When: Thursday, April 26
Where: Instituto Cervantes New York: 211–215 East 49th St.
What time: 1–2:30 p.m.
With Breyten Breytenbach, Massimo Carlotto, Kathleen Cleaver, Susan Rosenberg; moderated by Drake Stutesman
Free and open to the public. No reservations.
Co-sponsored by Instituto Cervantes New York, the Consulate General of Spain, and the PEN Prison Writing Program
Four notable authors discuss writing and incarceration: as transformative possibility, social witness, legitimate power, and literature.
Kathleen Cleaver is the widow of Eldridge Cleaver and with him founded the International Section of the Black Panther Party in Algiers.
Breyten Breytenbach’s imprisonment in his native South Africa informs his fiction, poetry, and a memoir entitled Dog Heart.
As a 19-year-old political activist, Massimo Carlotto was accused and convicted of murder in his native Italy. After years as a fugitive and prisoner, he was eventually pardoned and went on to author several novels including Fugitive.
Susan Rosenberg was imprisoned for over 16 years for her involvement with the radical left that grew out of the antiwar and student movement of the late 1960s and 1970s; during her time in prison, she won several prizes from the PEN Prison Writing Contest.
Drake Stutesman is a novelist who also edits Framework: The Journal of Cinema and Media and for three years taught Creative Writing in Holloway Prison in London, England, the largest women’s prison in Europe.
Official Website: http://www.pen.org/page.php/prmID/1096