Transcript
Heather Roberts: Hi, I'm Heather Roberts.
Veronica Adams: I'm Veronica Adams and we are 1852 Media.
Sabir Sultan: Thank you.
Heather Roberts: Hello, everybody. That was flawless, by the way, that intro. I'm so proud of us. Welcome back to For Book's Sake. ah We are here today with Sabir Sultan.
Heather Roberts: He is the director of the World Voices Festival and Literary Programs at PEN America. And we are so excited to have him on here today to talk about the World Voices Festival specifically.
Veronica Adams: Yes.
Heather Roberts: And I'm going to be diving a little bit into some publishing questions with him because he's here and we have him. And of course we can. um Most recently, he was the director of events at the Strand Bookstore.
Heather Roberts: um And previously he was an events manager at Barnes and Noble. He has a broad background in managing author and publisher relations, and he went to Bard College and George Mason University.
Heather Roberts: So welcome Sabir to For Books' Sake.
Veronica Adams: Yes, it's lovely to have you.
Sabir Sultan: Thank you so much. I'm excited to be here.
Heather Roberts: Well, first, why don't you tell me about your role with PEN America and what is the World Voices Festival?
Sabir Sultan: Sure. So I started with PEN America about three years ago, almost. I don't know how that much time has passed, but I like oversee the PEN World Voices Festival. It was founded 20 years 2004 by It was very much in the wake of 9-11, and this idea was to address U.S. isolationism, to bring in international voices. And I should also say he co-founded it with the translator Esther Allen.
Sabir Sultan: And so there was also an element there of bringing in translated literature to American audiences.
Heather Roberts: Yeah.
Sabir Sultan: But it really started in this, the sort of like inside pen lore is it was just him calling up all of his friends being like, come to a festival with me, like had the idea one night. And then the like executive director was just sending emails and Salman was calling people.
Heather Roberts: but false
Sabir Sultan: And so, yeah, it's, it's fun.
Heather Roberts: yeah
Sabir Sultan: And so,
Veronica Adams: no one says no to someone like Salman Rushdie either, right?
Heather Roberts: yeah
Veronica Adams: Like what a, you know, what ah what an established author. So, you know, you get that phone call you're just like, course we'll be there. So,
Sabir Sultan: yeah How do you say no? It's like, yeah.
Veronica Adams: right.
Sabir Sultan: And actually, he's ah the honorary guest chair of this year's festival, which we're very excited about.
Veronica Adams: Well, that's awesome.
Heather Roberts: That's so cool. So what does it look like now compared to what it looked like back in those days?
Sabir Sultan: oh I would say it's become a lot more coherent and like organized in some ways. Like ah the festival model, and this was like really up until the pandemic was all spread all over New York city.
Sabir Sultan: Like there were a lot of events centered in the village given it's sort of like history of writers, the beatniks, like it has such a like storied lore.
Sabir Sultan: But there'd be events in the Bronx. There'd be events in like a Queens museum. So people would go all over the city and it would be like 60 events over the course of a week.
Sabir Sultan: And then now we're saner. Or like they have a festival director who gets more tired more easily. So it's like 35 events over four days. And they're all centered within Greenwich Village still.
Sabir Sultan: And it's it' a lot of fun. and We're still keeping that same vibe of like trying to bring books into areas where they're not necessarily expected. So there are like some classic event spaces, like we'll do the Strand bookstore or work with the new school, but we'll also do like fun things. Like we're in La Mama, Joe's pub, like at the LGBTQ center.
Sabir Sultan: And so it's really trying to bring these like programs to people where they are and like invite them in.
Heather Roberts: Nice. is it mostly Is it mostly speaker or panel? like That's what it is structured as? I know a little bit about the festival. I know you're moderating the panel, but...
Sabir Sultan: did
Sabir Sultan: Yeah, well, it is mostly panel conversations, I would say, and that's partially, ah love a panel conversation.
Heather Roberts: Yeah.
Sabir Sultan: Yeah. yeah
Heather Roberts: love What is the one that you're doing? ah Can you remind me?
Sabir Sultan: Yeah, I'm doing Bringing Back Books They Love with Joyce Carol Oates and Carmen Beusa. And the idea behind that panel is they both recently re-released books they'd written like in Joyce's case, I think almost like two decades ago, and then Carmen's over a decade ago.
Sabir Sultan: And so it was really, as I was looking at these two books, starting off with this question of like, why? Like, why go back? They're both like so prolific. I think combined, they probably have over 60 books.
Heather Roberts: Yeah. Yeah.
Sabir Sultan: Yeah. And so that's sort of the bit of the question which I'll... animate the conversation? why are they returning to these books? How does it sort of factor into their evolving tastes as writers?
Sabir Sultan: They've moved in such different directions over the years across books that I sort of want to dig into that a bit.
Heather Roberts: yeah
Heather Roberts: Yeah, no, that's fascinating. I mean, we could have a whole conversation about that right now, but I'll save it for the festival.
Sabir Sultan: Yeah.
Heather Roberts: ah Let's just get out there. When is the festival and where can people buy tickets?
Sabir Sultan: Perfect. So the festival is April 30th through May 3rd. And if you'd like to purchase a ticket, you can just go www.worldvoices.pen.org.
Heather Roberts: Okay, awesome. I wanted to make sure we got that in there while we're talking about it. So in the first few minutes, in case we lose any listeners later on, and now you know, now you can go buy tickets and go see.
