation.org/poetrymagazine/poem/236982">"Unit of Measure"</a> is a must-read, and Terrence A. Hayes, a judge of this year's PEN/Joyce Osterweil Award for Poetry. Also, check out an interview with new member Teju Cole on his novel <i><a href="http://www.pbs.org/newshour/art/blog/2011/03/conversation-teju-cole.html">Open City</a>, </i>and an excerpt from frequent Festival participant, Peter Godwin's <a href="http://www.pen.org/viewmedia.php/prmMID/5993">The Fear: Robert Mugabe and the Martyrdom of Zimbabwe</a>.<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />Leilyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17697461020459675000noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3775949350847620742.post-38111438862136254062011-11-01T10:18:00.000-04:002011-11-02T12:18:54.547-04:00PEN Contributors Featured at AAWW Literary Festival<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;">
The Asian American Writers Workshop Literary Festival happened this weekend, and some of PEN America’s favorite authors were honored!</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;">
Frequent contributor Jessica Hagedorn received the Lifetime Achievement Award. Check out <a href="http://www.pen.org/page.php/prmID/2075" saprocessedanchor="true" style="color: #1155cc;" target="_blank">her response</a> for issue 14’s forum.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;">
Favorite poet Kimiko Hahn, recipient of the <a href="http://www.pen.org/viewmedia.php/prmMID/2432" saprocessedanchor="true" style="color: #1155cc;" target="_blank">2008 PEN/Voelker Award for Poetry</a>, was honored for her collection <i>Toxic Flora</i>.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;">
Check out Amitava Kumar’s essay, “<a href="http://www.pen.org/viewmedia.php/prmMID/4802" saprocessedanchor="true" style="color: #1155cc;" target="_blank">A Collaborator in Kashmir</a>” from PEN America Issue 10, and support him at the festival this weekend—his book <i>A Foreigner Carrying in the Crook of His Arm a Tiny Bomb</i> won the nonfiction award.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;">
For more information about the prizewinners and the festival <a href="http://pageturnerfest.org/awards" saprocessedanchor="true" style="color: #1155cc;" target="_blank">click here</a>. </div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;">
<img alt="hagedorn_jessica2.jpg" src="https://mail.google.com/mail/u/0/?ui=2&ik=1e2a824f17&view=att&th=1335aa514de19d1c&attid=0.1&disp=thd&realattid=f_gufmyof00&zw" /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;">
(credit: <span style="line-height: 15px;">Marion Ettlinger)</span></div>Leilyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17697461020459675000noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3775949350847620742.post-72742995928098563612011-06-16T11:49:00.012-04:002011-06-18T22:57:51.707-04:00The Good Books<span class="Apple-style-span">Selections from <a href="http://www.pen.org/page.php/prmID/150"><i>PEN America 14: The Good Books</i></a> are now online! Here are a few of things you can check out over at <a href="http://www.pen.org/">PEN.org</a>:<br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">Forum: The Good Books<br /></span>Welcome to the World's Greatest Book Swap: writers sharing books that they love--what could be better? We were blown away by the thoughtful responses we received, and by how many! Over fifty writers participated in our virtual swap. We've posted a few, with more to come. For now, have a look at <a href="http://www.pen.org/viewmedia.php/prmMID/6029/prmID/1865">Maurice Berger</a> on Roland Barthes's <span style="font-style: italic;">Mythologies </span>and Barack Obama; <a href="http://www.pen.org/viewmedia.php/prmMID/6027/prmID/1865">Srikanth Reddy</a> on <span style="font-style: italic;">Chinese Tales</span> and translating a translated translation; <a href="http://www.pen.org/viewmedia.php/prmMID/6019/prmID/1865">Rabih Alameddine</a> on <span style="font-style: italic;">The Book of Disquiet</span> and the many heteronyms of Fernando Pessoa.<br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">The 1986 PEN Congress, 25 years later<br /></span>We culled through almost 3,000 pages of previously unpublished transcripts to bring you highlights from a literary event spearheaded by Norman Mailer and featuring Arthur Miller, Nadine Gordimer, Gunter Grass, Toni Morrison, Czeslaw Milosz, and many more. (Check out Rhoda Koenig's long write-up of the event in <a href="http://books.google.com/books?id=9OcCAAAAMBAJ&pg=PA40&lpg=PA40&dq=1986+pen+congress+ny+magazine+norman+mailer&source=bl&ots=nqFq0S-4pK&sig=ZbRcdMFZkqoKtbFJz06btLeKzAY&hl=en&ei=UjX6TdaaJsbY0QGfvcmOAw&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=result&resnum=2&ved=0CCQQ6AEwAQ#v=onepage&q&f=false"><span style="font-style: italic;">New York Magazine</span></a> for some of the glamor and gossip surrounding the '86 Congress.)<br /><br />Among the pieces we included is one we call "<a href="http://www.pen.org/viewmedia.php/prmMID/6017/prmID/1865">From Voice to Voice</a>," in which remarks by Saul Bellow touch off responses from Allen Ginsberg, Nadine Gordimer, Susan Sontag--but enough with my name-dropping, go </span><a href="http://www.pen.org/viewmedia.php/prmMID/6017/prmID/1865">have a look yourself</a><span class="Apple-style-span">. And make sure to read "<a href="http://www.pen.org/viewmedia.php/prmMID/6014/prmID/1865">From the Floor</a>," too, in which Grace Paley and Margaret Atwood protest the under-representation of women writers at the Congress (and Norman Mailer offers his perhaps inflammatory rebuttal).<br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">World Voices </span><br />The issue also features fiction, poetry, and essays by some of the participants in this year's PEN World Voices Festival, including <a href="http://www.pen.org/viewmedia.php/prmMID/6016/prmID/1865">Marcelo Figueras</a>, <a href="http://www.pen.org/viewmedia.php/prmMID/6013/prmID/1865">Asaf Schurr</a>, <a href="http://www.pen.org/viewmedia.php/prmMID/6026/prmID/1865">Najat El Hachmi</a>. And there are three essays from <span style="font-style: italic;"><a href="http://www.amazon.com/Finding-Words-Inspiration-Celebrity-Breaking/dp/0771013698">Finding the Words</a>, </span>an anthology compiled by our sister chapter <a href="http://www.pencanada.ca/">PEN Canada</a>: Pasha Malla & Moez Surani assemble an "<a href="http://www.pen.org/viewmedia.php/prmMID/6023/prmID/1865">Ethical Code for Writers</a>," Alain de Botton revisits places of unexpected inspiration in "<a href="http://www.pen.org/viewmedia.php/prmMID/6025/prmID/1865">On Writing</a>," and Madeleine Thien ghost-hunts through Cambodia and Vietnam in "<a href="http://www.blogger.com/%22">Photocopies of Photocopies: On Bao Ninh</a>."<br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">Artwork</span><br />What's the sound of a sword cutting into a book? A book being sliced? Paper falling? <span style="font-weight: bold;font-size:85%;">ZAK, SHAKA, BARA BARA</span>. Check out <a href="http://www.pen.org/viewmedia.php/prmMID/6037/prmID/1865"><span style="font-style: italic;">Book</span></a>, a great comic by Yuichi Yokoyama with awesome onomatopoeic translations by Taro Nettleton. There's more book slicing and dicing to be seen in the sculptures of <a href="http://briandettmer.com/">Brian Dettmer</a> (our wonderful cover artist), and some quotation re-appropriation by <a href="http://www.jennyholzer.com/">Jenny Holzer</a>.<span style="font-weight: bold;"><br /><span style="font-size:85%;"><br /></span></span><span style="font-size:100%;">As usual, you can find all of this and more if you<a href="http://www.pen.org/page.php/prmID/219"> subscribe</a><a href="http://www.pen.org/page.php/prmID/219"> to <span style="font-style: italic;">PEN America</span></a> or <a href="http://www.pen.org/viewmedia.php/prmMID/5992/prmID/602">purchase</a><a href="http://www.pen.org/viewmedia.php/prmMID/5992/prmID/602"> </a><span style="font-style: italic;"><a href="http://www.pen.org/viewmedia.php/prmMID/5992/prmID/602">a copy</a> of the journal.</span></span></span>Leilyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17697461020459675000noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3775949350847620742.post-77740072412060046442011-06-08T11:43:00.012-04:002011-06-08T14:04:20.811-04:00Don DeLillo's Short Stories<a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-ZzX_TMq83l4/Te-3puR8j2I/AAAAAAAABQI/URCloHaZN9o/s1600/delillo_NYT_1998.JPG" onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}"><img style="float:left; margin:0 10px 10px 0;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 207px; height: 320px;" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-ZzX_TMq83l4/Te-3puR8j2I/AAAAAAAABQI/URCloHaZN9o/s320/delillo_NYT_1998.JPG" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5615909187780120418" /></a>Earlier this week, The Millions <a href="http://www.themillions.com/2011/06/new-delillo.html">reported</a> that <a href="http://www.blogger.com/www.PEN.org/delillo">Don Delillo</a> would be releasing his first ever collection of short stories this November, <a href="http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/1451655843/ref=nosim/themillions-20"><i>The Angel Esmeralda: Nine Stories</i></a>. The stories are drawn from the years 1979-2011; many of them first appeared in <i>Esquire</i>, <i>The New Yorker</i>, and<i> Harper's</i>. (You can see a full list of Delillo's short fiction <a href="http://www.perival.com/delillo/ddstories.html">here</a>.)<br /><div><br /></div><div>Among the stories is "<a href="http://www.pen.org/viewmedia.php/prmMID/5280/prmID/1865">Human Moments in World War III</a>," which was reprinted in <i><a href="http://www.pen.org/viewmedia.php/prmMID/5299/prmID/1502">PEN America 13: Lovers </a></i>after DeLillo <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m7sWg7KbA-A">received</a> the PEN/Saul Bellow Award for Achievement in American Fiction last year (the story first appeared in <i>Esquire</i> in 1983).