The festival features instant access to 12 popular fiction titles from around the world, a wide array of cultural programming, and multilingual resources, coinciding with Immigrant Heritage Week.

The New York Public Library will kick off our sixth annual World Literature & Arts Festival on April 15. Coinciding with New York City’s Immigrant Heritage Week, the festival brings together trailblazers across disciplines to celebrate storytelling—through books, performances, culinary traditions, and beyond—while shining a spotlight on New York City’s diverse and vibrant communities.

The festival is a highlight of the Library’s year-round commitment to welcoming speakers and readers of a wide range of languages. The Library is dedicated to helping everyone navigate our free services and resources—from getting a library card and searching the catalog to learning about Library offerings, including language learning classes, technology classes, career services, and much more. Explore the wide range of multilingual resources at The New York Public Library – visit nypl.org/multilingual. 

This year, as part of the festival, the Library is celebrating fiction from around the world with a selection of 12 e-book titles available for NYPL cardholders to enjoy. Audiobooks are also available for select titles. All the titles are available in translation in English for reading right away–no wait time! Some titles are also available in their original language for borrowing or placing on hold. The titles are: 

  • The Alchemist by Paulo Coelho; translated from Portuguese by Alan R. Clarke 
  • Butter by Asako Yuzuki; translated from Japanese by Polly Barton
  • Frankenstein in Baghdad by Ahmed Saadawi; translated from Arabic by Jonathan Wright
  • I Who Have Never Known Men by Jacqueline Harpman; translated from French by Ros Schwartz; introduction by Carmen Maria Machado
  • Madonna in a Fur Coat by Sabahattin Ali; translated from Turkish by Maureen Freely
  • On the Calculation of Volume (Book I) by Solvej Ball; translated from Danish by Barbara J. Haveland
  • Our Lady of the Nile by Scholastique Mukasonga; translated from French by Melanie Mauthner
  • Perfection by Vincenzo Latronico; translated from the Italian by Sophie Hughes
  • Sad Tiger by Neige Sinno, translated from the French by Natasha Lehrer
  • The Three-Body Problem by Cixin Liu; translated from Traditional Chinese by Ken Liu
  • The Vegetarian by Han Kang (also in Korean)
  • You Dreamed of Empires by Álvaro Enrigue; translated from Spanish by Natasha Wimmer

The festival’s programmatic lineup features a calendar of free events running from April 15-30 across library locations, including performances, writing workshops, and author talks. Programming typically runs between 9 AM–8 PM. Some highlights are:   

Author Talks, Book Discussions & Community Conversations

Writing Workshops, Performances & More

About The New York Public Library

For over 125 years, The New York Public Library has been a free provider of education and information for the people of New York and beyond. With over 90 locations—including research and branch libraries—throughout the Bronx, Manhattan, and Staten Island, the Library offers free materials, computer access, classes, exhibitions, programming, and more to everyone from toddlers to scholars. The New York Public Library receives millions of visits through its doors annually and millions more around the globe who use its resources at www.nypl.org. To offer this wide array of free programming, the New York Public Library relies on both public and private funding. Learn more about how to support the Library at nypl.org/support. 

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