Sarah Ruhl, Bess Wohl, Betty Shamieh, Daniel Kehlmann and More Join PEN World Voices Festival

The PEN America World Voices Festival, running April 29–May 2, 2026, in New York City and Los Angeles, convenes—among more than 140 international writers—some of today’s most acclaimed playwrights for timely conversations.

They’re featured in events on two consecutive nights of the festival:

THE ORDINARY AND THE ATROCIOUS: NAZISM IN THE IMAGINATION OF THE CONTEMPORARY PLAYWRIGHT

Thursday, April 30 | 6:30–7:45 PM
The Center (The LGBTQ Community Center), 208 W 13th St, New York | $20

A summer camp for German-American children to be indoctrinated into Nazi ideology. A young Jewish boy coming of age in the Philippines after escaping Nazi Germany. A photo album of Auschwitz staff relaxing. The subject matter varies widely, but eighty years on, the Holocaust and its stories continue to haunt contemporary playwrights.

Bess Wohl (Camp Siegfried), Boni B. Alvarez (Mix-Mix: The Filipino Adventures of a German Jewish Boy), Amanda Gronich (Here There Are Blueberries), and Małgorzata Sikorska-Miszczuk come together with S. Dylan Zwickel (The Moss Maidens) to discuss their use of theatre, with its unique immediacy, to grapple with a past that feels ever more present."

Tickets: eventbrite.com | More info: worldvoices.pen.org/event/the-ordinary-and-the-atrocious-nazism-in-the-imagination-of-the-contemporary-playwright/

WRITING ACROSS FORMS: A CONVERSATION WITH AUTHOR-PLAYWRIGHTS

Friday, May 1 | 7:00–8:15 PM
Goethe-Institut New York, 30 Irving Pl, New York | $20

Throughout the twentieth century, it was common for writers to work across forms. Now, however, there is a void between the role of “author” and “playwright” that few dare cross.