</div><div><span class="Apple-style-span"><span class="Apple-style-span"><br />The story was accompanied by </span>PEN <a href="http://www.pen.org/viewmedia.php/prmMID/5442/prmID/1865">Q&A</a> with DeLillo, in which he talks about Bellow, American fiction, technology, the role of the writer, and more. <span class="Apple-style-span">You can read the opening of </span>"Human Moments in World War III" <a href="http://www.pen.org/viewmedia.php/prmMID/5280">here</a>; the Q&A is </span><a href="http://www.pen.org/viewmedia.php/prmMID/5442/prmID/1865">here</a><span class="Apple-style-span">.</span></div>Shelbyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14347572853066449733noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3775949350847620742.post-29314576251806898952011-06-01T12:15:00.012-04:002011-06-01T16:26:46.556-04:00Praise for Arvind Krishna Mehrotra<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-yvD0pv6gukQ/Tead5p-tgmI/AAAAAAAAAAU/W5qT0hkdU5I/s1600/Arvind.jpg"><img style="float: right; margin: 0pt 0pt 10px 10px; cursor: pointer; width: 165px; height: 200px;" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-yvD0pv6gukQ/Tead5p-tgmI/AAAAAAAAAAU/W5qT0hkdU5I/s200/Arvind.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5613347599410889314" border="0" /></a><br />In <span style="font-style: italic;">The New York Times Book Review</span> this past Sunday there's a great piece by August Kleinzahler, <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2011/05/29/books/review/book-review-songs-of-kabir-by-translated-by-arvind-krishna-mehrotra.html?_r=1">"Rebirth of a Poet,"</a> which praises Arvind Krishna Mehrotra's translation of <span style="font-style: italic;">Songs of Kabir</span>. More so than his predecessors, Mehrotra manages to "[capture] the ferocity and improvisational energy of Kabir's poetry."<br /><br />Kleinzahler includes quotations from the poems "Friend" and "It's a Mess," both of which were included in <span style="text-decoration: underline;"></span><a style="font-style: italic;" href="http://www.pen.org/viewmedia.php/prmMID/4204/prmID/1659">PEN America 11: Make Believe</a>, and read by Paul Auster during <a href="http://penamerica.blogspot.com/2009/10/subscription-offer-launch-party.html">the issue's launch party</a>.<br /><br />Arvind Krishna Mehrotra was a recipient of a <a href="http://www.pen.org/page.php/prmID/396">PEN Translation Fund Grant</a> in 2009, the same year that he was nominated for the chair of Professor of Poetry at the University of Oxford, alongside Ruth Padel and Derek Walcott. (<a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2009/05/26/books/26poet.html">Here's a <span style="font-style: italic;">Times</span> article about the unusually controversial race.</a>)<br /><br />The <a href="http://www.pen.org/page.php/prmID/396">PEN Translation Fund</a> provides grants to support the translation of book-length works of fiction, creative nonfiction, drama, and poetry that have not previously appeared in English or have appeared only in egregiously flawed translation. Read more about PEN's Translation Committee <a href="http://www.pen.org/page.php/prmID/154">here</a>.<br /><br />If you haven't already, check out the <a href="http://www.pen.org/page.php/prmID/1881">online feature</a> for <span style="text-decoration: underline;"></span><a style="font-style: italic;" href="http://www.pen.org/viewmedia.php/prmMID/4204/prmID/1659">PEN America 11: Make Believe</a>. You can purchase the issue and any of our other issues, or become a subscriber, by clicking <a href="http://www.pen.org/page.php/prmID/219">here</a>.<br /><br /><span style="font-size:85%;">(Photograph of Arvind Krishna Mehrotra courtesy of <a href="http://www.telegraphindia.com/1090531/jsp/7days/story_11042444.jsp">The Telegraph</a>.)</span>Leilyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17697461020459675000noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3775949350847620742.post-49209009973669926882011-05-23T12:38:00.006-04:002011-05-23T13:15:05.259-04:00The Great Global Book SwapThe launch event for <a href="http://www.pen.org/viewmedia.php/prmMID/5992/prmID/602"><span style="font-style: italic;">PEN America 14: The Good Books</span></a> is now online. <a href="http://penamerica.blogspot.com/search/label/Colum%20McCann">Colum McCann</a> kicked it off by reading <a href="http://penamerica.blogspot.com/search?q=alameddine">Rabih Alameddine</a>’s lovely contribution to the forum, in which Rabih imagines bringing <span style="font-style: italic;">The Book of Disquiet</span> to a hotel in Lisbon.<br /><br />After Colum’s reading, I spoke to <a href="http://www.pen.org/author.php/prmAID/1272/prmID/2126">Leila Aboulela</a>, <a href="http://www.pen.org/author.php/prmAID/1273/prmID/2126">Nathacha Appanah</a>, and <a href="http://www.pen.org/author.php/prmAID/1289/prmID/2126">Rahul Bhattacharya</a> about the books each of them would bring to their own imaginary book swaps. Leila brought Tayeb Salih’s <a href="http://www.nybooks.com/books/imprints/classics/the-wedding-of-zein/"><span style="font-style: italic;">The Wedding of Zein</span></a> (which she has read multiple times in both Arabic and English<span style="font-style: italic;">—</span>sometimes wanting to read it in one language, sometimes preferring the other), Nathacha brought <a href="http://www.amazon.com/Beyond-Despair-Lectures-Conversation-Philip/dp/0880641509"><span style="font-style: italic;">Beyond Despair</span></a>, three lectures by Aharon Appelfeld (who, as Nathacha noted, was born in what is now the Ukraine with German as his first language but chose to write in Hebrew), and Rahul brought <a href="http://www.amazon.com/Chronicle-Foretold-Gabriel-Garcia-Marquez/dp/0345310020"><span style="font-style: italic;">Chronicle of a Death Foretold</span></a>, by Gabriel García Márquez (Rahul’s reading of the book's conclusion was one of the highlights of the event).<br /><br />You can watch the whole thing below:<br /><br /><iframe src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/P_A7Y2sIpDs" allowfullscreen="" width="560" frameborder="0" height="349"></iframe><br /><br />You can also now order both the <a href="http://www.pen.org/viewmedia.php/prmMID/5992/prmID/602">print edition</a> and the <a href="http://www.amazon.com/PEN-America-14-Books-ebook/dp/B0051WVE3O">Kindle edition</a> of <span style="font-style: italic;">PEN America 14: The Good Books</span>. Stay tuned for highlights from the issue, coming soon.<span class="Apple-style-span" style="border-collapse: separate; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: normal; orphans: 2; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px;font-family:'Times New Roman';font-size:medium;" ><div style="color:transparent;"><span style="font-style: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;font-family:Arial;font-size:11pt;color:transparent;" ></span></div></span>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3775949350847620742.post-35696472111582909222011-04-25T15:06:00.003-04:002011-04-25T15:30:21.367-04:00Friday event for PEN America 14: The Good BooksAs I mentioned last week, the first copies of <span style="font-style: italic;">PEN America 14: The Good Books</span> arrived in New York today. We'll have excerpts to read online after the festival is over, but if you're in New York, you'll find copies at select World Voices events -- including "<a href="http://www.pen.org/viewmedia.php/prmMID/5717/prmID/2126">The Great Global Book Swap</a>," a reading and conversation we're holding on Friday in connection with the new issue.<br /><br />For the Friday event, <a href="http://www.pen.org/author.php/prmAID/1272/prmID/2126">Leila Aboulela</a>, <a href="http://www.pen.org/author.php/prmAID/1273/prmID/2126">Nathacha Appanah</a>, <a href="http://www.pen.org/author.php/prmAID/1276/prmID/2126">Mario Bellatín</a>, and <a href="http://www.pen.org/author.php/prmAID/1289/prmID/2126">Rahul Bhattacharya</a> have chosen books they read in translation that meant a great deal to them as readers and writers. They will read short excerpts from their selections and discuss why they chose the books they did -- and we'll also discuss the larger subject of literature in translation around the world. Collectively, our Friday panelists have lived in France, India, Mexico, Mauritius, Qatar, Scotland, Sudan, and at least one or two other places as well.<br /><br />This is a live version of our new issue's forum, in which over 50 writers (among them: Madison Smartt Bell, Amitava Kumar, Yiyun Li, Karen Russell, Lynne Tillman, and many more) imagine they've been invited to a great global book swap, and must bring one book in translation. There are many wonderful choices beautifully explained, and we'll be sharing a number of those pieces here and at <a href="http://www.PEN.org">PEN.org</a> in the weeks to come.<br /><br />In the meantime, I hope you can join us on Friday. Here are the full details:<br /><br /><strong>When:</strong> Friday, April 29<br /><strong>Where:</strong> Scandinavia House, 58 Park Ave., New York City<br /><strong>What time:</strong> 2–3:30 p.m.<br /><br />With <a href="http://www.pen.org/author.php/prmAID/1272/prmID/2126">Leila Aboulela</a>, <a href="http://www.pen.org/author.php/prmAID/1273/prmID/2126">Nathacha Appanah</a>, <a href="http://www.pen.org/author.php/prmAID/1276/prmID/2126">Mario Bellatín</a>, and <a href="http://www.pen.org/author.php/prmAID/1289/prmID/2126">Rahul Bhattacharya</a><br />Free and open to the public. No reservations required.