Like the peanut butter cups of yore, the PEN Festival makes a chocolatey-peanut buttery delight of the mixture between politics and literature. And the overpackaging ensures all writers get served in individual little paper cups.

“Discussion from people of different backgrounds with different problems,” said Ms. Ravanipur through an interpreter, “actually leads to the development of solutions of these problems.”

That optimistic spirit is the organizing principle of the festival, which brings together people from 45 countries to talk not only about problems directly affecting writers, but also about other issues, from global warming and the international refugee crisis to the war in Iraq and political torture.

It is that direct engagement with political topics that perhaps makes the festival — at least in the United States — stand out.

Founded three years ago in the aftermath of the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks and in the midst of the Iraq war, the festival was conceived as a way of addressing America’s cultural isolation. This year the theme is “Home & Away.” Writers of fiction and nonfiction will be speaking and reading at 66 events in 29 locations throughout the city.

Merely bringing so many international writers to the United States, where fewer than 3 percent of the books published are translations, can be seen as a political act.

Mmmm. Papery cups of chemical goodness. Hey, don’t scoff. All those chemicals and preservatives are what ensure the goo inside won’t get stuck the roof of your mouth. Or the side of your intestine.