PEN Festival Offers Panels on Gay Writers Barthes, Arenas & Bonet

Possibly responding to last year's criticism from Larry Kramer about the lack of lgbt writers at their annual World Voices festival, this year's PEN lineup includes a panel called Diálogos Isleños on gay writers Reinaldo Arenas and Blai Bonet. The discussion on April 30 will

"honor the spirit and writing of the irrepressible Reinaldo Arenas from Cuba, whose Before Night Falls has been called a masterpiece of 20th Century literature, and Mallorcan poet Blai Bonet, whose novel El Mar was adapted into the 2000 film of the same name. These two writers, both gay and hailing from islands in vastly different seas, produced their enduring, influential works while facing the fury of repressive regimes."

The panelists are Jaime Manrique, Biel Mesquida, Margalida Pons, Carles Rebassa, and Manuel Vázquez Portal. The event is free and open to the public at Elebash Recital Hall, CUNY Graduate Center, 65 Fifth Avenue.

April 28's collection of short films ends with a brief documentary, Ginsberg's Karma, about Allen Ginsberg's trip to India in the 60s. Free and open to the public at Instituto Cervantes New York, 211–215 East 49th St.

Another free PEN session of note is Bernard Comment's lecture titled "Roland Barthes and the Invention of Modernity."  It will be held on April 29 at 6:30pm in La Maison Française, NYU, 16 Washington Mews.

Openly gay, openly awesome Colm Toibin is one of several distinguished panelists discussing Kafka's unfinished novel Amerika, on April 30 at the Austrian Cultural Forum, 11 East 52nd St. They're Austrian, so reservations are required.

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[Cynthia Dunn]

Colm Toibin will also be reading at 192 Books on May 14th.