PEN World Voices Festival

Schedule of Events:

May 3, 2025

Life in the Pyrocene: The West in the Time of Climate Change

3:00 PM – 5:00 PM

Three distinguished writers known for their writing about the West discuss and read from work pertaining to recent fires— exploring ecological ruin, adaptation, and resilience. Cultural historian D.J. Waldie—best known for Holy Land: A Suburban Memoir— reads from his forthcoming book Elements of Los Angeles: Essays on Earth, Water, Air, and Fire.  Poet and artist Daniela Naomi Molnar, writes about “ecology, grief, and the illusion of closure,” reflecting on her flight from home in 2020 when her Portland house “was a tinderbox surrounded by flames.” Rubén Martínez, author of Desert America: Boom and Bust in the New Old West, and one of our foremost chroniclers of migration, delves into our state’s extremes. Together these three writers will read from their works and share in their experience and art surrounding the ever growing fire seasons of our times.

Cost: Free

Location: The Huntington - 1151 Oxford Rd, San Marino, CA 91108

Buy Tickets

Date:
April 30 - May 3, 2025