PEN: Workshop: Solitude and Community

Where: Westbeth Center for the Arts, Community Room, 57 Bethune St., New York City

Art-making demands quiet, solitude—perhaps even loneliness. Yet, the literary imagination also thrives in community. How do writers negotiate these competing needs, for the pure aloneness in which a singular voice may emerge and for the solace and creativity of conversation and exchange? Join us for a workshop in which individual artists come together with representatives of creative communities to conceive and articulate the path to harmonious negotiation of these dual needs. Moderated by the essayist Joshua Wolf Shenk and Dr. M. Gerald Fromm, Director of the Erikson Institute for Education and Research at the Austen Riggs Center.

Introductory notes: Lewis Hyde, Kjersti Annesdatter Skomsvold, Shin Kyung-Sook, and Cheryl Young; curated by Joshua Wolf Shenk and Dr. M. Gerard Fromm

Open to PEN Members, Festival authors, heads of cultural agencies, and press. RSVP to jessica@pen.org by April 22. Limited space. Please register early.