CSB’s Literary Arts Institute sponsors Loft readings by international authors

The Literary Arts Institute at the College of Saint Benedict is co-sponsoring a book reading from four internationally known authors at 7 p.m. Wednesday, May 4, at Target Performance Hall, the Loft Literary Center at Open Book, 1011 Washington Ave. S., Minneapolis.

The event, which is also sponsored by Graywolf Press and the Loft Literary Arts Center, is free and open to the public.

All four authors are part of the PEN "World Voices" Midwest tour book reading. Scheduled to appear are:

Hervé Le Tellier is a writer, journalist, mathematician, food critic and teacher. He has published 15 books of stories, essays, and novels. His latest publications include a collection of poetry, Zindien, and a novel, Je m'attache très facilement, which earned him the Guanahani Prize.

David Bezmozgis was born in 1973 in Riga, Latvia. In 1980, he immigrated with his parents to Toronto, where he now lives. Natasha, his first book, was named one of the Los Angeles Times' Best Books of 2004, and was the winner of the Commonwealth Writers' Prize for Best First Book, among other honors.

Kyung-sook Shin is the author of numerous works of fiction and is one of South Korea's most widely read and acclaimed novelists. She has been honored with the Manhae Literature Prize, the Dong-in Literature Prize and the Yi Sang Literary Prize, as well as France's Prix de l'Inaperçu. Please Look After Mom is her first book to appear in English and will be published in 19 countries.

Deborah Baker is the author of The Convert: A Tale of Exile and Extremism, to be published in May by Graywolf Press. Her previous books include In Extremis: The Life of Laura Riding, a finalist for a Pulitzer Prize, as well as A Blue Hand: The Beats in India.

PEN International, the worldwide association of writers, was founded in 1921 to promote friendship and intellectual cooperation among writers everywhere; to emphasize the role of literature in the development of mutual understanding and world culture; to fight for freedom of expression; and to act as a powerful voice on behalf of writers harassed, imprisoned and sometimes killed for their views.

The PEN American Center was founded in 1922, and remains a writer-centered organization. Past PEN presidents have included Arthur Miller, Norman Mailer, Susan Sontag and Salman Rushdie.