Take a cue from the Algonquin Round Table—New York City’s group of leading literary wits—and spend your lunch hour with two celebrated artists as they read from new work and share their perspectives on literature and criticism today. Award-winning novelist, Eugène Nicole, is a scholar known for his work in critical editions of Proust’s "In Search of Lost Time." The author of the "The Enchanter: Nabokov and Happiness," Lila Azam Zanganeh was the recipient of the 2011 Roger Shattuck Prize for Criticism.

Learn more about Lila Azam Zanganeh in this MetroFocus Q&A, in which the young author talks about the big differences between American and French approaches to writing.

2012 PEN World Voices Festival: Writers from around the world convene in New York City to celebrate the power of the written word during the annual PEN World Voices Festival. Checkout the full schedule of events for the week.