Nobel laureate Wole Soyinka joins PEN Out Loud and LIVE from NYPL to celebrate his first novel in nearly 50 years, Chronicles From the Land of the Happiest People on Earth. Set in an imaginary Nigeria, the novel is a “fictional meditation on how power and greed can corrupt the soul of a nation.” Soyinka will be joined in conversation with writer, scholar, and inaugural Chair of the African American and African Diaspora Studies Department at Columbia University Farah Jasmine Griffin to discuss the book’s interrogation of political and social corruption.

Secretary Hillary Rodham Clinton and international award-winning author Louise Penny join PEN Out Loud to commemorate their co-written novel, State of Terror. Following a new presidential administration, the novel is a carefully woven political thriller with “incomparable insider expertise.” The bestselling authors will be joined in conversation with National Book Award-winning writer Susan Choi to discuss the novel’s inception, themes, and ideas.

Editor of The New York Times Book Review Pamela Paul joins PEN Out Loud to launch her essay collection, 100 Things We’ve Lost to the Internet. In narratives about the pre-Internet age, the book offers “powerful insights into both the profound and the seemingly trivial things we’ve lost.” Paul will be in conversation with bestselling author and critic Lauren Oyler to discuss a fading era and provide “a guide to reclaiming just a little of the world IRL.”

PEN America Literary Award recipient Sandra Cisneros joins PEN Out Loud to celebrate her new book Martita, I Remember You / Martita, te recuerdo. In a dual language edition, translated by Liliana Valenzuela, the novella tells the story of friendship between three women who over the years are dispersed over three continents. Cisneros will be in conversation with novelist, poet, essayist, and translator Jaime Manrique to discuss the book and its “tribute to the life-changing power of youthful friendship.”