An Evening to Support Freedom of Expression with Jennifer Clement, President, Pen International

IGM Art Gallery Advisory Council Members Lynn Crandall and Jill Miller represented the USC Institute for Genetic Medicine Art Gallery at this event , presented by BH+W Communications, moderated by Adolfo Guzman Lopez, SoCal Public Radio and supported by the Los Angeles Times Espanol, Los Angeles Hoy and Pen Center USA.   The IGM AG links public, private, nonprofit, faith-based, academic and media leaders together to establish cross organizational/cross departmental open-minded discussions that lead to sharing and leveraging existing resources and manpower to leverage social and financial capital.

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Jennifer Clement, President of PEN International, has received many honors for her internationally acclaimed writing.  PRAYERS FOR THE STOLEN, a New York Times Book Review Editor’s Choice Book, was also a PEN/Faulkner Award finalist, winner of the Gran Prix des Lectrices Lyceenes de ELLE 2015 and the Sara Curry Humanitarian Award. The novel appeared internationally on many “Best Books of the Year” lists, including The Irish Times. This year she was awarded a Guggenheim Fellowship for her new book GUN LOVE.

Clement grew up in Mexico City, Mexico, studied English Literature and Anthropology at New York University and also studied French Literature in Paris, France. She earned her MFA from the University of Southern Maine.

From 2009 to 2012, Clement was president of PEN Mexico, during which time her work focused on the disappearance and killing of journalists.  She credits being a member of PEN for getting her through several scrapes with authorities. Last year, delegates from nearly 150 PEN chapters around the world elected her the first woman president of PEN International and, as such, to lead the global fight for freedom of expression.  Human rights issues have consistently motivated her writing.  PRAYERS FOR THE STOLEN involved over ten years of research on the stealing of young girls in Mexico.

Her prize-winning story, A SALAMANDER-CHILD, is published as an art book with work by the Mexican painter Gustavo Monroy. Clement’s books have been translated into 24 languages. Several of Clement’s works have been adapted for the stage.  Her novel on the mistreatment of servants in Mexico, A TRUE STORY BASED ON LIES,  was staged in France by the Traits de Marque Company and in Mexico by The National Theatre of Mexico (adapted by Ximena Escalante).  Ados Teatro in Spain staged Prayers for the Stolen for the stage and the BBC aired a 5-episode radio play of Prayers for the Stolen with an adaptation by Jeff Young in 2015.  Pimienta Films has acquired film rights to Prayers for the Stolen. Nineteen years ago, Jennifer Clement and her sister, Barbara Sibley, founded  The San Miguel Poetry Week in San Miguel de Allende, Mexico.

Crandall and Miller are  interested in working with USC alum Steve Weingarten, managing partner of BH+W Communications,  to bring these socially important  studies of human nature to a broader audience via a Visions and Voices presentation at USC.