<br /><em><br />Co-sponsored by Scandinavia House and </em>PEN America <hr /> <p><br />Imagine you are invited to a great global book swap and have to bring just one beloved book originally written in a foreign tongue: what would it be? Join five eminent writers who have trotted the globe and lived everywhere from Mexico to Mauritius, India to Sudan, for a reading and a talk about the works of translation that enriched and changed their lives.</p>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3775949350847620742.post-66087059102165191712011-04-22T14:33:00.004-04:002011-04-25T15:30:21.369-04:00PEN World Voices next week!Issue #14 of <a href="http://www.pen.org/journal"><span style="font-style: italic;">PEN America</span></a> will arrive on Monday -- with copies going out to subscribers, PEN members, and bookstores shortly after -- along with news here about all the great stuff that's in it. In the meantime, a few highlights from the <a href="http://www.pen.org/page.php/prmID/1096">PEN World Voices Festival of International Literature</a>, happening in New York City all next week.<br /><br />These are ticketed events with limited seating, so if you're interested you should act soon. There are also many free events, next week; have a look at <a href="http://www.pen.org/page.php/prmID/2108">the whole schedule</a>.<br /><br />*<br /><br /><a href="http://www.pen.org/viewmedia.php/prmMID/5676/prmID/2126"><span style="font-weight: bold;">Revolutionaries in the Arab World</span><br /></a><br />Wednesday, April 27, 7:30 p.m.<br />92nd Street Y, Unterberg Poetry Center<br /><br />Hear from experts and on-the-ground bloggers how social media and citizen journalism galvanize the revolution. In the borderless world of the Internet, where revolutionary ideas spread at lightning speed, will other despotic regimes collapse? Which ones? And how does an autocracy transition into a democracy, and at what cost? Alex Nunns, editor of <span style="font-style: italic;">Tweets from Tahrir</span> -- a collection of key tweets from the activists who brought heady days of revolution to Egypt in early 2011 -- will be joined by Palestinian author/journalist Rula Jebreal (<span style="font-style: italic;">Miral</span>), blogger Issandr El Amrani (<span style="font-style: italic;">The Arabist</span>), Moroccan writer Abdellah Taia, and Moroccan-Dutch writer Adbelkader Benali to tackle these urgent questions.<br /><br /><a href="https://www.ovationtix.com/trs/pe/8913975">Tickets</a>: $20/$15 PEN Members, students with valid ID.<br /><br />*<br /><br /><a href="http://www.pen.org/viewmedia.php/prmMID/5677/prmID/2126"><span style="font-weight: bold;">China in Two Acts</span></a><br /><br />Thursday, April 28, 7 p.m.<br />The Cooper Union, Great Hall<br /><br />Born in Beijing and educated in the United States, New Yorker contributor Zha Jianying delivers unique insight into the rapidly changing world inside China, including the plights of the country's best-known artist Ai Wei Wei and Nobel peace Prize winner and political prisoner Liu Xiaobo. In a 30-minute presentation, Zha sheds light on the polarized political order and the cultural forces that are shaping the world’s most populous nation. Following Zha’s remarks, a panel of journalists and writers join her on stage for a lively debate of her assertions.<br /><br /><a href="https://www.ovationtix.com/trs/pe/8932335">Tickets</a>: $15/$10 PEN Members, students with valid ID.<br /><br />Note: The Chinese governemnt has barred Liao Yiwu from attending the festival. <a href="http://www.pen.org/viewmedia.php/prmMID/5862/prmID/172">Read more here</a>.<br /><br />*<br /><br /><a href="http://www.pen.org/viewmedia.php/prmMID/5679/prmID/2126"><span style="font-weight: bold;">Poetry: The Second Skin</span><br /></a>Friday, April 29, 7:30 pm<br />92nd Street Y, Unterberg Poetry Center<br /><br />An evening of poetry and music curated and emceed by Laurie Anderson. With a stellar line-up of international poets, including John Burnside (Scotland), Ernesto Cardenal (Nicaragua), David-Dephy Gogibedashvili (Georgia), Hasina Gul (Pakistan), Yusef Komunyakaa (US), Juan Carlos Mestre (Spain), Joachim Sartorius (Germany), and Pia Tafdrup (Denmark).<br /><br />Tickets: $25/$20 PEN and PSA Members, students with valid ID.Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3775949350847620742.post-56696296982466021692011-01-18T14:30:00.005-05:002011-01-18T14:50:21.846-05:00PEN Translation grants: applications due February 3Applications for grants from <a href="http://www.pen.org/page.php/prmID/396">the PEN Translation Fund</a> are due in two weeks. Grants range from $2,000 to $10,000 and support the translation of book-length works of fiction, creative nonfiction, poetry, or drama that have not previously appeared in English or have appeared only in an egregiously flawed translation.<br /><br />In addition to financial assistance, grants from the PEN Translation Fund provide a good bit of publicity: recognition by the Fund has led on numerous occasions to a publishing contract. Translations supported by PEN grants have been excerpted in <em>The New Yorker</em>, <em>Granta</em>, <em>The Paris Review -- </em>and, of course, in <em><a href="http://www.pen.org/journal">PEN America</a>. </em><em><span style="text-decoration: underline;"><br /><br /></span></em>February 3rd is also the deadline for most other PEN Awards. You can find out more information <a href="http://www.pen.org/page.php/prmID/1351">here</a>.<br /><br />Submissions for <a href="http://www.pen.org/page.php/prmID/288">the PEN/Diamonstein-Spielvogel Award for the Art of the Essay</a>, <a href="http://www.pen.org/page.php/prmID/2087">the PEN/ESPN Lifetime Achievement Award for Sports Writing</a>, and <a href="http://www.pen.org/page.php/prmID/2066">the PEN/E.O. Wilson Literary Science Award</a> are due by March 3rd.<br /><em><span style="text-decoration: underline;"><br /></span></em>Leilyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17697461020459675000noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3775949350847620742.post-45816710333377748742011-01-12T11:55:00.006-05:002011-01-12T12:13:57.391-05:00Next week: Stoppard, Doctorow, DeLillo & the Belarus Free Theater<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_rZv7NjwW0GY/TS3fTTvcanI/AAAAAAAABNk/cf8BGHUQtxo/s1600/Belarus-Free-Theatre-007.jpg"><img style="display: block; margin: 0px auto 10px; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 400px; height: 240px;" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_rZv7NjwW0GY/TS3fTTvcanI/AAAAAAAABNk/cf8BGHUQtxo/s400/Belarus-Free-Theatre-007.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5561346637682207346" border="0" /></a><br />Just a few weeks ago, the members of the <a href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/stage/theatreblog/2010/dec/13/belarus-free-theatre">Belarus Free Theater</a> were either <a href="http://culturebot.net/2010/12/9023/a-call-to-help-support-detained-members-of-the-free-theater-in-belarus/">in jail or in hiding</a>. Now they are performing their play <span style="font-style: italic;">Being Harold Pinter</span> as part of the <a href="http://www.undertheradarfestival.com/">Under the Radar Festival</a> in New York. Soon they will be back in Belarus, where they will continue to risk the wrath of President Aleksandr Lukashenko, the man known as “Europe’s last dictator.”<br /><br />On the eve of their return to Minsk, the Belarus Free Theater joins internationally-acclaimed playwright Tom Stoppard, <a href="http://www.pen.org/">PEN American Center</a>, and a stellar supporting cast for <a href="http://www.pen.org/viewmedia.php/prmMID/5539/prmID/1873">an evening celebrating artistic freedom</a> and the courage of hundreds of writers, artists, journalists, and intellectuals targeted in Lukashenko’s latest crackdown following the nation’s flawed December elections.<br /><br />Czech musician Iva Bittova and American actor Billy Crudup will join Don DeLillo, E.L. Doctorow, Tom Stoppard, and surprise guests for a farewell gathering featuring literature, music, and cocktail conversation about the power of art and the future of Belarus.<br /><br /><a style="font-weight: bold;" href="http://www.pen.org/viewmedia.php/prmMID/5539/prmID/1873">Viva the Belarus Free Theater<br /></a><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">When: </span>Wednesday, January 19, 7 p.m.<br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">Where: </span>Le Poisson Rouge, 158 Bleecker Street, New York City<br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">Who:</span> Billy Crudup, E.L. Doctorow, Don DeLillo, Tom Stoppard, Iva Bittova, the Belarus Free Theater, and surprise guests<br /><br />Tickets: $25. Visit <a href="http://lepoissonrouge.com/">lepoissonrouge.com</a>.<br /><br />All proceeds to benefit the Belarus Free Theater.<br /><br />(Photograph of the Belarus Free Theatre <a href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/stage/theatreblog/2010/dec/13/belarus-free-theatre">performing in London</a> taken by Keith Pattison.)Unknownnoreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3775949350847620742.post-21636833165781108082010-12-10T12:11:00.017-05:002010-12-10T16:24:17.112-05:00Dispatch from Oslo: Larry Siems<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_vl1N2vXp-sg/TQKNA2sB1hI/AAAAAAAABLw/2VvN_ADsUr4/s1600/ceremony%2Bstanding%2Bovation.JPG"><img style="float: left; margin: 0pt 10px 10px 0pt; cursor: pointer; width: 320px; height: 240px;" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_vl1N2vXp-sg/TQKNA2sB1hI/AAAAAAAABLw/2VvN_ADsUr4/s320/ceremony%2Bstanding%2Bovation.JPG" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5549152736693573138" border="0" /></a>I had the honor of attending the 2010 Nobel Peace Prize ceremony in Oslo today as an official representative of PEN American Center. The ceremony, with its empty chair representing imprisoned writer and laureate <a href="http://www.pen.org/page.php/prmID/2065">Liu Xiaobo</a>, was stunning and perfectly pitched in an especially Norwegian way—austere and straightforward, principled and direct. There were three particularly sustained, heartfelt ovations: when Nobel Committee Chair Thorbjørn Jagland said, early in his speech, that the response of the Chinese government to the award has in a sense validated the award; when he said Liu has done nothing wrong and must be released; and when he placed the Nobel medal and citation on Liu’s empty chair. I sat near many of our Independent Chinese PEN Center colleagues and other legendary dissidents and activists, and right next to the daughter of Wang Bingzhang, a prominent pro-democracy activist now in his eighth year of a life sentence in China; you can just imagine what the ceremony meant to her and to them.