Nobel Laureate Abdulrazak Gurnah in Conversation with Aminatta Forna and Others at the 2022 PEN America: World Voices Festival
Posted in Past events | Tagged Aminatta Forna, Spring 2022
The opening night of the 2022 PEN America: World Voices Festival celebrated the work of Tanzanian novelist Abdulrazak Gurnah, in his first appearance in the United States after being awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature last October. This event, which took place in New York on May 13, featured readings, performances, and a conversation with Aminatta Forna, Nadifa Mohamed, Esau Pritchett, Alsarah, and others.
Gurnah has been amplifying, rewriting, and centering subjugated histories for the entirety of his career. His work, which chronicles an Africa on the brink of change while drawing light to the legacies and consequences of European colonialism, was lauded by the Swedish academy for “his uncompromising and compassionate penetration of the effects of colonialism and the fate of the refugee in the gulf between cultures and continents.”
The PEN World Voices Literary Festival is the premier celebration of international literature in the United States, featuring writers in a variety of cross-cultural exchanges and events—from lively debates that delve into the most pressing issues of our time, to intimate conversations that awaken us to the quiet beauty and power of literature.