Heather Roberts: I mean, you have an amazing author lineup coming up. I mean, yeah, no, it's really incredible.
Sabir Sultan: Thank you.
Heather Roberts: You have a lot of ah incredible authors. um What is, I'm not going to make you choose, but what is one that you're most excited about other than the one that you're moderating?
Sabir Sultan: Oh, that's like, I feel like it's Sophie's choice.
Heather Roberts: I know.
Sabir Sultan: Like...
Heather Roberts: mean, you could use a couple. Like what are, what are several that maybe you're most excited about this year?
Sabir Sultan: like
Sabir Sultan: Well, I'll say one, and I was actually just on a call with the authors earlier trying to plot out the conversation is towards a trans aesthetic, which is like looking at if there's a through line between like community and like the transgender community and the craft of these authors and like their aesthetic choices.
Sabir Sultan: And we have some legends on it, like ah Kate Bornstein, Jenny Finney Boylan, Meredith Talusan, Bishak Sohm, Oliver Radcliffe.
Sabir Sultan: So I'm really excited for that conversation. it'd say another one ah which has sort of captured my imagination the past couple months is Heartbeats and Heroines.
Sabir Sultan: It's a romance panel at The Strand.
Heather Roberts: a
Veronica Adams: No.
Sabir Sultan: Yeah, and it has Ali Hazelwood, Nisha Sharma, Priscilla Olivares, and then Katie Holt.
Heather Roberts: all great authors. Yeah. yeah
Sabir Sultan: I think like that one was fun because it started off with this... Have you heard of halal romances?
Heather Roberts: I don't know if I have.
Veronica Adams: no
Sabir Sultan: oh oh i like I have a friend who is super into them, and so she was sharing these books with me and we talking about how romance in these books is structured very differently.
Sabir Sultan: So sort of like in some ways, like related to like religious principles, but like the marks of the love story look different.
Veronica Adams: Yeah.
Heather Roberts: Yeah.
Sabir Sultan: And so it was done, and just sort of engendered this question for me of how does romance look different based on culture, based on faith and like, what are the markers in there?
Veronica Adams: yeah
Heather Roberts: yeah
Sabir Sultan: So I'm excited for this conversation to sort of dig into that a bit.
Veronica Adams: I'm going to have to go find one of these halal romances as soon as we're done recording because mind blown. i i didn't know they existed. And what a fascinating way to turn romance on its head, what we think of as a romance and blend it with a different culture, a different religious tradition, something that a lot of romance readers probably are not exposed to.
Veronica Adams: fascinating.
Sabir Sultan: right yeah it still has those sort of like same what i like understand to be the classic like hallmarks of romance the happy ending the sort of like empowering or i shouldn't say empowering but like sort of like celebrating women's like bodily autonomy and so yeah it just seems like ripe and rich
Heather Roberts: Yeah. Yeah. Thank
Veronica Adams: Sure.
Veronica Adams: I love it.
Heather Roberts: That's super fascinating. I too had never heard of that specific subgenre.
Veronica Adams: Yeah.
Heather Roberts: I've heard of a lot of subgenres of romance, but not that one.
Veronica Adams: Yes. Absolutely.
Heather Roberts: um No, that's that's really, really cool. ah what i have to ask, what drew you to the world of you know literary programming and events? How did you find yourself in your position?
Sabir Sultan: I think very luckily, I moved to New York and was ah paralegal and it was miserable.
Heather Roberts: yeah
Sabir Sultan: have never hated anything more. And so like I quit that.
Veronica Adams: yeah
Sabir Sultan: And then quit at a bad time and couldn't find another job. like Ended up at Barnes & Noble. And then it just sort of like migrated from there. Like I started working in events there then moved to a different Barnes and Noble and did events and then the Strand.
Sabir Sultan: And then I didn't know festival director was a job until someone at Penn told me it had posted.
Heather Roberts: yeah
Sabir Sultan: was like, what? You pay someone to do this? It's like I'm getting away with something. Yeah.
Heather Roberts: Right? I know. i know. We feel that way a lot, though, too. It's like we we joke that our worst day on with with our job is still better than lawyering, like any day lawyering.
Veronica Adams: Yes.
Veronica Adams: Yes.
Sabir Sultan: yeah
Veronica Adams: yeah
Heather Roberts: Yeah.
Veronica Adams: As disaffected legal professionals ourselves, that is something that we both feel very fortunate to no longer have to be putting up with.
Sabir Sultan: Right?
Veronica Adams: like
Heather Roberts: Yeah, i mean, some of some of the tasks that we have to do at our current job, we're just like, how is this our job? Like, how is this something that I'm getting paid to do? Like, you know, it's wild.
Sabir Sultan: i
Veronica Adams: Yeah.
Heather Roberts: It's absolutely wild. Getting to talk with amazing people, getting to you know, chat with incredible authors. Yeah, it doesn't feel like work half the time, which is...
Veronica Adams: yeah Getting to be surrounded by books, getting to read and ah its any job that requires you to read.
Sabir Sultan: Oh yes.
Heather Roberts: Yeah. I know.
Veronica Adams: Lawyering also required us to read. I'm sure being a paralegal required you to read a considerable amount too, but there's a big difference between case law and briefs and the general world of both fiction and nonfiction writing, right?
Sabir Sultan: Yes.
Veronica Adams: So... Yeah.
