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World Voices Festival Celebrates Literary Diplomacy (part 1 of 2) by Aberjhani

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Award-winning journalist Serkalem Fasil accepts the 2012 PEN Freedom to Write Award for husband Eskinder Nega . (photo by Beowulf Sheehan, PEN American Center/Associated Press) Political relations between China and the United States may have been visibly strained due to Chinese activist and lawyer Chen Guangcheng’s unexpected bid for asylum last week but diplomacy and fellowship between authors from across the globe proved the exact opposite throughout PEN American Center’s World Voices Festival from April 30 to May 6. Currently celebrating the 90th anniversary of PEN American Center, headquartered in New York City, members of the organization hosted some 100 writers from more than two dozen countries during the festival. The event concluded Sunday with former PEN president Salman Rushdie’s presentation of the Arthur Miller Freedom to Write Lecture . Several locations in the city served as festival venues, including the The Standard, the Metropolitan Museum of Art, th