It's the Brian Larry Show on WNYC. Good morning again, everyone. Today through Saturday,

in Greenwich Village and in Los Angeles, The annual World Voices Festival is taking place from

the group, Penn America. They describe it as uniting 140 writers from 40 countries to celebrate

literature and defend free expression at a time that it's under escalating attacks. Penn America

itself is trying to recover from a free expression controversy. Two years ago,

this festival was canceled after dozens of writers decided not to attend, accusing it of failing

to adequately address the plight of Palestinian writers and Palestinian culture overall.

Its longtime executive director, Suzanne Nossil left after that.

Some writers thought the boycott of Penn went too far, that criticism was one thing,

trying to take down an organization that works to defend free speech against all kinds of authoritarianism

was counterproductive, but many writers did boycott.

Now, Penn America has new leadership, is talking about the controversy.

The World Voices itself, festival itself, is back.

And joining us to discuss all this are the new Penn America president.

The writer DeNal Mengesto, he's been a MacArthur Genius Grant winner, among other awards,

and among his novels as his latest released last year, someone like us,

which, among other things, former President Barack Obama put on his 10 Best Books of the Year List for 2025.

Also with us, one of the two new Pan-America co-CEOs,

Kalease, Clarice Rosas Sharif, who has held various programming leadership positions at

Pan America, and her bio page says before coming there, she spent over a decade at the

Schaumburg Center for Research in Black Culture at the New York Public Library,

working with writers, scholars, artists, and librarians to curate and produce more than

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