Heather Roberts: 100%.
Sabir Sultan: Oh yeah.
Veronica Adams: Living the dream now.
Sabir Sultan: Yeah.
Veronica Adams: Absolutely.
Heather Roberts: Yeah.
Sabir Sultan: Right. Nothing is exciting about a contract.
Veronica Adams: Yes.
Sabir Sultan: Like nothing is exciting about a contract. Give me any book. like
Veronica Adams: ah absolutely yes
Heather Roberts: your side for that, for sure.
Sabir Sultan: yeah
Heather Roberts: ah we are on your side for that for sure um What would you say has been something, you know, have you just, did you just take the template from past years and are trying to implement that? Or have you tried to craft anything new um as being the director of the festival now?
Sabir Sultan: yeah i think one of the goals, and I think we're still like working towards accomplishing this, is making it more like multi-format, more multi-genre.
Sabir Sultan: Genre is the wrong word there. But I think having events that are across like artistic disciplines.
Heather Roberts: awesome
Sabir Sultan: So one of the cooler events, or I shouldn't say cooler, but one of the cool events we have is with ah this like Afghani muralist group, Art Lords, And so they're going to be in Union Square creating like a public mural that people can just like walk up and start to paint with them.
Sabir Sultan: like They have it sort of sketched out, but it it's going to be really exciting. So I feel like that's a fun addition. Yeah.
Heather Roberts: No, that's really cool.
Sabir Sultan: and
Heather Roberts: It's almost like how do you narrow it down, right? Like I bet you have so many things, so many ideas that you could do that it's got to be pretty challenging to narrow that down.
Sabir Sultan: Yeah, well, we sort of like approach curation with like author first. So we'll start sending invites out to just like authors that are exciting or interesting or whose books we've read and liked.
Veronica Adams: Mm-hmm.
Sabir Sultan: And then as it starts to come together, there are sort of like innate groupings that form and like commonalities and themes across books. And then there are some where it's like, I just, I have this idea. i want to make this event happen.
Sabir Sultan: And so like I'll start like curating directly towards that.
Heather Roberts: No, that's very cool. That's very cool. I sit on of a tiny festival up here in Vermont, the board of a tiny festival.
Sabir Sultan: Oh.
Sabir Sultan: Oh.
Heather Roberts: It's called the Green Mountain Book Festival. um
Sabir Sultan: oh
Heather Roberts: And we actually were doing a speaker series over the next a year instead of an actual festival. just be you know Arts and humanities funding is not what it wass was once was.
Heather Roberts: um So we're sort of trying to figure out the best way to you know share humanity people the community um in the most sort of economical way possible, right? And to to highlight literacy and all of that. But we even find as, you know, we're planning festivals and, you know, in this small space that we have, like, it's just, it's very challenging to narrow down what you want to highlight because there's so many amazing authors.
Heather Roberts: There's so many different panels that you could do. so many genres that you could focus on. It's so, I can only imagine in a place like New York, how much of a task that is to really pull together something that, you know, has notes of everything, but also is cohesive, you know?
Sabir Sultan: no I hear you, but I will say being in New York makes it much easier. There are so many writers who live here.
Heather Roberts: imagine.
Sabir Sultan: like And because people always, or authors always start off their book tours in New York, too, there's a good like timing makes my life easier, too, I'd say.
Veronica Adams: Sure.
Heather Roberts: go
Heather Roberts: Yeah, that's true. Do you guys um have partners at all with ah the independent bookstores in New York? Like how does that work?
Sabir Sultan: Yeah, so, i mean, I come from, like, an independent bookstore.
Heather Roberts: yeah
Sabir Sultan: i do not buy anything on Amazon, so all we do is partner with independent bookstores. Like, ah this...
Heather Roberts: and it's all
Sabir Sultan: Oh, I'm sorry.
Heather Roberts: No, I just said that's awesome.
Sabir Sultan: Yeah, I'm excited. Like, we have events with The Strand, Poseman's Books, McNally Jackson, The Center for Fiction.
Heather Roberts: Thanks.
Sabir Sultan: all of the, like, New York indies. It's exciting to bring them in and to, like, be able to work with them.
Heather Roberts: and That's really cool. It's almost like a celebration of publishing and literacy in New York City. i mean, there's there's so many events happening in New York, like all the time.
Heather Roberts: How do you guys narrow down what, you know, do you consider other dates or do you just decide this is when we're doing it?
Sabir Sultan: yeah
Heather Roberts: And do you do it at the same time every year? do you just pick dates? How does that process work for you guys? Yeah.
Sabir Sultan: So it's tricky. There's like this actual festival circuit of dates. And so normally, until this year, we've been typically Mother's Day weekend. So like the Wednesday through Saturday.
Sabir Sultan: And then an Australian festival moved its dates. And there are like three festivals in Australia back to back. So authors will just go on tour to them.
Sabir Sultan: and so this year we tried moving a week back. And I have regrets. I think that weekend was better. Like it's curious, since so many writers are teachers and professors, this like period of time has meant that like we're running up against a lot of their like final schedules.
Heather Roberts: Yeah.
Heather Roberts: Oh.
Sabir Sultan: So I think it's still an evolving question of like when it'll officially land, but like, oh, the Australian festivals. wow
Heather Roberts: No, it's it's valid because there's always, i mean, when when we were trying to choose stuff up here, ah like I said, much smaller scale, but even we were struggling. So I cannot even, I'm thinking of how in a place like New York City that even can come together in a way, you just sort of have to pick a date and stick, which obviously you've done.
