Alice Marie Johnson, author of After Life, in conversation with Mitchell S. Jackson, author of Residue Years and Survival Math

With an introduction by Darryl Dickson-Carr, chair of the SMU English Department, and festival welcome by Eric Johnson, mayor of Dallas; R. Gerald Turner, president of SMU; and Sanderia Faye Smith, festival executive director

In partnership with PEN America Dallas/Fort Worth

Sebastián H. Páramo, poet and founding editor of THE BOILER and Stacey Megally, writer and storyteller (moderators) with Jenny Bhatt, author of Each of Us Killers; A. Kendra Greene, author of The Museum of Whales You Will Never See; Seraphina Nova Glass, author of Someone’s Listening; Simon Han, author of Nights When Nothing Happened; Matt Morton, author of Improvisation Without Accompaniment; and Mike Soto, author of A Grave Is Given Supper

Alex Temblador, author of Secrets of the Casa Rosada (moderator), with Lori Feathers, Interabang Books; Will Evans, Deep Vellum; Donya Craddock, The Dock Bookshop; and Javier García del Moral, The Wild Detectives

Presented by Arts & Letters Live at the Dallas Museum of Art

Hala Alyan, author of The Arsonists’ City with Patricia Lockwood, author of No One Is Talking About This in conversation with author Mira Jacob

Chekwube Danladi, author of Semiotics, winner of the 2019 Cave Canem Poetry Prize in conversation with Tyehimba Jess, author of Olio, winner of the Pulitzer Prize for Poetry.

With an introduction by Kendra Allen, author of When You Learn the Alphabet and The Collection Plate.

In partnership with PEN America Dallas/Fort Worth

Julie Lythcott-Haims, author of How to Raise an Adult and Your Turn in conversation with Laura Harris, Emmy Award-winning co-anchor of NBC 5 Today

With an introduction by Lauren Embrey, president of the Embrey Family Foundation

Karen Thomas, journalist and professor of practice in the Division of Journalism at SMU (moderator) with Adrian Miller, author of The President's Kitchen Cabinet and Alexander Smalls, James Beard Award-winning chef and author of Meals, Music, and Muses

Emma Rodgers, founder of Black Images Book Bazaar and the Dallas Civil Rights Museum in conversation with Dr. W. Marvin Dulaney, deputy director and chief operations officer of the Dallas African American Museum.

With an introduction by J. Larry Allums, executive director emeritus, The Dallas Institute of Humanities and Culture

Melissa Danaczko, the Stuart Krichevsky Literary Agency (moderator) with Serene Hakim, Ayesha Pande Literary; David Hale Smith, Inkwell Management; and Stephanie Delman, Sanford J. Greenburger Associates

Nancy Johnson, author of The Kindest Lie in conversation with Zuri Bryant, associate editor of Fourth River

Sebastian H. Paramo, founding editor of THE BOILER and poetry editor for Deep Vellum (moderator) with Saul Hernandez, managing director of Borderlands: Texas Poetry Review; Lev Keltner, chapbooks editor at Newfound and author of the novel Goodnight; Alana King, associate editor for Your Impossible Voice and editor-in-chief for Reunion: The Dallas Review; Matthew Limpede, publisher of Carve, and Jenny Molberg, director of Pleiades Press and co-editor for Pleiades: Literature in Context

Catherine Tucker, mystery writer (moderator) with Alexia Gordon, author of Murder in G Major; Kathleen Kent, author of The Burn; Steph Cha, author of Your House Will Pay; and Reavis Wortham, author of Laying Bones

Sara Balabanlilar, marketing and sales director at Deep Vellum and founder of paraspace books (moderator) with Laynie Bynum, publisher, Sword and Silk Books; Meg Reid, director, Hub City Press; Tatiana Ryckman, editor of Awst Press and author of The Ancestry of Objects (Deep Vellum); Jessica Powers, publisher of Catalyst Press and director of editorial and foreign rights at Cinco Puntos Press; and John Trefry, founder, In the Castle. Panelists chosen in collaboration with Darius Ajaai Frasure.

Moderated by Stacey Megally, contest editor. Winners to be announced.

