I’m as giddy as a school girl who found out her secret crush was asking her to the prom. I just purchased tickets to some of the events at this year’s PEN World Voices (The New York Festival of International Literature) taking place all over the city at the end of this month. A sampling:

April 25 | Town Hall Readings: Writing Home
With Don DeLillo, Kiran Desai, Neil Gaiman, Nadine Gordimer, Alain Mabanckou, Steve Martin, Salman Rushdie, Pia Tafdrup, Tatyana Tolstaya, Saadi Youssef

April 28 | What’s So Funny? Humor Out of Context With Guillermo Arriaga, Arnon Grunberg, Ma Jian, and others; moderated by Victoria Roberts

April 29 | Voyage and Voyeur: Travel and Travel WritingWith Alain de Botton, Ma Jian, and Ilija Trojanow; moderated by Paul Holdengräber

As most people do, I got into publishing because I love to read and write, and live an impecunious lifestyle, natch. I’m enamored with the written word (loquacious or succinct), expressive vocabulary, impeccable grammar, and overall great storytelling. Heck, just look at my blogroll. I want to marry a dictionary, or at least make out with it…some might say more so than a cookbook. (Aw, don’t be jealous, cookbook. There’s plenty of my lovin’ to go around.) So, for me to be in the same room with some of the greatest writers in the world is, well, better than ice cream.

Some of the events are free, but will most likely be packed, so I’m going to do my best to get there early enough to land me a good spot. I’ll be sure to take lots of notes and pictures, if allowed, and post them here afterward.

My toes are all wiggly in anticipation. Tee hee!