Sabir Sultan: Yeah.
Heather Roberts: But I mean, there's always so much going on in New York City. But it also provides you, like you said, so many more opportunities because there's so many authors there and you just have the the places and the people to partner with to really make it a cool success.
Heather Roberts: um And there's so many more people who can attend. Yeah.
Sabir Sultan: That does help.
Heather Roberts: that's us how That does help. That does. How do you select which voices and themes to feature each year? do you have like a committee? do you, or is it like when people submit?
Sabir Sultan: Yeah.
Sabir Sultan: oh So we'll have people reach out and submit. And I'll probably starting in the fall, i'll do publisher meetings to sort of ask publishers what they have coming out, both in the spring, but any authors they want to highlight.
Sabir Sultan: And then we collect a lot of PDFs. and me And we have three other curators who work on the festival. Louise Steinman, who oversees our l LA curation.
Sabir Sultan: Andy Tepper, who helps with New York. And then my colleague, Sarah Dillard. We just sort of read the books. We come up with ideas. We meet weekly. We talk about them. We talk about what's interesting.
Sabir Sultan: Because it's pen, there's always an element of... what free expression events how are we talking about censorship and the repression of writers so it becomes there's always that sort of vertical within the festival but outside of that there's a lot of room to play it's it's really fun
Heather Roberts: no That's awesome. It's a dream job.
Sabir Sultan: It really is. Like sometimes I'm just like, I love this author. Like, uh, I think my first festival, Ben Oakry, we were able to get. And just since I was a kid, I was obsessed with it. My parents wouldn't let me read his book. It would just like sat on the shelf.
Sabir Sultan: They were like, it's too adult for you. And then got to have an event with him. it was sort of insane.
Heather Roberts: Full circle moment there.
Sabir Sultan: Yeah. Yeah.
Heather Roberts: um No, that's so cool. What do you hope that ah ah those that attend the festival, you know, that they take away? Like, what what do you hope that they get from any of the panels?
Sabir Sultan: oh i think like a range of things and a range in the sense of like what we all get out of books like excitement adventure like an expanded sense of self an expanded sense of possibility think i want people to have an experience i want them to like in not only be able to have fun, but to also leave thinking more broadly.
Sabir Sultan: And of course, at a basic level, be aware of more international authors. I think that's one of our like fundamental missions to the festival is to introduce international authors to American audiences.
Heather Roberts: it is a world voices festival after all.
Sabir Sultan: Yes.
Heather Roberts: That is sort of the point. Uh, at least I would hope, but no, that's, I think that's really important too. And, and, you know, the times of today, as where oftentimes we hear in the news where it's you know very American insular thoughts and feelings that, you know, there is a world out there and we need to connect with them.
Sabir Sultan: Yeah.
Heather Roberts: And, uh, You know, doing so through books is a wonderful way to do that, whether through fiction or nonfiction. But you looked like you had something to say, Veronica, did I cut you off?
Veronica Adams: well no, not at all. I was just going to interject when the opportunity arose and ask, ah in what ways can ah festival guests and attendees expect to see sort of the the vertical present in the programming this year?
Veronica Adams: You know, PEN America's commitment to free expression and, you know, ah their fight against censorship. You know, what in what ways is that going to be part of the panels or the programming that that's taking place this year?
Sabir Sultan: Yeah, so I would say on our opening night, and this is an event I'm super pumped for, we have Disappearing Acts Censorship in American Theater.
Heather Roberts: Thank you.
Veronica Adams: Uh-huh.
Sabir Sultan: And so it's like with Lynn Nottage, Carlisle Brown, Moises Kaufman, and Lisa Krohn. And this was something Lynn actually brought to us.
Sabir Sultan: And it'll be such a, I think it's like a fun and interesting event in the sense that we don't often talk about censorship in theater and the ways that like high schools and colleges will like edit texts based on like local governments, the way it's often used to sort of silence LGBTQIA plus voices and like histories that,
Veronica Adams: Yeah.
Sabir Sultan: or real, but like now politicized in a way.
Veronica Adams: yeah
Sabir Sultan: Yeah. And so that event I'm really excited for. I'd say another one in that vertical would be our closing night event, which will be moderated by our current co-CEO, Summer Lopez.
Sabir Sultan: And it's ah about journalism under siege and the way sort of government attacks on journalists give license to these other actors, whether that's like troll farms online or bots online to just sort of attack these journalists.
Sabir Sultan: And that one i think is part of the reason I'm excited is we have Rana Ayyub, who's a Washington Post ah opinion writer, but has written a lot about the Indian government in ways that have somewhat endangered her. And we also have the writer Patricia Evangelista, who will be joining us virtually for that event.
Sabir Sultan: And she wrote a book last year called, oh, the title is escaping me. But she was sort of chronicling Duterte's government in the Philippines, war on drugs, and the way so many innocent people were swept up in that.
Veronica Adams: Yes. Yeah.
Sabir Sultan: And so that feels like a conversation which seems particularly relevant in this moment where we see that news organizations have been like sued by Trump or the Trump administration in the past year and like what it means for journalists to report the truth in an environment that is increasingly hostile to them.
Veronica Adams: yes
Heather Roberts: Yeah. Yeah. That makes total sense. And that's pretty fascinating topics and and panels that you're going to be having. I wish I lived in new York.
