Talk to Me

Like rich people, cartoonists are different from you and me. They see the world as a series of absurd scenes awaiting captions.

Sex and crime—genre fiction mainstays—come together with "literary" writing in a new anthology edited by bestselling crime writer SJ Rozan and Jonathan Santlofer. 

Five top war correspondents and writers talked about what motivates their work, as well as the role of the journalist in modern conflict, as part of a PEN World Voices Festival panel held at Le Poisson Rouge.

Christopher Hitchens delivered the Pen World Voices Festival closing Arthur Miller Freedom to Write Lecture at Cooper Union. 

Novelists from Afghanistan, Israel, Romania, and Spain discussed the way war has shaped their lives and their work, as part of the sixth annual PEN World Voices Festival. The event was held in cooperation with Scandinavia House.

Arthur Schwartz, food maven and cookbook author, has always had strong opinions about Jewish food — including everything from where to get the best pastrami in New York to the phrase “matzo ball soup.” His opinions are usually as salty as a kosher pickle, which is why The Museum of Jewish Heritage invited Schwartz to discuss David Sax’s first book, Save the Deli: In Search of Perfect Pastrami, Crusty Rye, and the Heart of Jewish Delicatessen. Schwartz wasted no time in playing the devil’s advocate. “Why should we save the deli?” he asked Sax. And with that, the two men launched into a lively discussion about the quintessential New York institution. Schwartz and Sax were introduced by the Museum’s Director of Public Programs, Elissa Schein.

Salman Rushdie and Patti Smith were just two of the many literary stars who kicked off the 2010 Pen World Voices Festival at The 92nd Street Y’s Unterberg Poetry Center. The festival showcased writers from around the globe, including those whose voices are often silenced by censorship in their own countries. On opening night, writers from China, Afghanistan and Estonia read their own works — in their native language and in translation. Bernard Schwartz, Director of the Unterberg Poetry Center and Steven L. Isenberg, the Executive Director of PEN America introduced the festival and the evening’s program.

Turns out, Jonathan Lethem has been a fan of Patti Smith's music since he was hanging out at CBGB as a tween. In their talk from this year's PEN World Voices Festival, the two writers discussed their love of books, punk music, and New York City in its grittier days. The East Village these days is a far cry from being edgy, neither author seemed to have lost the punk-fueled passion they had when they were teenagers.

Ian Buruma, author of Taming the Gods: Religion and Democracy on Three Continents, sat with Columbia University professor Andrew Delbanco during the Pen World Voices Festival. The two intellectuals met head-to-head at  powerHouse Arena in Dumbo, Brooklyn and hashed out some of the most important and highly controversial topics in modern discourse both in America and Europe: religion, freedom, immigration and democracy.

Stream and download the entire conversation here.

The Cornelia Street Café celebrates William Shakespeare’s birth each year by bringing to the stage actors to read a selection of the bard's sonnets. Robin Hirsch was the master of ceremonies, Paul Hecht directed, and the readers included André De Shields, Barbara Feldon, Kate Forbes and Hecht, himself. In the spirit of Elizabethan times, Hank Heijink played the lute. The performers covered favorites, such as sonnet number 18 (“shall I compare thee to a summer’s day?”), as well as some lesser-known lines.