<br /><br />Two other huge highlights, post-ceremony: I visited a preview of the exhibition on Liu Xiaobo at the Nobel Peace Center that will open tomorrow. I was overwhelmed<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_vl1N2vXp-sg/TQKNNUB-ZdI/AAAAAAAABL4/w4Q7HEqpygk/s1600/exhibition2.JPG"><img style="float: right; margin: 0pt 0pt 10px 10px; cursor: pointer; width: 320px; height: 240px;" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_vl1N2vXp-sg/TQKNNUB-ZdI/AAAAAAAABL4/w4Q7HEqpygk/s320/exhibition2.JPG" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5549152950728680914" border="0" /></a> when I walked into the room, glanced over to the first wall you see, and there were three video monitors playing, from left to right, <a href="http://www.pen.org/viewmedia.php/prmMID/5497/prmID/172">Liu Xia speaking in Beijing in March 2010</a>, <a href="http://www.pen.org/viewmedia.php/prmMID/4453/prmID/172">PEN’s New Year’s Eve rally</a>, and <a href="http://www.pen.org/viewmedia.php/prmMID/5354/prmID/172">Liu Xiaobo talking about freedom of expression</a>. Across the room, flanking an enormous, beautiful photo of Liu, were two banners, one with Jeffrey Yang’s translation of Liu’s poem <a href="http://www.pen.org/viewmedia.php/prmMID/4014/prmID/172">“Daybreak”</a> and one with Don DeLillo’s text for Liu. There it was, for the world, so much of all of PEN’s amazing work.<br /><br />Also touring the exhibition preview was Nancy Pelosi; as she was leaving she gave an impromptu press conference, in which she spoke with incredible humanity and passion about what this day means for so many who have worked (as she has) for so long to bring attention to China’s human rights record. Generous, eloquent, clearly moved by the ceremony and the exhibition, she did us all proud.<br /><br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_vl1N2vXp-sg/TQKNm3MtR4I/AAAAAAAABMA/SxIrB7dEuj8/s1600/outside%2Bthe%2Bbanquet.JPG"><img style="float: left; margin: 0pt 10px 10px 0pt; cursor: pointer; width: 320px; height: 240px;" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_vl1N2vXp-sg/TQKNm3MtR4I/AAAAAAAABMA/SxIrB7dEuj8/s320/outside%2Bthe%2Bbanquet.JPG" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5549153389665666946" border="0" /></a><br /><br />Here’s to Liu Xiaobo. Here’s to freedom of expression in China.<br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><span style="font-style: italic;"></span><span style="font-style: italic;"><a href="http://www.pen.org/author.php/prmAID/786">Larry Siems</a> is the Freedom to Write and International Programs Director at PEN American Center. </span><br /><span style="font-size:100%;"><br /></span><span style="font-size:100%;"><span style="font-style: italic;">Photographs, from top to bottom: Nobel Peace Prize Ceremony, Larry Siems; Nobel Peace Prize Exhibition at the Nobel Peace Center, Larry Siems; Torchlight Procession outside Oslo's Grand Hotel, where the laureate typically greets well-wishers, Marian Botsford Fraser.</span></span>Sarah Hoffmanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13190926993828990557noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3775949350847620742.post-58447996764194234482010-12-09T11:15:00.009-05:002010-12-09T12:38:58.645-05:00More poetry by Liu XiaoboToday, <span style="font-style: italic;">The New York Times</span> ran <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2010/12/09/opinion/09liu.html?_r=1&ref=opinion">an excerpt from “Experiencing Death</a>,” a poem by Liu Xiaobo, translated by Jeffrey Yang.<br /><blockquote>From a wisp of smoke to a little heap of ash<br />I’ve drained the drink of the martyrs, sense spring’s<br />about to break into the brocade-brilliance of myriad flowers<br /><br />Deep in the night, empty road<br />I’m biking home<br />I stop at a cigarette stand<br />A car follows me, crashes over my bicycle<br />some enormous brutes seize me<br />I’m handcuffed eyes covered mouth gagged<br />thrown into a prison van heading nowhere </blockquote><a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2010/12/09/opinion/09liu.html?_r=1&ref=opinion">Read the rest</a>. The poem is from a collection of elegiac poems remembering the <a href="http://penamerica.blogspot.com/2009/06/twenty-years-since-tiananmen.html">Tiananmen Square protest of 1989</a>, and Jeffrey will be translating the whole book for <a href="http://www.graywolfpress.org/">Graywolf Press</a>, as reported today in the <a href="http://www.startribune.com/entertainment/books/111569649.html"><span style="font-style: italic;">Star Tribune</span></a>:<br /><blockquote><span style="font-style: italic;">June Fourth Elegies</span> is an intense collection, its translator, Jeffrey Yang, said Wednesday. It is divided into 20 sections, each relating to the June 4, 1989, massacre at Tiananmen Square.<br /><br />“The way the book is structured, the poems were written kind of at the same time every year, when Tiananmen happened,” Yang said. “Each one is a kind of recollection of a certain aspect of June 4. They’re very elegiac. The original title of the book in Chinese is literally something like <span style="font-style: italic;">Remembering Six Four</span>.”</blockquote>You can learn more about Liu Xiaobo at <a href="http://www.pen.org/page.php/prmID/2065">www.PEN.org/liu</a>. You can read more of his poetry <a href="http://www.pen.org/viewmedia.php/prmMID/5122/prmID/172">here</a> and <a href="http://www.pen.org/viewmedia.php/prmMID/4014/prmID/172">here</a>—at that second link you can also hear his poems read by <a href="http://www.pen.org/viewmedia.php/prmMID/4464/prmID/1502">Paul Auster</a>, <a href="http://www.pen.org/viewmedia.php/prmMID/4456/prmID/172">Edward Albee</a>, <a href="http://www.pen.org/viewmedia.php/prmMID/4458/prmID/172">Don DeLillo</a>, and <a href="http://www.pen.org/viewmedia.php/prmMID/4460/prmID/172">E.L. Doctorow</a>. (That second group of poems was first published in <a href="http://www.pen.org/viewmedia.php/prmMID/4029/prmID/1502"><span style="font-style: italic;">PEN America 11: Make Believe</span></a>.) An essay he wrote about the internet in China was <a href="http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/comment/columnists/guest_contributors/article6181699.ece">published in the (London) <span style="font-style: italic;">Times</span></a>. (Update: a collection Liu’s political writings will also be <a href="http://chronicle.com/blogs/pageview/harvard-u-press-to-publish-a-book-by-liu-xiaobo/27887">published in English next year</a>, by <a href="http://harvardpress.typepad.com/hup_publicity/2010/10/on-liu-xiaobo.html">Harvard University Press</a>.)<br /><br />You can also watch Liu Xiaobo himself discuss freedom of expression <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2QJGuPOMPvE">here</a>, and <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lhSMS2IEFhY&feature=channel">here</a> you can watch several PEN writers read both his poetry and the <a href="http://penamerica.blogspot.com/2009/12/liu-xiaobos-so-called-crimes.html">seven sentences</a> cited by the court in China when sentencing him to eleven years in prison.<br /><br />(Photo from <a href="http://penamerica.blogspot.com/2009/12/rally-tomorrow-nypl-11-am.html">Decembe</a><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_rZv7NjwW0GY/TQEKDTk_AdI/AAAAAAAABNQ/SZ_4q9dEGYw/s1600/xiaobo%2Bcbs.jpg"><img style="float: right; margin: 0pt 0pt 10px 10px; cursor: pointer; width: 244px; height: 183px;" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_rZv7NjwW0GY/TQEKDTk_AdI/AAAAAAAABNQ/SZ_4q9dEGYw/s320/xiaobo%2Bcbs.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5548727267808444882" border="0" /></a><a href="http://penamerica.blogspot.com/2009/12/rally-tomorrow-nypl-11-am.html">r 31, 2009 rally</a> at the New York Public Library by <a href="http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2009/12/31/world/main6042285.shtml">Bria</a><a href="http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2009/12/31/world/main6042285.shtml">n </a><a href="http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2009/12/31/world/main6042285.shtml">Montopoli</a>.)Unknownnoreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3775949350847620742.post-21297340346046877792010-11-30T15:18:00.007-05:002010-11-30T15:51:33.128-05:00All Along the Silk Road: Music and Literature from China<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_rZv7NjwW0GY/TPVjxuYvw9I/AAAAAAAABNI/c0OOo73JI6k/s1600/silk%2Broad.jpg"><img style="float: right; margin: 0pt 0pt 10px 10px; cursor: pointer; width: 227px; height: 190px;" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_rZv7NjwW0GY/TPVjxuYvw9I/AAAAAAAABNI/c0OOo73JI6k/s320/silk%2Broad.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5545448222093198290" border="0" /></a>This Saturday, <a href="http://www.pen.org/">PEN</a>, <a href="http://www.wnyc.org/">WNYC</a>, and <a href="http://pianoculture.com/">PianoCulture.com</a> present the second installment of their literary and musical collaboration: “<a href="http://www.wnyc.org/thegreenespace/events/2010/dec/04/silk-road/">All Along the Silk Road</a>,” featuring a piano performance by Fei-Fei Dong, a reading by Gish Jen, and a tea tasting that will include Chinese snacks.