Willee Lewis and Bob Heggestad
Mary Haft (center) with writers Imbolo Mbue and Alexander Maksik
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Nicholas Haft, Laura Haft and Michael Haft
PEN/FAULKNER CELEBRATION The Showroom, Washington, D.C. | PHOTOS BY TONY POWELL
Ginny Grenham, Smithsonian Secretary David Skorton and Robin Davisson
CHANGING SCENE After 28 years at the Folger Shakespeare Library, the PEN/Faulkner Foundation’s annual fall benefit moved to a radically different modernized industrial space on 14th Street NW that served as an empty canvas for a celebration of “Belonging,� a theme explored in readings by 11 authors, who, as event chairwoman Mary Ha noted, were asked to lure the audience to “enter worlds that deepen our humanity.� For Randa Jarrar, “belonging� was a matter of deciding between love or blood; for Gish Jen, it was being a woman in a man’s world. Other participants spoke of friendship (Alexander Maksik), having a father (Shidear Poulson), generosity (Akhil Sharma) and deciding upon burial in the right place (Imbolo Mbue). A mix-andmingle buffet supper, which replaced the traditional black-tie seated dinner a few years back, followed the readings.
James Alefantis and Barbara Harrison VIEW ALL THE PHOTOS AT WWW WASHINGTONLIFE COM
Cindy Leive
Cecilie Rohwedder, Beverly Kirk and Laura Cox Kaplan
Nadia Murad
SEEDS OF PEACE DINNER FOR NADIA MURAD
Isabel Ernst and Diane Rehm
Villa Firenze | PHOTOS BY TONY POWELL MEANINGFUL DIALOGUE Italian Ambassador Armando Varricchio and Micaela Varricchio opened their residence for the winter Seeds of Peace “Dinner4Dialogue� in honor of “The Last Girl� author Nadia Murad, a survivor of the Islamic State–led genocide of the Yazidi people. In the book, Murad tells the devastating story of her captivity and the impact of the war on her family. The moving evening included a candid conversation led by then-Glamour magazine editor Cindy Leive with the Nobel Peace Prize-nominated author, who spoke via a translator. Huberta von Voss-Wi ig, wife of the German ambassador and communications director for Seeds of Peace, commended Murad on her �courage and honesty.�
German Amb. Peter Wittig, Parita Shah, Peter Selfridge and Huberta von Voss-Wittig
Italian Amb. Armando Varricchio and Micaela Varricchio
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