BENETTON and FABRICA LET YOUNG WRITERS HAVE THEIR SAY
In co-operation with PEN American Center, BenettonTalk sponsors the Young Writers Series: young writers from around the world discuss Faith & Reason.
Ponzano, 18 April 2006. BenettonTalk, the Benetton site for global conversation, promotes the Young Writers Series: young writers come together to discuss Faith & Reason. These conversations will take place in New York from 26 to 29 April for Pen World Voices 2006-The New York Festival of International Literature organised by PEN American Center, the association founded in 1921 to promote literature and defend free expression. BenettonTalk sponsors five of these conversations between ten young writers (five Americans and five from around the world) who will debate the role of literature and writers - virtuosos of the medium through which all forms of reasoning are expressed - in exploring the current discussion of one of the crucial dichotomies of our time. Their voices can be heard live through BenettonTalk Young Writers Series audio files on www.benettontalk.com/pen. A few days before the start of the Series the BenettonTalk blog will welcome questions, comments and provocations to include in the discussions. At the same time, another BenettonTalk-promoted event will take place at Columbia University. Writers from different countries will meet to discuss Mixed Media: writers on their languages, to highlight each language’s diversity and power. BenettonTalk’s co-operation with PEN American Center springs from a shared concern for the social values and free expression which today Benetton expresses through, above all, Fabrica, its communication research centre, Colors, the magazine that talks about the rest of the world, and its new site, BenettonTalk, which promotes global “conversation”. The Benetton Group also has a long tradition of co-operative efforts with such major organisations as the FAO, the UN, the UNHCR, Witness and SOS Racisme, which work to defend the rights and dignity of people around the world. Pen American Center, the largest of the Pen International centres, is one of the oldest human rights organisations. It has a membership of almost 3,000 writers, publishers and translators. It defends writers’ freedom of expression, their rights and, if necessary, supports them in times of need. It also sponsors international literature programmes. The Pen American Center’s current president is Ron Chernow, who recently replaced Salman Rushdie. The calendar for BenettonTalk Young Writers Series: Wednesday 26 April, 4 pm (NY time) NYU Casa Italiana Melania G. Mazzucco (Italy) and Jhumpa Lahiri (India/Great Britain) Thursday 27 April, 7 pm (NY time) Studio Museum in Harlem Helen Oyeyemi (Nigeria/UK) and Esmeralda Santiago (Puerto Rico-US) Thursday 27 April, 7 pm (NY time) Mixed Media: writers on their languages Columbia University Boris Akunin (Georgia), Bernardo Atxaga (Basque Country), Raymond Federman (France), Yiyun Li (China), Agi Mishol (Hungary), Hwang Sok-Yong (South Korea), Dubravka Ugresic (Croatia-Netherlands). Friday 28 April, 12 noon (NY time) Housing Works Bookstore Café Etgar Keret (Israel) and George Saunders (US) Saturday 29 April, 12 noon (NY time) Joe’s pub Rodrigo Fresàn (Argentina) and Jonathan Lethem (US) Saturday 29 April, 6 pm (NY time) The Bowery Poetry Club Azhar Abidi (Pakistan) and Monique Truong (Vietnam-US) For further information: Elisabetta Prando: prando@fabrica.it www.benettongroup.com/press www.benettontalk.com/pen www.fabrica.it www.pen.org