<br /><br />The event will take place at 7 pm in WNYC’s lovely and intimate <a href="http://www.wnyc.org/thegreenespace/">Greene Space</a> at 44 Charlton Street in downtown Manhattan. Tickets are available <a href="http://www.wnyc.org/thegreenespace/events/2010/dec/04/silk-road/">here</a>, and full details are below. Hope you can make it.<br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">When: </span>Saturday, December 4, 7 pm<br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">Where: </span>The Greene Space at WNYC, 44 Charlton St., New York City<br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">Who:</span> Fei-Fei Dong and Gish Jen; hosted by Ina Parker-HowardUnknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3775949350847620742.post-20797811614747213892010-11-16T14:48:00.008-05:002010-11-16T17:57:20.941-05:00PEN America 13: Lovers<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_rZv7NjwW0GY/TOLmdZED7AI/AAAAAAAABMg/7nWt0dmmbik/s1600/pa13.jpg"><img style="float: left; margin: 0pt 10px 10px 0pt; cursor: pointer; width: 214px; height: 320px;" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_rZv7NjwW0GY/TOLmdZED7AI/AAAAAAAABMg/7nWt0dmmbik/s320/pa13.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5540243884237646850" border="0" /></a>Who is dear to you? The <a href="http://www.pen.org/page.php/prmID/2074">new issue of <span style="font-style: italic;">PEN America</span></a>—at the printer now; you can order it <a href="http://www.pen.org/viewmedia.php/prmMID/5299/prmID/1502">here</a>—considers that question through fiction, poetry, short essays, comics, and conversations. Among the highlights:<br /><br />* Patti Smith <a title="http://www.pen.org/viewmedia.php/prmMID/5439/prmID/1502" href="http://www.pen.org/viewmedia.php/prmMID/5439/prmID/1502">talks with</a> talks with Jonathan Lethem about her love for William Blake, John Coltrane, Allen Ginsberg, and more.<br /><br />* Don DeLillo’s 1983 “<a href="http://www.pen.org/viewmedia.php/prmMID/5280/prmID/1865">Human Moments in World War III</a>” imagines the loneliness of a man in space, meditating on his fading connection to his old planet. Alongside this story is a Q & A on writing, technology, religion, and paranoia, conducted by fax (as <a href="http://www.pen.org/viewmedia.php/prmMID/5442/prmID/1865">you can see</a>, DeLillo crafted his elegant answers on a typewriter).<br /><br />* Writers salute their literary loves in <a href="http://www.pen.org/viewmedia.php/prmMID/5436/prmID/1502">the issue’s forum</a> (and, online, readers can <a href="http://www.pen.org/viewmedia.php/prmMID/5436/prmID/1502">describe their own</a>). Among the contributions: <a href="http://www.pen.org/page.php/prmID/2077">Yusef Komunyakaa on Frederick Douglass</a>, <a href="http://www.pen.org/page.php/prmID/2079">Anne Landesman on J.M. Coetzee</a>, <a href="http://www.pen.org/page.php/prmID/2081">Lily Tuck on Joan Didion</a>, <a href="http://www.pen.org/page.php/prmID/2076">John Barth</a> on his four fictional “navigation-stars,” and <a href="http://www.pen.org/page.php/prmID/2075">Jessica Hagedorn</a> on <a href="http://penamerica.blogspot.com/search/label/Roberto%20Bola%C3%B1o">Roberto Bolaño</a>.<br /><br />* Several new short stories, including “<a title="http://www.pen.org/viewmedia.php/prmMID/5427/prmID/1865" href="http://www.pen.org/viewmedia.php/prmMID/5427/prmID/1865">The Pretty Grown Together Children</a>,” in which Megan Mayhew Bergman conjures the voice of conjoined twins, and “<a href="http://www.pen.org/viewmedia.php/prmMID/5428/prmID/1865">Before the Next World Cup</a>,” Eshkol Nevo’s story of friends who consider the future with the aid of the world’s favorite sporting event.<br /><br />* John Ashbery translates Rimbaud's <span style="font-style: italic;">Illuminations</span> (print only), and also contributes a beautiful new poem, “<a href="http://www.pen.org/viewmedia.php/prmMID/5435/prmID/1502">Resettlement</a>.” The issue also features poems by <a href="http://www.pen.org/viewmedia.php/prmMID/5434/prmID/1502">Faraj Bayrakdar</a>, <a href="http://www.pen.org/viewmedia.php/prmMID/5430/prmID/1502">Akinwumi Isola</a>, <a href="http://www.pen.org/viewmedia.php/prmMID/5429/prmID/1502">Natalia Sannikova</a>, and more.<br /><br />As an exclusive online feature, we’ve also put together a gallery by <a href="http://daisyrockwell.com/home.html">Daisy Rockwell</a>, aka Lapata, called “<a href="http://www.pen.org/viewmedia.php/prmMID/5441/prmID/1865">The Rasas of Terror</a>.” Rockwell’s painting <span style="font-style: italic;">Couple</span> graces the cover, pictured above.<br /><br />There’s much more in the issue itself, which you can order <a href="http://www.pen.org/viewmedia.php/prmMID/5299/prmID/1502">here</a>—or better yet, <a href="http://www.pen.org/viewmedia.php/prmMID/5299/prmID/1502">subscribe</a>, and get a free copy of the 2010 <a href="http://www.amazon.com/PEN-Henry-Prize-Stories-2010/dp/0307472361/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1289938410&sr=8-1"><span style="font-style: italic;">PEN/O. Henry Prize Stories</span></a>, featuring Alice Munro, Annie Proulx, Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie, and other great writers.Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3775949350847620742.post-86060070006206447292010-10-21T12:13:00.004-04:002010-10-21T12:47:06.061-04:00Talib Kweli, Junot Diaz, Wally Lamb and more: Prison Writing Benefit, November 1<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_rZv7NjwW0GY/TMBo0Tg0chI/AAAAAAAABLs/5KT9CRxQTTo/s1600/kweli.jpg"><img style="float: right; margin: 0pt 0pt 10px 10px; cursor: pointer; width: 320px; height: 220px;" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_rZv7NjwW0GY/TMBo0Tg0chI/AAAAAAAABLs/5KT9CRxQTTo/s320/kweli.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5530535590211383826" border="0" /></a>On Monday, November 1, at 7 pm, in New York City, <a href="http://www.pen.org/author.php/prmAID/1232/prmID/1873">Talib Kweli</a> (pictured right), <a href="http://www.pen.org/author.php/prmAID/893/prmID/1873">Junot Díaz</a>, <a href="http://www.pen.org/author.php/prmAID/1228/prmID/1873">Lisa Dierbeck</a>, <a href="http://www.pen.org/author.php/prmAID/1250/prmID/1873">Wahida Clark</a>, <a href="http://www.pen.org/author.php/prmAID/461/prmID/1873">Barbara Parsons</a>, <a target="_blank" href="http://www.pen.org/author.php/prmAID/1248/prmID/1865">Sean Dalpiaz</a>, <a href="http://www.pen.org/author.php/prmAID/1251/prmID/1865">Wally Lamb</a>, and more will gather for a <a href="http://www.pen.org/viewmedia.php/prmMID/5373/prmID/1873">benefit reading and reception</a> to support the <a href="http://www.pen.org/page.php/prmID/152">PEN Prison Writing Program</a>—which, since 1971, has sponsored an annual <a href="http://www.pen.org/page.php/prmID/1987">writing contest</a>, published a <a href="http://www.pen.org/page.php/prmID/2069">free handbook</a> about writing for prisoners, provided one-on-one mentoring to inmates whose writing shows merit or promise, conducted workshops for former inmates, and sought to get inmates’ work to the public through literary publications and readings.<br /><br />(We have frequently published work by the finalists and winners of the contest in <a href="http://www.pen.org/journal"><span style="font-style: italic;">PEN America</span></a>; see, for example, Chris Everley’s excellent “<a href="http://www.pen.org/viewmedia.php/prmMID/2518/prmID/1376">Hook Island Traveler</a>,” published in <a href="http://pen.org/viewmedia.php/prmMID/2814/prmID/1560"><span style="font-style: italic;">PEN America 9: Checkpoints</span></a>.)<br /><br />A reception will follow the reading of fiction, poetry, and memoir by men and women who have participated in the PEN Prison Writing Program. We hope you’ll join us. Full details are below.<br /><strong><br /><br /></strong><b style="color: rgb(48, 68, 141);">Breakout: Voices from Inside<br /><br /></b><strong>When:</strong> Monday, November 1, 7 p.m.<br /><strong>Where:</strong> Le Poisson Rouge, 158 Bleecker St., New York City<br /><strong></strong><strong>Tickets:</strong> Collaborator: $75 (limited quantity); Friend: $50. Please be advised that there is a 2 item order minimum. Purchase tickets at <a href="http://lepoissonrouge.com/events/view/1702" target="_blank">lepoissonrouge.com</a>.<br /><br />Collaborator ticket covers the expenses of one-on-one mentoring services between a PEN Member and an incarcerated man or woman for one year. This premier ticket includes the best views and a reception following the program.<br /><br />Friend ticket covers the postage and printing costs to provide eight incarcerated men and women with a free copy of PEN’s <em style="font-style: italic;"></em><a style="font-style: italic;" href="http://www.pen.org/page.php/prmID/2069">Handbook for Writers in Prison</a>. This ticket includes a reception following the program.Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3775949350847620742.post-32872198722212180232010-10-18T12:28:00.004-04:002010-10-18T12:49:36.464-04:00Tomorrow night: Censorhip by Bullet in Mexico<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_rZv7NjwW0GY/TLx3PkTkQCI/AAAAAAAABLg/F9IXGW6tIQY/s1600/mexico.jpg"><img style="float: right; margin: 0pt 0pt 10px 10px; cursor: pointer; width: 227px; height: 190px;" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_rZv7NjwW0GY/TLx3PkTkQCI/AAAAAAAABLg/F9IXGW6tIQY/s320/mexico.