Sabir Sultan: yeah
Heather Roberts: Thank you.
Sabir Sultan: We'll post them all after, or not all of them. I would say like about a third, a couple of months after the festival on YouTube. Like with, yeah, our hope is really to just expose people to these writers.
Veronica Adams: Excellent.
Sabir Sultan: The tickets are always low cost. So like under $20 over half of the events are free. We just really want people to come and like celebrate writing and celebrate reading and have fun with each other.
Heather Roberts: That's amazing. Let's say What else can I ask you now that I have you here?
Heather Roberts: um What advice would you give to emerging writers, authors looking to engage you know with these types of events?
Sabir Sultan: Oh, I mean, on a basic level, I'd say reach out. And there's also, we have ah team at Penn, which I actually think you emailed or interviewed my colleague, Sabrina Beda.
Heather Roberts: Yeah, yeah.
Veronica Adams: Yeah, yeah.
Sabir Sultan: Yeah.
Veronica Adams: yeah
Sabir Sultan: Yeah, and they work on like book banning. So if authors are being affected in that way, they can always reach out to the Freedom to Read team. They do incredible work. They also, I believe, work with authors against book bans and this wider coalition.
Sabir Sultan: And then depending on what the authors are dealing with... or depending on their interests, I think there are a wide variety of intersection points. We have these fantastic writing programs at Penn, Dreaming Out Loud, which is focused on migrant writers, immigrant writers, and then Emerging Voices, which is an online fellowship which links up emerging writers with more established writers to get mentorship.
Sabir Sultan: And like all of these programs are free. Writers are paid to take part in them. we really feel like writing in itself is work it should be compensated accordingly so that's even our approach to fellowships
Heather Roberts: That's fantastic. I mean, that's amazing. I'm constantly surprised, pleasantly so, with all of the offerings that PEN America has. I mean, you guys do so much work within advocacy, within the industry, um as well as putting on events like this and having those programs for writers.
Sabir Sultan: hmm
Heather Roberts: um It's just... constant. You guys are such a powerhouse. um
Sabir Sultan: Thank you.
Heather Roberts: and You know, I'm surprised in a good way. Every time I hear about a new program that comes up.
Sabir Sultan: There's like this great effect of I get to come into a workplace where I think everyone around me is just doing good, which is like nice.
Heather Roberts: Yeah.
Sabir Sultan: I've been in other workplaces, including retail. i said Different dynamics.
Heather Roberts: Very different dynamic.
Sabir Sultan: Yeah.
Heather Roberts: right
Heather Roberts: Oh my gosh. Are there any, um let's see, are there any trends in the literary world, you know, publishing or ah reader engagement and anything that you can think of that excite you or concern you right now?
Sabir Sultan: So this will be a sort of like personal note, but I think novels are getting too small.
Heather Roberts: yeah
Sabir Sultan: Like everything's like 120 pages. And sometimes I just want to sink into a book, like spend a week, a weekend, just like lost in some tome.
Sabir Sultan: ah a well-written, exciting, fun tome. But like...
Heather Roberts: like
Sabir Sultan: Yeah!
Heather Roberts: This is why you like fantasy though. Cause we were talking ah ah before the episode started about our favorite genres and you mentioned fantasy is one of yours.
Sabir Sultan: oh You can't.
Heather Roberts: And that's why it's the getting lost in
Veronica Adams: Yes.
Heather Roberts: You can't do a fantasy in 120 pages. Yeah.
Veronica Adams: That's right.
Sabir Sultan: you can
Veronica Adams: World building is 100,000 words every time.
Sabir Sultan: every time. But that's also the like fun of it You get to like inhabit this entire universe that has been thought of with its own mythologies and magic systems.
Heather Roberts: Yeah.
Sabir Sultan: Yeah.
Heather Roberts: Do you find that you're more of a mood reader or do you, do you read in a different way?
Sabir Sultan: I would say When like I'm outside of that like festival reading period, it's so based on impulse. like I am a book hoarder.
Sabir Sultan: These like shelves extend all around my apartment. I will buy books just because I'm like, I'm going to want to read that one day. And that day may be like three years later.
Heather Roberts: ye
Sabir Sultan: So yeah, it's very much like I'm just going to try this or the universe is telling me. I like dip into like my soothsayer mode and just like feel the universe guide me towards books sometimes.
Veronica Adams: I love that the energy is leading you to this title at this time. And that's just the experience.
Sabir Sultan: Yeah, and it's the like right book at the right moment so often.
Veronica Adams: Yeah.
Heather Roberts: Well, and people often say that book buying and reading are two completely separate hobbies. And I thousand percent agree with that statement because they are.
Sabir Sultan: right
Sabir Sultan: Yeah.
Veronica Adams: This is very true.
Heather Roberts: know, because sometimes you're good to just, you're just drawn to, you know, that book for whatever reason, you just want to hold it and feel it and maybe one day read the content.
Heather Roberts: Yeah.
Heather Roberts: oh man um Oh, What other than fantasy are you super into right now?
Sabir Sultan: Oh, poetry. i love poetry. Like, I would say there have been like some great collections I've read this year. Dunya McHale's like tablets of clay.
Sabir Sultan: And she's actually in the festival at a couple of events, and which is another thing when I read a i'm like book I like, I'm just like, how do I get that author?
Veronica Adams: Awesome.
