More than 100 writers from 30 countries will gather in New York City from May 4 to 10, at the 11th Annual PEN World Voices Festival of International Literature [5], where the theme this year is “On Africa.” The 2015 event will provide attendees with the rare chance to hear emerging and established international authors on contemporary Africa and its Diaspora.

Booksellers and their customers can get up to 20 percent off admission to most events at the 2015 program, which was co-curated by Nigerian author Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie, who was recently named to Time magazine’s list of 100 Most Influential People [6] and whose novel Americanah (Anchor) won the 2013 National Book Critics Circle Award for Fiction.

Booksellers are invited to use the discount code INDIE2015 for online [5] ticket orders and to share the code with their customers. A wide range of festival events [7] are scheduled to take place in venues throughout the city, including debates, one-on-one conversations, readings, performances, participatory workshops, and panels on the African Diaspora and related topics, such as the future of Africa’s queer communities and the African poetry scene.

“Focusing on the African continent is an ambitious undertaking,” said festival director Laszlo Jakab Orsós. “We cannot, in one week-long festival, even come close to presenting the entirety of the riveting literary landscapes throughout Africa, but we’re excited to present a select group of writers and artists who, I believe, will inspire New York audiences with their uncompromising and brilliant work. It’s our privilege to put the spotlight on these writers, and it is my hope that they will challenge all of us to create art that is bravely subversive and relevant to our time.” 

Authors taking part in the 2015 Festival along with co-curater Adichie include Teju Cole, Edwidge Danticat, Mona Eltahawy, Richard Flanagan, Aminatta Forna, Peter Sellars, Eric Bogosian, Rachel Kushner, Alain Mabanckou, Achille Mbembe, Michael Ondaatje, Tracy K. Smith, Tom Stoppard, Ngũgĩ wa Thiong’o, Binyavanga Wainaina, and others.

IndieBound is included as a purchasing option on the festival website for books by participating authors, and a web banner and poster for booksellers to promote the event are available in BookWeb’s DIY section [8].

This year’s PEN World Voices Festival also features a new chairman in Irish novelist and playwright Colm Tóibín, the replacement for Salman Rushdie, who founded the event in 2005 as a means to celebrate and promote international literature in the aftermath of September 11, 2001.

“This year, on the streets of Paris and other cities, millions have stood together for unity and freedom of the press, and we offer them our heartfelt solidarity,” said Tóibín. “The spirit of these marchers is with us at this year’s Festival, as we once again resoundingly affirm the importance of the open and free exchange of ideas from every corner of the world.”