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5529425551831613474" border="0" /></a>Tomorrow night, American and Mexican writers and journalists—including <a href="http://www.pen.org/author.php/prmAID/27/prmID/1873">Paul Auster</a>, <a href="http://www.pen.org/author.php/prmAID/410/prmID/1873">Calvin Baker</a>, <a href="http://www.pen.org/author.php/prmAID/122">Don DeLillo</a>, <a href="http://www.pen.org/author.php/prmAID/1223/prmID/1873">Laura Esquivel</a>, and <a href="http://www.pen.org/author.php/prmAID/77/prmID/1873">Francine Prose</a>—will gather at Cooper Union to call attention to and discuss “censorship by bullet<strong style="font-weight: normal;"></strong>” in Mexico—the silencing of reporters investigating violence and corruption connected with the drug trade. At least eight journalists have been murdered in Mexico in 2010 alone; many more have been kidnapped, threatened, or disappeared.<br /><br />Also reading tomorrow evening are <a href="http://www.pen.org/author.php/prmAID/1249/prmID/1873">Jose Zamora</a>, <a href="http://www.pen.org/author.php/prmAID/1226/prmID/1873">Víctor Manuel Mendiola</a>, and <a href="http://www.pen.org/author.php/prmAID/1225/prmID/1873">Luis Miguel Aguilar</a>. After the readings, <a href="http://www.pen.org/author.php/prmAID/1230/prmID/1873">Carmen Aristegui</a> of CNN en Español, Rocio Gallegos of <span style="font-style: italic;">El Diario de Juárez</span>, and <a href="http://www.pen.org/viewmedia.php/author.php/prmAID/1229/prmID/1873">José Luis Martínez</a> of <em>Milenio Diario</em> will talk about the situation in their country; the conversation will be moderated by Julia Preston of <em>The New York Times</em>.<br /><br /><br /><strong></strong><b style="color: rgb(48, 68, 141);">State of Emergency: Censorship by Bullet in Mexico</b><br /><strong><br />When:</strong> Tueday, October 19, 7 p.m.<br /> <strong><br />Where:</strong> The Great Hall Cooper Union, 7 East 7th Street, NYC<br /> <strong><br /></strong><strong>Tickets:</strong> $15/$10 for PEN Members and students with valid ID. Visit <a target="_blank" href="http://www.smarttix.com/show.aspx?showcode=STA58" title="blocked::http://www.smarttix.com/">www.smarttix.com</a> or call (212) 868-4444. Tickets also available at the door. Seating is by general admission, on a first-come, first-served basis.Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3775949350847620742.post-67124979827577657612010-10-08T07:50:00.003-04:002010-10-08T07:59:44.226-04:00Liu Xiaobo receives Nobel Peace Prize<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_rZv7NjwW0GY/TK8HBlwVU2I/AAAAAAAABKk/m7QN1XZWnRw/s1600/liu+xiaobo.jpg"><img style="float: right; margin: 0pt 0pt 10px 10px; cursor: pointer; width: 200px; height: 200px;" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_rZv7NjwW0GY/TK8HBlwVU2I/AAAAAAAABKk/m7QN1XZWnRw/s200/liu+xiaobo.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5525642991702987618" border="0" /></a><a href="http://penamerica.blogspot.com/2009/12/liu-xiaobos-so-called-crimes.html">Read the seven sentences</a> that landed him in prison.<br /><br />Watch Edward Albee, Don DeLillo, E.L. Doctorow, and others <a href="http://penamerica.blogspot.com/2009/12/rally-tomorrow-nypl-11-am.html">rally for Liu Xiaobo</a> last New Year's Eve, reading those sentences, along with some of <a href="http://penamerica.blogspot.com/2009/11/poems-by-liu-xiaobo-translated-by.html">the poems he wrote</a> while in a "reeducation camp."<br /><br />Listen to Paul Auster <a href="http://penamerica.blogspot.com/2009/11/poems-by-liu-xiaobo-translated-by.html">read those poems</a>.<br /><br />Write to the Chinese government to <a href="http://www.pen.org/page.php/prmID/1893">demand his release</a>.<br /><br /><a href="http://www.pen.org/page.php/prmID/2065">Learn more here</a>.Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3775949350847620742.post-4961076442267350172010-10-07T15:40:00.003-04:002010-10-07T18:57:39.215-04:00The Nobel and other newsThis morning, <a href="http://www.pen.org/author.php/prmAID/301">Mario Vargas Llosa</a>, former president of PEN International, received <a href="http://www.pen.org/viewmedia.php/prmMID/5341/prmID/174">the Nobel Prize for Literature</a>. You can listen to his conversation with Salman Rushdie and Umberto Eco, which took place at PEN World Voices 2008, <a href="http://www.pen.org/viewmedia.php/prmMID/1794/prmID/1376">here</a>.<br /><br />Tomorrow, the Nobel committee will announce the recipient of this year’s Nobel Peace Prize. PEN is urging the committee to confer the award on <a href="http://www.pen.org/page.php/prmID/2062">Liu Xiaobo</a>, an imprisoned writer who would be the first citizen of China to receive the award. You can read all about PEN's campaign on his behalf <a href="http://www.pen.org/page.php/prmID/2062">here</a>.<br /><br />Next Wednesday, PEN will holds its annual <a href="http://www.pen.org/viewmedia.php/prmMID/5241/prmID/1873">awards ceremony</a>. <strong style="font-weight: normal;"></strong><strong style="font-weight: normal;">Anne Carson</strong>, <strong style="font-weight: normal;"></strong><strong style="font-weight: normal;">Susan Choi</strong>, <strong style="font-weight: normal;"></strong><strong style="font-weight: normal;">Don DeLillo</strong>, <strong style="font-weight: normal;">Paul Harding</strong>, <strong style="font-weight: normal;">Theresa Rebeck</strong>, and many others will be on hand to receive their awards, and the event is free, though seating is limited. If you would like to attend, RSVP to <a href="mailto:awards@pen.org?subject=2010%20Literary%20Awards%20Ceremony">awards@pen.org</a>.<br /><br /><strong style="font-weight: normal;"></strong><strong style="font-weight: normal;">The following Tuesday, October 19, PEN will present</strong> “<strong style="font-weight: normal;"></strong><strong style="font-weight: normal;"><a href="http://www.pen.org/viewmedia.php/prmMID/5242/prmID/1873">State of Emergency: Censorship by Bullet in Mexico</a>,</strong>”<strong style="font-weight: normal;"> an event seeking to call attention to and discuss the silencing of Mexican journalists investigating drug violence in their country.</strong> Participants include <a href="http://www.pen.org/author.php/prmAID/27/prmID/1873">Paul Auster</a>, <a href="http://www.pen.org/author.php/prmAID/122">Don DeLillo</a>, <a href="http://www.pen.org/author.php/prmAID/1223/prmID/1873">Laura Esquivel</a>, <a href="http://www.pen.org/author.php/prmAID/1229/prmID/1873">José Luis Martínez</a>, <a href="http://www.pen.org/author.php/prmAID/1226/prmID/1873">Víctor Manuel Mendiola</a>, <a href="http://www.pen.org/author.php/prmAID/77/prmID/1873">Francine Prose</a>, and <a href="http://www.pen.org/author.php/prmAID/1230/prmID/1873">Carmen Aristegui</a>.Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3775949350847620742.post-16906378613056962992010-09-22T17:05:00.004-04:002010-09-22T17:27:40.125-04:00PEN round-up: Don DeLillo, World Voices, Mexican journalists, and moreAs we put the finishing touches on <a href="http://www.pen.org/viewmedia.php/prmMID/5299/prmID/1865">the fall issue</a>, the PEN office is bustling.<br /><br />Today, the <a href="http://www.pen.org/page.php/prmID/1491">2010 PEN Literary Award winners</a> were announced. Among them, <a href="http://www.pen.org/author.php/prmAID/122/prmID/1865">Don DeLillo</a>, who answered <a href="http://www.pen.org/viewmedia.php/prmMID/5278/prmID/1865">questions from PEN</a> (via fax) on the occasion:<br /><span style="font-weight: bold;"></span><blockquote><span style="font-weight: bold;">PEN: </span>Thanks to e-books, blogs, and social media, writers are arguably using new technology as never before. Stories are written using Twitter, novels as text messages, and there seems to be a reemergence of serial narratives. Do you think technology will have a considerable influence on fiction? Do you think it already has?<br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">DeLillo: </span>The question is whether the enormous force of technology, and its insistence on speeding up time and compacting space, will reduce the human need for narrative—narrative in the traditional sense. Novels will become user-generated. An individual will not only tap a button that gives him a novel designed to his particular tastes, needs, and moods, but he’ll also be able to design his own novel, very possibly with him as main character. The world is becoming increasingly customized, altered to individual specifications. This shrinking context will necessarily change the language that people speak, write, and read. Here’s a stray question (or a metaphysical leap): Will language have the same depth and richness in electronic form that it can reach on the printed page? Does the beauty and variability of our language depend to an important degree on the medium that carries the words? Does poetry need paper?</blockquote>To celebrate DeLillo’s award, our fall issue will include his 1983 short story “Human Moments in World War III,” the beginning of which <a href="http://www.pen.org/viewmedia.php/prmMID/5280/prmID/1865">you can read on PEN.org</a>. For the rest, <a href="http://www.pen.org/viewmedia.php/prmMID/5299/prmID/1865">pre-order</a> your copy of the issue (or subscribe!).<br /><br />And, if you’re in New York, join us for <a href="http://www.pen.org/viewmedia.php/prmMID/5241/prmID/1873">the 2010 PEN Literary Awards ceremony</a> on October 13.<br /><br />News of this year’s winners followed just a day after PEN <a href="http://www.pen.org/viewmedia.php/prmMID/5295/prmID/1873">announced</a> its new Director of the World Voices Festival and Public Programs, László Jakab Orsós, who joins PEN from the Hungarian Cultural Center. Jakab is also an accomplished journalist and screenwriter. You can read more about him <a href="http://www.pen.org/viewmedia.php/prmMID/5295/prmID/1873">here</a>. The 2011 World Voices Festival will be held from April 25 to May 1.<br /><br />Lastly, a trio of announcements from the Freedom to Write department: Liao Yiwu (discussed previously <a href="http://penamerica.blogspot.com/2010/03/liao-yiwu-detained-in-china.html">on the blog</a>) has finally been permitted <a href="http://www.pen.org/viewmedia.php/prmMID/5267/prmID/172">to travel outside China</a>; PEN writers <a href="http://www.pen.org/viewmedia.php/prmMID/5281/prmID/174">urged the U.N.