Reading Burma: A Benefit for Cyclone Relief and Freedom of Expression in Burma/Myanmar September 23, 2008

Where: Cooper Union's Great Hall: 7 East 7th Street, NYCWhat time: 7 p.m.

With: Kiran Desai, Venerable U Gawsita, Siri Hustvedt, Joseph Lelyveld, George Packer, Orhan Pamuk, Paulo Sérgio Pinheiro, and Salman Rushdie

Tickets: $20/$15 PEN Members; $100 includes post-event reception: www.smarttix.com or 212-868-4444

Presented by The Burma Project of OSI, PEN American Center, and The New York Review of Books

On September 23, PEN will join with the Open Society Institute’s Burma Project to stage a reading featuring suppressed and silenced voices from Burma/Myanmar.

PEN Members will read in commemoration of the 20th anniversary of the 1988 popular uprising demanding democracy in Burma, as well as the first anniversary of last year's monks' protests. The event will also feature a conversation with George Packer and the Venerable U Gawsita, leader of the 2007 Monks’ Uprising.

Proceeds from the event will be donated to the International Burmese Monks Organization (IBMO), the largest network of Burmese Buddhist monks distributing relief aid to the victims of Cyclone Nargis.