The New York Public Library seems to have declared April as International Travel Writing Month. The list of events and offerings related to the world of travel literature continues to grow. Following on the heels of the recent Jan Morris event, the NYPL LIVE lecture series will go truly global this week. Here’s a quick rundown:
Today, at 7 PM, Julia Alvarez, author of Saving the World, will appear at the South Court Auditorium of the Humanities and Social Sciences Library. Julia is a poet, essayist and fiction writer who spent part of her childhood in the Dominican Republic and now runs a sustainable farming project and literacy center in the mountains of her native country.
Then on Sunday, April 29, in conjunction with the PEN World Voices Festival of International Literature, there will be a full day of travel-inspired talk hosted by the library, beginning with Voyage & Voyeur: Travel and Travel Writing at noon. Scheduled to appear are Alain de Botton, Ma Jiam and Illija Trojanow, discussing language and travel writing. Finally, at 2 PM, a special tribute to Ryszard Kapuscinski, the talented Polish journalist and travel writer who died earlier this year.
The PEN Festival brings to town a whole host of other writers (like Pico Iyer and Susan Orlean) who will appear at lectures and workshops throughout the week, focusing thoughts around the festival’s theme of Home & Away. Feel free to send a postcard and share your own views too.