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The British novelist Martin Amis, the American short story writer Lydia Davis, the former Polish dissident journalist Adam Michnik, the Iranian artist Shirin Neshat, and the Syrian poet Adonis will be among the more than 100 writers and artists from 30 countries that will gather in New York for the 10th annual PEN World Voices Festival.

This year’s festival, which runs from April 28 to May 4, takes its inspiration from “a long line of writers who have dared to step out on the edge” and “speak out against the status quo,” according to a statement by PEN. And there will be plenty of political and social issues on the agenda, which includes sessions devoted to free speech, food politics, state surveillance, writing by migrant farmworkers, and the 25th anniversary of the fall of the Berlin Wall.

But the festival, founded in 2005 by Salman Rushdie, will not be without more whimsical moments. On May 3, Mr. Amis will submit to a “reinterview,” answering the same questions he was asked three decades ago by Interview magazine and critiquing his old answers. And the sex columnist Dan Savage will host “Obsession,” a series of late-night conversations at the Standard Hotel in the East Village exploring “the ideas that keep writers awake at night.”