</a> to abandon efforts to legally prohibit the defamation of religion; and several writers from Mexico and the United States (including DeLillo) <a href="http://www.pen.org/viewmedia.php/prmMID/5242/prmID/1873">will gather next month</a> to discuss and call attention to the violent suppression of journalists in America’s neighbor to the south. Please join us if you can.Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3775949350847620742.post-50851049650523025332010-09-08T10:56:00.009-04:002010-09-08T11:31:34.145-04:00PEN Quiz Night + the Brooklyn Book Festival<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_rZv7NjwW0GY/TIesDoTjLCI/AAAAAAAABKU/xbQicDzrWX0/s1600/tayari.jpg"><img style="float: right; margin: 0pt 0pt 10px 10px; cursor: pointer; width: 75px; height: 72px;" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_rZv7NjwW0GY/TIesDoTjLCI/AAAAAAAABKU/xbQicDzrWX0/s200/tayari.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5514565447097461794" border="0" /></a><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_rZv7NjwW0GY/TIer7HtC4II/AAAAAAAABKE/w4a0_TFKXXw/s1600/galchen.jpg"><img style="float: right; margin: 0pt 0pt 10px 10px; cursor: pointer; width: 75px; height: 72px;" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_rZv7NjwW0GY/TIer7HtC4II/AAAAAAAABKE/w4a0_TFKXXw/s200/galchen.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5514565300907073666" border="0" /></a><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_rZv7NjwW0GY/TIer_VGqX5I/AAAAAAAABKM/9qkNY2TugpY/s1600/oneill.jpg"><img style="float: right; margin: 0pt 0pt 10px 10px; cursor: pointer; width: 75px; height: 72px;" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_rZv7NjwW0GY/TIer_VGqX5I/AAAAAAAABKM/9qkNY2TugpY/s200/oneill.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5514565373223657362" border="0" /></a>It’s busy here as we finish the fall issue; details coming soon.<br /><br />In the meantime, join me this Friday, at 7 pm, along with a great group of writers—<a href="http://www.pen.org/author.php/prmAID/1221/prmID/1873">Jami Attenberg</a>, <a href="http://www.pen.org/author.php/prmAID/734/prmID/1873">Jane Ciabattari</a>, <a href="http://www.pen.org/author.php/prmAID/1228/prmID/1873">Lisa Dierbeck</a>, <a href="http://www.pen.org/author.php/prmAID/1222/prmID/1873">Rivka Galchen</a>, <a href="http://www.pen.org/author.php/prmAID/951/prmID/1873">Tayari Jones</a>, <a href="http://www.pen.org/author.php/prmAID/1227/prmID/1873">Joseph O’Neill</a>, <a href="http://www.pen.org/author.php/prmAID/254">We</a><a href="http://www.pen.org/author.php/prmAID/254">sley Stace</a>, and <a href="http://www.pen.org/author.php/prmAID/1224/prmID/1873">Justin Taylor</a>—for the first <a href="http://www.pen.org/viewmedia.php/prmMID/5245/prmID/148">PEN Quiz Night</a>, at <a href="http://www.stannswarehouse.org/">St. Ann’s Warehouse</a>, on 38 Water Street in DUMBO in Brooklyn.<br /><br />The quiz will start promptly at 8 pm, but you should arrive early for drinks and to be matched on an author’s team. That way you can compete both with and against some terrific writers. All the questions will be literary.<br /><br />Quiz Night is PEN’s kickoff for the <a href="http://www.brooklynbookfestival.org/BrooklynBookFestival/festival.html">Brooklyn Book Festival</a>, which takes place on Sunday. PEN will have a booth there, and has also put together <a href="http://www.pen.org/viewmedia.php/prmMID/5260/prmID/1873">a reading</a> to mark the 50th Anniversary of PEN’s Freedom to Write program, which will include <a href="http://www.pen.org/author.php/prmAID/1175/prmID/1873">Cathy Park Hong</a>, <a href="http://www.pen.org/author.php/prmAID/81/prmID/1873">Roxana Robinson</a>, <a href="http://www.pen.org/author.php/prmAID/787/prmID/1873">Sarah Schulman</a>, <a href="http://www.pen.org/author.php/prmAID/1231/prmID/1873">Xiaoda Xiao</a>, and more.<br /><br />Hope to see you <a href="http://www.pen.org/viewmedia.php/prmMID/5240/prmID/148">there</a>. (Pictured above: Joseph O’Neill, Rivka Galchen, Tayari Jones.)Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3775949350847620742.post-54589713139687124792010-08-13T12:11:00.009-04:002010-08-22T15:00:58.358-04:00“All these funny expressions” — Melissa James GibsonStarting with <a href="http://www.pen.org/viewmedia.php/prmMID/1956/prmID/1560"><span style="font-style: italic;">PEN America 8: Making Histories</span></a>, each issue of <span style="font-style: italic;">PEN America</span> has included at least one excerpt from a play. In the last few issues we’ve published dramatic work by <a href="http://penamerica.blogspot.com/2008/03/history-plays-all-rage.html">Petr Zelenka</a>, <a href="http://www.pen.org/author.php/prmAID/502">Sarah Ruhl</a>, <a href="http://penamerica.blogspot.com/2008/09/baghdad-damascus-atlanta.html">George Packer</a>, <a href="http://www.pen.org/author.php/prmAID/774">Saïd Sayrafiezadeh</a>, Nilo Cruz, and most recently, <a href="http://gothamist.com/2009/12/22/melissa_james_gibson_playwright.php">Melissa James Gibson</a>.<br /><br />I’m surprised more literary magazines don’t publish drama; while scripts are written to be performed, the best ones tend to work beautifully on the page as well. That’s certainly the case with <span style="font-style: italic;">This</span>, the play by Melissa James Gibson that we excerpted in <a href="http://www.pen.org/viewmedia.php/prmMID/4965/prmID/150"><span style="font-style: italic;">PEN America 12: Correspondences</span></a>.<br /><br />Gibson has a wonderful ear for the everyday absurdities of colloquial speech:<br /><blockquote><span style="font-weight: bold;">ALAN</span><br />All these funny expressions<br />Just Got The Baby Down<br />It’s like the baby’s depressed or<br />or like you’ve finally succeeded in oppressing the baby<br />I Just Got The Baby Down<br />I Just Got The Baby Down <p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;"><span style="line-height: 150%;font-size:11pt;"><o:p> </o:p></span></p> </blockquote>This is from the opening scene; Alan is at the apartment of two college friends, Tom and Marrell, whose newborn baby never stays asleep for long. Another college friend, Jane, has joined them for a dinner party, along with Jean-Pierre, a French friend of Tom and Marrell’s.<br /><blockquote><span style="font-weight: bold;">MARRELL</span><br />Jean-Pierre’s a doctor<br />(with emphasis) Without Borders<br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">ALAN</span><br />I always think that sounds like the doctor has a messy personal life<br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">JEAN-PIERRE</span><br />That’s frequently the case actually<br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">TOM</span><br />I’m a cabinet maker without borders<span style="line-height: 150%;font-size:11pt;"><o:p></o:p></span> <p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;"><b><span style="line-height: 150%;font-family:Arial;font-size:11pt;"><o:p> </o:p></span></b></p> </blockquote>Tom and Marrell are trying to set Jean-Pierre up with Jane, a teacher and poet. When a surprisingly involved discussion of whether a “Brita” water filter should be pronounced with a short ‘i’ sound or a long ‘e’ sound (like “Rita”), Jean-Pierre turns to Jane as the expert on language:<br /><blockquote><span style="font-weight: bold;">JEAN-PIERRE</span><br />You’re the poet<br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">JANE</span><br />More of a standardized test proctor these days actually<br />And I teach a bit<br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">MARRELL</span><br />She’s being modest Don’t be modest<br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">JANE</span><br />I’m an aMAZing standardized test proctor</blockquote>The scene is full of funny, awkward, and tense exchanges, especially after the characters begin to play a parlor game—one that brilliantly highlights the way language can carry meanings other than the ones we intend. One person (Jane, as it hapens) must leave the room, while the others allegedly create a story in her absence. Then she must return to the room and piece the story together by asking a series of yes-or-no questions. But, as Tom and Marrell inform Alan and Jean-Pierre after Jane has left the room, the real game is that there is no story, and that Jane will construct one herself through her questions. I’ll simply say that this does not go well.<br /><br />In Gibson’s work, as Charles Isherwood wrote <a href="http://theater.nytimes.com/2009/12/04/theater/reviews/04this.html">in <span style="font-style: italic;">The New York Times</span></a>, “even the drabbest constellations of vowels and consonants—words like ‘this,’ in other words—are made to soar and leap like ballet dancers in full, ecstatic flight, or alternately stand alone in a sea of silence, ominous and resonant, like those pregnant pauses in a Pinter play.”<br /><br />You can read some of the excerpt we published <a href="http://www.pen.org/viewmedia.php/prmMID/4936/prmID/1502">at PEN.org</a>; for the rest, pick up a copy of <a href="http://www.pen.org/viewmedia.php/prmMID/4965/prmID/150"><span style="font-style: italic;">PEN America 12</span></a>. And keep an eye out for Melissa James Gibson’s next play.Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3775949350847620742.post-58964922008193372032010-08-04T12:15:00.013-04:002010-08-04T15:14:12.560-04:00The underappreciated Sergei Dovlatov<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_rZv7NjwW0GY/TFm1KhN5-UI/AAAAAAAABJA/VtSupTlB6ZU/s1600/dovlatov-4.jpg"><img style="float: right; margin: 0pt 0pt 10px 10px; cursor: pointer; width: 200px; height: 132px;" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_rZv7NjwW0GY/TFm1KhN5-UI/AAAAAAAABJA/VtSupTlB6ZU/s200/dovlatov-4.