Heather Roberts: Of
Sabir Sultan: Like,
Heather Roberts: course.
Sabir Sultan: ah Yeah. And then, oh, Marie Howe, I've been going back and rereading. She has this book, What the Living Do, which is sort of, it's a heavy collection, a lot about grief, but like the poems are so lovely.
Sabir Sultan: They're just like so well written so personal and immediate. Like, yeah. So like poetry is also occurring a bunch this year.
Veronica Adams: I love that.
Heather Roberts: That's really cool. Yeah. Do you have a question, Veronica? No.
Veronica Adams: No, oh no, not this time. i was just.
Heather Roberts: Okay. Not this time. that i mean To that end, I have another one. um You were just mentioned a couple of authors that you know you have and writers that you personally read.
Heather Roberts: Who would you say are some of the under-the-radar writers or voices that you think more people should be reading right now?
Sabir Sultan: Oh, that is a fun question. oh let's see, I would say, The French author, Edward Louis, I went through like a phase with him last summer where he's just kind of obsessed.
Sabir Sultan: It's a lot of, it's four books, sort of auto fiction, some are memoirs where he's talking about his sort of rural upbringing in France and this sort of toxic masculine culture, the way it like impacts his own coming to terms with his queerness and his gay identity.
Sabir Sultan: And then it's also layered with this sort of, I would say his later books are layered with this political analysis about the like sort of like social structures, which like force this like overly hyper masculine culture on these like working class people in France.
Sabir Sultan: And so that was fantastic. I've been obsessed with him. And then I think I read a lot of, oh, sorry.
Heather Roberts: No, no, go ahead. What would you say? What were you saying?
Sabir Sultan: Oh, it was going to say, I tend to read a lot of like popular authors, so I feel like my recommendations would like overlap with several people, but I'd say Sayaka Murata, the Japanese writer, she's fantastic. Her stories are like strange and funny.
Sabir Sultan: um I don't know if they would count as under the radar, but Adam Haslett, he just had a book come out this year, Mothers and Sons, which I think his last book was maybe a decade ago, but it's a story of this like man who's an immigration lawyer sort of like struggling this repressed memory
Veronica Adams: Yeah.
Sabir Sultan: this like press memory of kind of his first gay romance like ending in someone dying. and like he thinks his like mother is aware of like the impact and like effect of it on him.
Sabir Sultan: And so their relationship is strained. They haven't been talking. And like meanwhile, his mother has like set up this all women retreat for sort of like spiritual cleansing.
Sabir Sultan: but it's just like this really good novel, like funny in parts. sad it has that entire dimension of the things we don't say to each other that just become part of our personal narratives yeah so sorry i could go i love reading
Heather Roberts: Yeah.
Heather Roberts: No, it sounds amazing. Yeah. I'm getting some recommendations.
Veronica Adams: I'm taking notes right now. Like...
Heather Roberts: Yeah. Exactly. Exactly. No, we we get ah you know, we work so much in the romance industry that oftentimes I don't look outside the industry to see, you know, what else is trending or other recommendations of titles that I should really dive into. So I'd love getting, you know, new recommendations and those sound amazing.
Sabir Sultan: one I might turn that question back on you then. What would you both recommend as like under the radar romance authors? Do you think I should try?
Heather Roberts: Oh, this is hard.
Veronica Adams: Under the radar.
Heather Roberts: Yeah, I know.
Veronica Adams: Oh, gosh. Well, and and now knowing about your special interest in fantasy generally, there is so much romanticy out there that is a nice blend of your already engaged interest and romance at the same time.
Sabir Sultan: Hmm.
Veronica Adams: Gosh. Oh, Heather, where do we start?
Heather Roberts: Let me think of it. I know. Well, You have the, these are not under the radar. These are massive names. Obviously, Sarah J.
Veronica Adams: Yes, of course.
Heather Roberts: Maas. You have Sarah J. Maas. And then, you you know, Rebecca Yeros with the fourth wing and ah all of that.
Sabir Sultan: Oh.
Heather Roberts: um She's only on book three, though. So book, you know, we're we're in the middle of a series. So if you're picking it up, know that.
Sabir Sultan: well
Heather Roberts: There's cliffhangers. Yeah. It's going to be a time, um but she can take all the time that she wants. It's fine. It's fine. um But I actually did just read a fantasy or romanticy somewhat recently um that I thought was really quite fantastic. And I'm trying to remember the name of it.
Heather Roberts: um So I'm trying, I'm looking it up right now. But Who else do say? Jennifer Armentrout. I don't know if you're familiar with her. Also not really under the radar. She's very popular in romance, but outside of romance, I don't know how much others would know, but she has some incredible series that um I think you would really enjoy. One of my favorites. ah Let's go, Jennifer.
Heather Roberts: Armentrout. I'm trying to remember the name of the first book. I just remember vibes. Yeah. And what the story's about, I don't always remember the title, ah which is not the best, ah you know, thing.
Sabir Sultan: That happens.
Sabir Sultan: Yeah.
Heather Roberts: Half-Blood. Half-Blood is the first name of the first book. It's ah the Covenant series is what it's called. And it starts out a little bit with a 17-year-old. And she, you and she you know She it's about how I mean, I don't want to give it away, but there's, you know, people that have been descended from gods and mortals.
Heather Roberts: And then there's pure bloods, there's half bloods.
Sabir Sultan: Thank you.
