Pen World Voices of International Literature April 26 to May 2; Tariq Ramadan at Cooper Union on April 8

April 26-May 2, 2010 is the Sixth PEN World Voices Festival. There are free events (one for high school students) as well as ticketed ones. The Writer as Activist is here. And a conversation between Atiq Rahimi, author of The Patience Stone and Lila Azam Zangeneh is on May 2, from 4-5pm at the French Institute Alliance Française, Tinker Auditorium, 55 East 59th Street, New York City.  Here are reviews of The Patience Stone. I will read it in the next fortnight!

On April 8th at The Great Hall at Cooper Union, 7. East 7th Street, NYC at 7.30pm a panel including Ian Buruma, Dalia Mogahed, directof of the Gallup Center for Muslim Studies, Tariq Ramadan, author of What I Believe, Joan Wallach Scott, author of The Politics of the Veil (The Public Square) and Jacob Weisberg will discuss “Secularism, Islam and Democracy: Muslims in Europe and the West.” The event is presented by the AAUP, the ACLU, Pen American Writers and Slate magazine. The event is not free alas, but is the first US appearance of Tariq Ramadan after Secretary of State Hilary Clinton signed an order in January 2010 lifting a ban on his US public appearances.