I had the pleasure of listening to a lively panel moderated by Aleksandar Hemon at the PEN World Voices Festival.  Titled Best European Fiction, after the jewel of an anthology of which Hemon is the editor, the panel included contributors Patrick Boltshauser, Robert Gal and Noelle Revaz, as well as Martin Riker, Associate Director at Dalkey Archive Press, which publishes the anthology.

            The overarching theme of the at-times humorous discussion revolved around language, citizenship and the gap that frequently exists between mother tongue and nationhood and how this impacts the writer’s identity.  Hemon probed each of the panelists to speak about how they reconcile the often-contradictory impulses that spark their writing.

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Lyn Miller-Lachmann’s description of this event was excellent, but I did want to add a few further notes.

I attended this event with my daughter, an Asian-American teacher in the Bedford-Stuyvesant neighborhood of Brooklyn. She was especially riveted by the story of Arn Chorn-Pond and his journey from the killing fields of Cambodia to Lowell, Massachusetts. His work in human rights, using the arts as a medium, was inspiring to her. Especially she was glad he spoke of the need to be there, on the ground, taking action. That we are now hearing his story NEVER FALL DOWN, though, is due to Patricia McCormick, who looks a bit like Shirley Temple, but is not afraid to venture into mine fields to interview members of the Khmer Rouge.

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From our friends at PEN West: