What does the term, "Asian-American," mean?  The Asia Society  invited a diverse group of panelists who reflect the changing face of Asian-Americans in America to tackle the topic.   The panel included the jazz pianist Vijay Iyer, and New York City Controller John C. Liu.

Michael Cunningham and Gay Talese asked the big questions about truthful writing in the information age at the Morgan Library.

Jane Jacobs and Robert Moses are routinely pitted against each other--or at least their philosophies are--in conversations regarding street life and car and highway culture in New York City.   Earlier this spring, the Museum of the City of New York hosted a panel discussion on the two big thinkers called "Robert Moses, Jane Jacobs and the Automobile." The auditorium was packed, and the conversation lively, as discussions on these contentious subjects often are.

Like rich people, cartoonists are different from you and me. They see the world as a series of absurd scenes awaiting captions.

Sex and crime—genre fiction mainstays—come together with "literary" writing in a new anthology edited by bestselling crime writer SJ Rozan and Jonathan Santlofer. 

Deborah Amos, Philip Gourevich, Arnon Grunberg, Sebastian Junger and Daniele Mastrogiacomo talked about the role of the journalist in war for a PEN World Voices Festival panel held at Le Poisson Rouge. Listen to their conversation here.

Christopher Hitchens delivered the Pen World Voices Festival closing Arthur Miller Freedom to Write Lecture at Cooper Union. 

Four novelists from Afghanistan, Israel, Romania, and Spain discuss how war has influenced their lives and their works at the PEN World Voice Festival. Listen to the event here.

Food writers David Sax and Arthur Schwartz kibbitz about the great American deli for an event at the Museum of Jewish Heritage. Listen to their discussion here.

Opening night of the PEN World Voice Festival brought together literary superstars from around the world. Listen to an international selection of authors read in their native languages here.

Patti Smith spoke with Jonathan Lethem about writing, CBGB, and New York nostalgia for the PEN World Voice Festival. Listen to their conversation and Smith's song about William Blake.

Ian Buruma, author of Taming the Gods: Religion and Democracy on Three Continents, sat with Columbia University professor Andrew Delbanco during the Pen World Voices Festival. The two intellectuals met head-to-head at  powerHouse Arena in Dumbo, Brooklyn and hashed out some of the most important and highly controversial topics in modern discourse both in America and Europe: religion, freedom, immigration and democracy.

Stream and download the entire conversation here.

In celebration of the bard's birthday, Cornelia Street Café hosted readings from William Shakespeare's sonnets. Listen to the readings and Elizabethan music here.

StoryCorps founder and award-winning public radio producer David Isay presented real-life stories about moms at the Tenement Museum. Listen to the full event here.

Russian poet Inga Kuznetsova, Israeli writer Eshkol Nevo, Polish writer Andrzej Stasiuk and New York's own Jonathan Lethem talked about utopia and dystopia for the PEN World Voice Festival. Listen to the event here.

Actor/director Alan Rickman spoke with the New York Public Library's Paul Holdengraber about his new staging of of Strindberg’s Creditors. Listen to their discussion here.

For the PEN festival, Francine Prose, Ernie Colón and Sid Jacobson discussed Anne Frank's diary, its impact on literature, history and society.

Shirley Hazzard spoke with fellow author Richard Ford about writing, poetry and much more for the PEN World Voice Festival. Listen to their conversation here.

Jamaica Kincaid's coming-of-age novel Annie John received this year's Clifton Fadiman Medal from the Center for Fiction. Listen to Kincaid and novelist Jane Smiley talk about the book here.