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5501627612129786178" border="0" /></a>Like <span style="font-style: italic;"><a href="http://www.pen.org/journal">PEN America</a> </span>contributor <a href="http://www.amitavakumar.com/?p=2816">Amitava Kumar</a>, I knew nothing of Sergei Dovlatov (pictured right, with one-time Vice President of PEN Kurt Vonnegut, who has the lighter of the two mustaches) before I heard <a href="http://www.newyorker.com/online/2009/07/13/090713on_audio_bezmozgis">this <span style="font-style: italic;">New Yorker</span> fiction podcast</a> with <a href="http://www.bezmozgis.com/">David Bezmozgis</a> (who has <a href="http://www.newyorker.com/fiction/features/2010/08/09/100809fi_fiction_bezmozgis">a novel excerpt</a> in <span style="font-style: italic;">The New Yorker</span> this week; he’s on their “<a href="http://www.newyorker.com/fiction/20-under-40/writers-q-and-a">20 under 40</a>” list). I loved Bezmozgis’s story “<a href="http://www.amazon.com/Natasha-Other-Stories-David-Bezmozgis/dp/0312423934">Natasha</a>,” published a few years ago in <span style="font-style: italic;">Harper</span>’<span style="font-style: italic;">s</span>, and so was particularly curious to hear what past <span style="font-style: italic;">New Yorker</span> contributor he would <a href="http://www.newyorker.com/online/podcasts/fiction">choose to read and discuss with Deborah Treisman</a>, the magazine’s fiction editor.<br /><br />He did not disappoint. Dovlatov’s “The Colonel Says I Love You” is witty and wise; it demonstrates what <a href="http://thisislike.com/joseph-brodsky-person/and/sergei-dovlatov-writer?page_total=1&page=1">Joseph Brodsky</a> once said about Dovlatov (as I would later learn, thanks to Amitava): “The decisive thing is his tone, which every member of a democratic society can recognize: the individual who won’t let himself be cast in the role of a victim, who is not obsessed with what makes him different.” Dovlatov writes direct but surprising stories that draw heavily from his life; Bezmozgis aptly compares him to David Sedaris, though Dovlatov’s humor is less broad, and his circumstances—living and writing in communist Russia—give his stories a kind of moral weight, even if he handles it lightly.<br /><br />So why isn’t he read more in the United States? Soon after the podcast, Sonya Chung <a href="http://www.themillions.com/2009/10/sergei-dovlatov-funny-families-and-that-tall-brown-fence.html">pointed out on The Millions</a> how hard it has become to get copies of his books in English, though they were all translated and published once upon a time (he died in 1990). “Why is Dovlatov so little known or read in the West today?" she asked, repeating a question Triesman had asked Bezmozgis. His answer: “I have no idea. It’s hard to understand these things.” As Chung notes, “Dovlatov couldn’t have said it better himself.” (Responding to Chung’s piece, the blogger <a href="http://www.languagehat.com/archives/003670.php">languagehat</a>, who reads Russian, said: “Dovlatov is one of the funniest and most likable writers I know, and I’m sure Americans would love him if he were properly introduced.”)<br /><br />So when we were putting together <a href="http://www.pen.org/viewmedia.php/prmMID/4965/prmID/150"><span style="font-style: italic;">PEN America 12</span></a>, we decided we would re-publish one of Dovlatov’s stories. Happily, one of his translators, Antonina W. Bouis, is a generous member of PEN; I still have her copy of <span style="font-style: italic;">The Suitcase</span> (though I’ll be returning it soon, promise!), from which we selected “A Poplin Shirt.”<br /><blockquote>When I was a child, my nanny, Luiza Genrikhovna, did everything distractedly. Once she dressed me in shorts and shoved both legs into one opening. I walked around like that all day. I was four. I knew that I had been dressed wrong, but I kept quiet. I didn’t want to change. I still don’t.</blockquote>So the narrator tells us near the beginning of the story; he goes on to recount his first outing with his future wife (she speaks first in this bit):<br /><blockquote>“You can be trusted. I understood that immediately, as soon as I saw Solzhenitsyn’s portrait.”<br /><br />“That’s Dostoyevsky. But I respect Solzhenitsyn, too.” We had a modest breakfast. Mother gave us a piece of halvah after all.<br /><br />Then we went outside. The houses were decorated with bunting. Candy wrappers lay in the snow. Our janitor, Grisha, was showing off his ratiné coat.<br /><br />....We went to the movies to see <span style="font-style: italic;">Ivan’s Childhood</span>. The film was good enough for me to patronize. In that period I liked only detective movies, because they let me relax. But Tarkovsky’s movies I praised, patronizingly—and with a hint that Tarkovsky had been waiting for almost six years for a screenplay from me.</blockquote>Near the end, the narrator reflects on the life he and his wife have lived:<br /><blockquote>Are we alike, then? I at least have a stimulus, a goal, an illusion, a hope. What does she have? Only our daughter, and indifference. We have twenty-five years of marriage behind us—twenty-five years of mutual isolation and indifference to real life. In those twenty-five years, our friends fell in love, married, and divorced. They wrote poems and novels about it all. They moved from one republic to another; they changed jobs, convictions, habits, became dissidents and alcoholics, tried to kill others or themselves. Marvelous, mysterious worlds arose and collapsed with a roar all around us. Like taut strings, human relations snapped. Our friends were reborn and died in the search for happiness.<br /><br />And we? We faced all the temptations and horrors of life with our only gift—indifference. What is more solid than a castle built on sand? What is more durable and dependable in family life than mutual lack of character? What could be stabler than two hostile states each incapable of defending itself?</blockquote>To read the rest, pick up <a href="http://www.pen.org/viewmedia.php/prmMID/4965/prmID/150"><span style="font-style: italic;">PEN America 12: Correspondences</span></a>, or try to find a copy of <span style="font-style: italic;">The Suitcase</span> at your local used bookstore. And then maybe blog about it. Eventually someone will get the point and start publishing Dovlatov’s books in the U.S. again.Unknownnoreply@blogger.com5tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3775949350847620742.post-63847867986740416512010-07-21T17:43:00.010-04:002010-07-21T20:23:23.768-04:00Billy Collins on poetry e-books (and in PEN America)The AP writer Hillel Italie published an interesting piece this week on <a href="http://www.miamiherald.com/2010/07/18/1733657/breaking-up-is-hard-to-do-poems.html">poetry and e-books</a> that was picked up by a number of outlets.<br /><br />“Poetry,” Italie writes, “the most precise and precious of literary forms, is also so far the least adaptable to the growing e-book market. A three-line stanza might be expanded to four if a line is too long or a four-line stanza compressed into three if the second and fourth lines have sharp indentations, as with Henry Wadsworth Longfellow’s <a href="http://rpo.library.utoronto.ca/poem/1327.html"><i>Hymn to the Night</i></a>.”<br /><br />Or as happened with some poems by Billy Collins when Collins took a look at his newest book on his Kindle. He found that, as he tells Italie, “if the original line is beyond a certain length, they will take the extra word and have it flush left on the screen, so that instead of a three-line stanza you actually have a four-line stanza. And that screws everything up.”<br /><br />Collins goes on to say, rather poetically, that “prose is kind of like water and will become the shape of any vessel you pour it into. Poetry is like a piece of sculpture and can easily break.”<br /><br />Collins contributed two news poems to the <a href="http://www.pen.org/viewmedia.php/prmMID/4965/prmID/150">latest issue of <span style="font-style: italic;">PEN America</span></a>, “Horoscopes for the Dead,” parts I & II, and, as it happens, they begin with the experience of reading that great emblem of print, the newspaper—specifically, the horoscopes of a departed friend. I think I can reproduce their stanzas faithfully on this blog, so here’s how the first one begins:<br /><blockquote>Every morning since you fell down on the face of the earth,<br />I read about you in the newspaper<br />along with the box scores, the weather, and all the bad news.<br /><br />Sometimes I am reminded that today<br />will not be a wildly romantic time for you,<br />nor will you be challenged by educational goals<br />nor will you need to be circumspect at the workplace.<br /><br />Another day, I learn that you will miss<br />an opportunity to travel and make new friends<br />though you never cared much about either.</blockquote><blockquote>I can’t imagine you ever facing a new problem<br />with a positive attitude, but you will definitely not<br />be doing that or anything like that on this weekday in March.<br />And the same goes for the fun<br />you might have gotten from group activities,<br />a likelihood attributed to everyone under your sign.<br /></blockquote>In the second, he puts the paper away:<br /><blockquote>I am better off closing the newspaper,<br />putting on the clothes I wore yesterday<br />(when I read that your financial prospects were looking up)<br />then pushing off on my copper-colored bicycle<br />and pedaling along the road by the shore of the bay.</blockquote>To read the rest—along with poems by Paul Muldoon, Anne Carson, and many others—you’ll have to pick up a <a href="http://www.pen.org/viewmedia.php/prmMID/4965/prmID/150"><span>printed</span> copy</a> of <span style="font-style: italic;">PEN America</span>.Unknownnoreply@blogger.com1