Heather Roberts: And there's obviously elements, you know, that you can probably surmise of some discrimination amongst people. that sort of grouping, um, people can, you know, fall in love with the other, you know, kind.
Heather Roberts: And then obviously, or maybe not so obviously, but there is, uh, that, that ah full blood and half blood do, you know, want to be together. And what does that look like? And then there's additional, you know, powers, uh, uh,
Heather Roberts: that are happening about, you know i don't wanna give too much away about, you know there's push and pull within the politics
Sabir Sultan: Yeah.
Heather Roberts: um of the world in which she had built. And the, obviously the main character takes out a large role in that. And it's just, there's a lot of action. So if you like action along with romance, it's not just about the romantic story between the two main characters. obviously That is part of it. It is a romance, um but it is specifically also about the world and the politics within the world and how that's all,
Heather Roberts: you know, going to, you know, shake out one of my favorite series.
Sabir Sultan: oh
Heather Roberts: It's not, it's not a new series. It came out in October, 2011, but a really, I think compelling series.
Sabir Sultan: oh i think you've sold me half blood jennifer armandrout i will remember this i will pick this up
Heather Roberts: yeah You should pick it up. It's fantastic. ah Veronica, do you have one while I'm trying to find this other one that I can't remember?
Veronica Adams: Oh, well, but so as you were talking, I was thinking less about romanticcy and romance and more about women's fiction and the the paranormal women's fiction and how it sort of has become its own little subgenre within paranormal romance and or fantasy, urban fantasy, if you will.
Sabir Sultan: Hmm.
Veronica Adams: um And the concept is just women who hit midlife and the the potential for the romantic story arc sort of ends, right? With their their fertility drying up and menopause and all of that stuff, right?
Veronica Adams: And so it's women entering this magical time in their lives where they're no longer just mothers and wives and nurturers and caretakers, but they are witches and vampires and you know they kick butt and they are out here maybe in some series having a liaison with a fellow witch or wizard and there is a romantic subplot, but it's really more about the empowerment and ah the world building and the magic and all of that. And the first thing that came to mind was K.F. Breen's leveling up series.
Veronica Adams: It's just sort of like the anchor of that sub-sub-genre, if you will. um And there are several other authors who've written it very well, but hers is the first that comes to mind, so
Sabir Sultan: Oh, I will look her up That sounds great.
Veronica Adams: yeah heather did you think of the other one that that was escaping you yes
Sabir Sultan: Yeah.
Heather Roberts: Yes, hold on. Here she is. There it is. It's Stacia Stark. And I was messing with her, messing up her last name.
Veronica Adams: oh
Heather Roberts: A Court This Cruel and Lovely is book
Veronica Adams: yes
Heather Roberts: And she's not as well known as some of the other, you know, bigger romanticcy authors. um But I was hooked on this series. And this is one that really, every book is very long.
Heather Roberts: Um, so I've already hooked you.
Sabir Sultan: I'm not.
Heather Roberts: Um, and it's just, it's really good. Um, there's, there's war involved. Um, there's, you know, i she dreams about a man in her, you know, in her dreams. And then eventually she comes into contact with him without realizing at first that this is the person from her dream.
Heather Roberts: Um, there's a lot of, you know, what you would think in world building and in fantasy, all of those elements are there um with ah people trying to, you know, it's dystopian in in that way, you know, the trying to overturn right. A terrible government and a terrible system that has been put into place.
Heather Roberts: And ah yeah, it's just two unlikely people that get together and fall in love and, It is a slow burn series. At first, they don't really love each other.
Heather Roberts: So enemies lovers. But then that changes over time ah and as it does.
Sabir Sultan: Hmm. Hmm.
Heather Roberts: And it's just it's really, really good. It's got a really strong heroine. um she She kicks ass and I was really inspired by her. And I didn't feel, you know, she's not one of those damsel in distress type situations. She's like, I'm just going to it myself if you're not going to help me.
Heather Roberts: um
Sabir Sultan: fun
Heather Roberts: And it yeah, it's just really great. So I absolutely loved that series. A Court This Cruel and Lovely. I thought about it for a long time after i finished reading it. And obviously it still sticks in my brain. I just can't always remember the titles.
Heather Roberts: Yeah.
Veronica Adams: It's always the mark of a great read, though, when you stay stuck in the world long after you've closed the book or finished the last page. It's just it stays with you. i love that.
Heather Roberts: yeah would say the one thing about romance that is maybe different than some of the, I don't know, so other genres, but i have we have books in romance that I like call mind erasers.
Heather Roberts: And they are just there for entertainment purposes only, right?
Sabir Sultan: Hmm. Hmm.
Heather Roberts: You're not really going to be presented with any strong opinions or any strong anything. You're there for pure entertainment, and it's just to erase my mind. Just to let me let me enjoy this story and how it plays out.
Heather Roberts: And I tend to read a lot of those when world is in chaos and crisis. So those I'm not necessarily recommending, but I could if that's what you're looking for.
Sabir Sultan: yeah I mean, I love it concept-wise. Like, a mind eraser sounds beautiful. Sometimes you just need to, like, dip out of the world.
Heather Roberts: Yeah. And it's not like these books are bad. i don't mean to say it like that. They're just not memorable in the sense that you're going to be thinking about them for for you know months and months and months at a time.
Heather Roberts: Yeah.
