May 4, 2011, Wednesday - The Loft Presents: A PEN World Voices Reading

Time: 7:00pm

Location: The Loft Literary Center at Open Book, 1011 Washington Avenue South

PEN American Center was founded in 1922 and is the largest of the 144 PEN centers in 101 countries. With former presidents such as Arthur Miller, Norman Mailer, Susan Sontag, and Salman Rushdie, PEN American Center has remained a writer-centered organization in which members play a leading role. PEN China President Liu Xiaobo, the 2010 Nobel Peace Prize winner, is our most recent example of our members leading the forefront of the struggle to oppose censorship and defend writers.

Hervé Le Tellier is a writer, journalist, mathematician, food critic, and teacher. He has been a member of the Oulipo since 1992 and one of the “papous” of the famous France Culture radio show. He has published 15 books of stories, essays, and novels. His latest publications include a collection of poetry, Zindien, and a novel, Je m’attache très facilement, which earned him the Guanahani Prize.

David Bezmozgis was born in Riga, Latvia, in 1973. In 1980 he immigrated with his parents to Toronto, where he lives today. Natasha, his first book, was named one of the Los Angeles Times’ Best Books of 2004 and was the winner of the Commonwealth Writers’ Prize for Best First Book, among other honors.

Kyung-sook Shin is the author of numerous works of fiction and is one of South Korea’s most widely read and acclaimed novelists. She has been honored with the Manhae Literature Prize, the Dong-in Literature Prize, and the Yi Sang Literary Prize, as well as France’s Prix de l’Inaperçu. Please Look After Mom is her first book to appear in English and will be published in nineteen countries. Currently a visiting scholar at Columbia University in New York City, she lives in Seoul.

Deborah Baker is the author of In Extremis: The Life of Laura Riding, a finalist for a Pulitzer Prize, as well as A Blue Hand: The Beats in India. She divides her time between Calcutta, Goa, and Brooklyn.