PEN Festival Heats Up

It’s already been a busy week for the New York literary world, but PEN World Voices’ Literary Festival is heating up as honors are bestowed and big-time writers come to town. At the Festival’s gala tonight at the Natural History Museum, Chinese activist and writer Liu Xiaobo–who is currently being detained for authoring a petition for human rights—will receive the PEN/Barbara Goldsmith Freedom to Write Award. And Paljor Norbu, an 81-year-old writer who was tried in secret and is currently in custody in Tibet, will receive an award for his commitment to Tibetan culture. Tomorrow things are only getting busier: several authors, including Salman Rushdie to Edwidge Danticat, will convene for a reading entitled “Evolution/Revolution.”