City of Asylum Pittsburgh announces the first annual Pittsburgh International Literary Festival (LitFest)—a 10-day event (starting on Wednesday, May 12, 2021) that considers themes of migration, identity, and displacement with an emphasis on works in translation. City of Asylum is committed to producing literary programs that encourage cross-cultural exchange. This festival, the first of its kind for the organization and for Pittsburgh, continues that work and the work to protect and celebrate creative free expression.
The literary festival features a diverse array of more than 30 speakers, representing twenty+ countries in over fourteen languages. LitFest 2021 includes primarily live, virtual programs—allowing City of Asylum to connect artists and audiences from around the world and continue to build community around literary arts and global exchange. It brings authors, translators, and artists together for bilingual readings, conversations about the craft of translation, and conversations centered on the intersection of translation and important social justice topics. Topics include BIPOC (Black, Indigenous, and People of Color) representation among translators, linguistic inclusion of the LGBTQIA+ community, and the politics of publishing, among others.
“Pittsburgh is a city with a rich literary tradition. This festival—the first of its kind in the city—celebrates that tradition, while cementing City of Asylum’s role as a regional hub for global and marginalized voices, ” states City of Asylum’s Executive Director Andrés Franco.
The roster of programs includes Nobel Prize-winning authors, Pulitzer Prize-winning authors and translators, a premiere multi-media performance, and an international book launch.
Programs include:
- Nobel Prize-winning author Olga Tokarczuk discusses her award-winning book Flights as well as her forthcoming “magnum opus” The Book of Jacob.
- Pulitzer Prize-winning author Viet Thanh Nguyen and his newest novel The Committed
- Japanese author Mieko Kawakami and translators of Breast and Eggs, one of Time Magazine’s 10 Best Books of 2020. LitFest 2021 includes the launch event for Kawakami’s highly anticipated new novel Heaven.
- Pulitzer Prize-winning poet/translator Forrest Gander with Mexican poet Coral Bracho and their new work It Must Be a Misunderstanding.
- “We Crossed the River,” a new music concert created by Music on the Edge at the University of Pittsburgh with raw testimonios collected at the US/Mexico border by novelist Angie Cruz.
City of Asylum’s Program Director Abby Lembersky shares, “I am particularly excited to feature Nobel Laureates and Pulitzer Prize winners in conversation, and to center important topics of social justice and their connection to translation and free expression.”
LitFest 2021 is organized alongside regional and national partners. These include national publishers Europa Editions and Archipelago Books; literary translation journal Words Without Borders; the Chautauqua Institute. These also include regional publishers Eulalia Books and UPitt Press as well as regional organizations Music on the Edge, Global Wordsmiths, and more.
For the full roster, more details, and to register for free, visit: alphabetcity.org/litfest21.
About City of Asylum: City of Asylum builds a just community by protecting and celebrating creative free expression. We provide sanctuary to endangered literary writers, so that the writers can continue to write, and their voices are not silenced. We offer a broad range of free literary, arts, and humanities programs in a community setting to build social equity through cultural exchange. And by transforming blighted properties into homes for our programs, we anchor neighborhood economic development.
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