On its final night, the Seventh Annual PEN World Voices Festival of International Literature is appropriately ending with a flourish. Nobel Prize winner Wole Soyinka will be delivering the Sixth Annual Arthur Miller Freedom To Write lecture.
Soyinka is one of the most decorated and respected writers in the world. Born in Nigeria in 1934, Soyinka became the first African to receive the Nobel Prize in literature. When given to Soyinka, the Nobel Prize committee said of the author, playwright and poet, "He possesses a prolific store of words and expressions which he exploits to the full in witty dialogue, in satire and grotesquery, in quiet poetry and essays of sparkling vitality." Upon acceptance of the prize, Soyinka gave a controversial Nobel Prize lecture, entitled "The Past Must Address Its Present" and dedicated to Nelson Mandela in the midst of South Africa Apartheid.
This year's festival will appropriately celebrate the "power of the writer's voice to revitalize public debate on world issues." Soyinka most recently has been one of the more outspoken critics against Nigeria's ongoing religious battle between Muslims and Christians. The PEN World Voices Festival is chaired by Salman Rushdie, and is an annual event that takes place in various venues across New York City. Over 100 writers from 40 nations began convening together on April 26, performing and sharing their work for audiences. Soyinka is delivering his lecture at the New York Public Library on Sunday, May 1 at 6 p.m.