Melbourne PEN at Melbourne Writers’ Festival
Firstly, the annual Melbourne PEN sponsored panel this year features author and human rights advocate Ian Buruma in conversation with Louise Adler in the BMW Edge theatre, at 2.30 on Saturday August 22. (Code 2214 in the festival program).
Ian Buruma is a professor of human rights, democracy and new media studies at Bard College in New York, and a regular contributor to the New York Review of Books, The New Yorker, The New York Times, The Financial Times and The Guardian. He writes on a vast range of topics, including Freedom of Speech, contemporary democracy, and the challenges of multiculturalism.
Secondly, Melbourne PEN will have an information table as part of the Craft Hatch in the Atrium at Federation Square on both Sundays of the Writers’ Festival, August 23 and August 30, 10 – 4pm.
Thirdly, don’t forget to look out for the empty chair at each session in the Festival that represents writers who have been and continue to be persecuted, silenced, imprisoned and killed for daring to write their truth.