On Saturday 4 May Margie Orford and Zakes Mda will participate in what will is sure to be a lively and informative panel discussion in the PEN America World Voices Festival. The event is titled 'South Africa in Two Acts' and will address questions such as 'can literature unpack question of corruption from a legacy of racism?' and 'how does crime fiction explore the unique challenges facing the most powerful economy on the continent?'. They will be joined by Peter Godwin, a war correspondent for the Sunday Times and the BBC, and the novelist and short story writer Siphiwo Mahala.

The event will be held in the Frederick P. Rose Auditorium, 41 Cooper Square. For more information see the PEN America site.

Margie Orford, author of the Clare Hart crime series, is also appearing at other events in New York this week: she will deliver a talk on The Grammar of Violence at CUNY on Wednesday May 1, and she will feature at 'Literary Safari' at the Westbeth Center for the Arts on Friday 4 May, which is also a PEN America event.

Praise for Margie Orford:

'Margie Orford is world-class. This is crime writing at its very best.' -- Deon Meyer

'Orford [is] top of the class of crime writing in South Africa. This is largely due to her ability to write with a sense of true humanity and yet maintain a pacy sexy style.' -- Jennifer Crocker, Cape Times

Praise for Zakes Mda:

'A voice for which one should feel not only affection but admiration' -- The New York Times

'For a long time, white writers dominated South African literature - Paton, Brink, Gordimer, Coetzee. Post-apartheid, Zakes Mda, looks like the great South African novelist of his generation, a writer rich in both imagination and ironic political attitude.' -- The Philadelphia Inquirer