Guernica Magazine

Five Poets Reflect on the Life and Work of Yusef Komunyakaa

At a panel at this year’s PEN America World Voices Festival, five poets discuss the pain and self-actualization in the poems of Komunyakaa. The post Five Poets Reflect on the Life and Work of Yusef Komunyakaa appeared first on Guernica.

Every year PEN America presents its World Voices Festival, a literary festival in New York City featuring at least 200 writers and artists from over fifty countries in conversation about some of the most important literary, cultural, and political topics of our age. This year the event spanned six days, from May 6th to May 12th, and Guernica writers were able to attend four of the events. These are their dispatches from the festival.

On May 11th, at the PEN America World Voices Panel panel “Love in the Timechurches, libraries, organizations like Brooklyn’s Cave Canemthat rose to a swell of laughter in which no single answer took priority. “Man, that is so cool!” Derricotte exclaimed. “Wow, I love that!”

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