The 2008 PEN World Voices Festival kicks off on April 29, where 170 writers from fifty-one countries will converge to address this year’s theme of Public Lives/Private Lives. Notable authors include Andre Aciman, Umberto Eco, Nuruddin Farah, Adam Gopnik, Leonard Lopate, Michael Ondaatje, and Annie Proulx.

Over 200 members of the publishing industry attended a reception for the festival in March, boarding the ocean liner Queen Mary 2 to celebrate the upcoming event. The on-board luncheon featured readings from several festival participants and was hosted by Salman Rushdie, the festival chair, and Francine Prose, PEN American Center president. In an article published in Publisher’s Weekly, PEN ExEcutive director Michael Roberts stated that “holding the reception on the greatest ocean liner in the world was an apt metaphor for the festival’s goal” of crossing barriers internationally.