Veronica Adams: Yeah, they're they're not love stories that are also social commentary or political commentary and cultural commentary in any particular way. They're just ah an escape into the idea of two people who fall in love and live happily ever after in some way.
Heather Roberts: yeah
Sabir Sultan: That sounds wonderful.
Heather Roberts: oh I mean, if we're talking about one of my, you know, favorite authors who personal personal favorite authors, Catherine Cowles, I absolutely love her.
Heather Roberts: She writes amazing small town romantic suspense. And for our listeners, they all know that that is my jam. ah That's my personal jam. So...
Heather Roberts: Excuse me. Yeah, just really great stories. um I couldn't really tell you all of the characters in all of the stories. I've read them all. If I started reading them again, I would remember it.
Heather Roberts: um But I just remember how they make me feel. And that isn't at the point of a good book, right?
Sabir Sultan: Oh, 100%. That's it exactly.
Heather Roberts: Yeah.
Sabir Sultan: Like, until I started working at bookstores, I did not remember book titles or authors. it was just like, oh, the vibes, the like the way this just like captured me.
Sabir Sultan: Oh,
Heather Roberts: Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. No, and obviously I remember titles on books I'm actually working on. ah
Sabir Sultan: fair. Yes. Yeah.
Heather Roberts: and
Sabir Sultan: yeah
Heather Roberts: Stuff that i read for pleasure. You know, yeah my husband will be like, what are you reading? And I'm like, honestly, I don't know. Hold on like i could look and
Heather Roberts: on. Yeah. Don't always, don't always look at that. It's just, yeah, it's vibes and how you feel and all of that. But yeah. I love that about books. And I also love that there's, it seems like there's an endless supply, right?
Heather Roberts: there's There's no way that we can ever read all the books that are in existence. It's just not. Yeah.
Sabir Sultan: There's no way, and there are new books every Tuesday. Like Tuesdays are magical.
Veronica Adams: It's the best day of the week, is it not?
Heather Roberts: Yeah.
Sabir Sultan: we're like
Heather Roberts: Well, and in indie world, there's, there could be new books every day. i mean, you add in all the indie authors. It's yeah. Yeah. even more. It's crazy. So no, that's that's really, really, really cool.
Heather Roberts: Okay. I will end it on one question. One question left. What, what behind the scenes moment or something from organizing the event that was maybe unexpectedly magical to you?
Sabir Sultan: I mean, to I don't know if this quite qualifies, but like Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie saying yes.
Heather Roberts: right. um
Sabir Sultan: why Like when we invited her to the festival. I mean, like she's done stuff with Penn before, and I think before I started there, but like she is an author who is so incredible. Like it just, it was mind blowing that she said yes.
Heather Roberts: Yeah, that's amazing.
Sabir Sultan: Yeah. Yeah.
Heather Roberts: That's amazing. I love that.
Veronica Adams: you just float on cloud nine after that happens.
Sabir Sultan: Right? now and And then I think the moment I'll actually just like leave my body is like on the event when I get to meet her. And then like I don't know what will be happening, but I won't be here.
Heather Roberts: Yeah.
Sabir Sultan: My body will be.
Heather Roberts: Your body will be, but you will not be here. You'll have to make sure to get a couple of photos so that you can look back and be like, no, that actually happened.
Sabir Sultan: I always get like too self-conscious to take photos with authors. The only exception was like Dorinda Medley from The Real Housewives of New York, if either of you want to.
Sabir Sultan: Where i was like, i have to.
Veronica Adams: Yeah. Yes.
Sabir Sultan: look
Heather Roberts: Yeah. Yeah. but You should have somebody like following behind you, taking candid. So that way.
Veronica Adams: Yes.
Heather Roberts: and
Veronica Adams: Enlist a trusted friend or, you know, ah an ah ah an associate from Pan America to just follow you around and like, you know, snap those shots you're too afraid to ask for.
Sabir Sultan: oh oh You're right. This is what I'm going to do. Maybe we cut this part out in case she's listening.
Veronica Adams: Yes.
Heather Roberts: Yeah.
Veronica Adams: Yeah.
Sabir Sultan: Yes. Oh,
Heather Roberts: And someone from the marketing department, because that's like, you know, straight marketing gold right there.
Veronica Adams: Perfect.
Heather Roberts: Yeah.
Sabir Sultan: yeah. no I love this. I have strategies in place.
Heather Roberts: Yeah.
Sabir Sultan: I'm going to get that photo.
Veronica Adams: Yes.
Heather Roberts: That was great.
Sabir Sultan: Hmm. Hmm.
Heather Roberts: Well, Sabir, you have been an absolute pleasure. We were so happy.
Veronica Adams: Yes, thank you so much for coming.
Heather Roberts: Yeah. So happy to have you.
Sabir Sultan: Hmm.
Heather Roberts: Can you tell everybody again, when is the festival of all and the website again?
Sabir Sultan: ah The festival is going to be Wednesday, April 30th through Saturday, May 3rd. You can get tickets or register for events at worldvoices.pen.org.
Sabir Sultan: And Heather and Veronica, this has been so much fun. Like, really, it's been such a pleasure.
Heather Roberts: um got
Sabir Sultan: Thank you for having me.
Veronica Adams: Our pleasure.
Heather Roberts: You are so welcome.
Veronica Adams: Thank you so much. Yes.
Heather Roberts: Thank you so much.
Sabir Sultan: Thank
Sabir Sultan: you.