DaMaris Hill, author of A Bound Woman is a Dangerous Thing, in conversation with Kenton Rambsy, assistant professor of African American literature at the University of Texas at Arlington and author of #TheJayZMixtape and Lost in the City: An Exploration of Edward P. Jones's Short Fiction

Ann Fields, co-founder of Writer’s Block and author of Fuller’s Curse (moderator), with Aaron Glover, executive director of The Writer’s Garret and author of Bio Logic; Blake Kimzey, founder and executive director of Writing Workshops Dallas and author of Families Among Us; Arianne "Tex" Thompson, instructor for Writing Workshops Dallas and author of Children of the Drought; and Tamara Warner, president of Dallas Area Writers Group (DAWG)

In partnership with PEN America Dallas/Fort Worth

Ethan Rutherford, author of Farthest South and Other Stories, in conversation with Jill Meyers, editorial director of A Strange Object and co-founder of Lit Crawl Austin

Trevor Pryce, former NFL lineman and author of An Army of Frogs, a series of books for young adults, in conversation with David Meltzer, co-founder of Sports 1 Marketing and executive producer of the television series 2 Minute Drill

With an introduction by Rick Hart, SMU director of Athletics

Rosalyn Story, classical violinist and author of Wading Home (moderator), with Jeffrey Colvin, author of Africaville, Legacy Award for Debut Fiction; Ladan Osman, author of Exiles of Eden, Legacy Award for Poetry; Melanie Farmer, Crossover Award for Literary Nonfiction for “Rolling: A Ladies’ Guide to Brazilian Jiu Jitsu”; Sadia Hassan, College Award for Poetry for “Black Girl Prayer Poems”; and Sakinah Hofler, College Award for Fiction for “The Gifts We Don’t Need”

Mike Yawn, clinical professor of political science at Sam Houston State University (moderator), with Heather Harper Ellett, author of Ain't Nobody Nobody; Blake Kimzey, co-founder of Big Texas Reads and author of Families Among Us; David Samuel Levinson, author of Tell Me How This Ends Well; and Alexandra van de Kamp, executive director for Gemini Ink and author of Kiss/Hierarchy

Joy Harjo, U.S. Poet Laureate and author of the memoir Crazy Brave, in conversation with Katie Condon, author of Praying Naked.

With an introduction by Thomas DiPiero., dean of Dedman College of Arts and Sciences at SMU

Jenny Bhatt, translator and author of Each of Us Killers (moderator) with Will Evans, publisher, Deep Vellum; Elizabeth Russ, author of The Plantation in the Postslavery Imagination; and Joyce Sáenz Harris, journalist and writer

Booker T. Mattison, filmmaker and author of Snitch (moderator) with Geoffrey Fletcher, screenwriter and Oscar winner for Precious: Based on the Novel “Push” by Sapphire, and Seith Mann, director of #FreeRayshawn

A. Kendra Greene, author of The Museum of Whales You Will Never See (moderator) with Kerri Arsenault, book critic and author of Mill Town: Reckoning with What Remains; Toni Jensen, author of Carry; and Fowzia Karimi, illustrator and author of Above Us the Milky Way

Ben Fountain, author of Beautiful Country Burn Again, in conversation with Benjamin Moser, Pulitzer Prize-winning author of Sontag: Her Life and Work.

With an introduction by Susan Norman, lecturer of English at SMU

Tarfia Faizullah, author of Registers of Illuminated Villages (moderator), with Joy Priest, author of Horsepower; Vievee Francis, author of Forest Primeval; Francine J. Harris, author of Here is the Sweet Hand; and Mag Gabbert, author of Minml Poems

Patrick Oliver, literary consultant and author of youth-oriented books (moderator), with Derrick Barnes, children’s writer, I Am Every Good Thing; Floyd Cooper, illustrator, Unspeakable: The Tulsa Race Massacre; Zetta Elliot, author of A Place Inside of Me and Dragons in a Bag; and Xelena González, children’s writer, All Around Us

Angela Ransome Jones, author of Path to Peace (moderator) with LutishIa Lovely, author of Blind Ambition, Sandy Lawrence, author of Do It Yourself PR Guide, Marissa Monteilh, author of The Practice Wife, and Troy D. Johnson, founder of the African-American Literature Book Club

Sarah Hepola, author of Blackout (moderator) with Deb Olin Unferth, author of Barn 8 and Yxta Murray, author of Art is Everything

Poet Greg Brownderville in conversation with filmmaker Bart Weiss about their newly released collaboration, Fire Bones, which introduces a new narrative form for the digital age.

Charles M. Blow, New York Times op-ed columnist and author of The Devil You Know, in conversation with Richie Butler, senior pastor of St. Luke “Community” United Methodist Church and founder of Project Unity

With an introduction by Dr. Maria Dixon-Hall, chief diversity officer of SMU

In partnership with the Southwest Review

Juan Cárdenas, author of El diablo de las provincias in conversation with Lizzie Davis, translator and editor at Coffee House Press, and Kevin Gerry Dunn, translator specializing in fiction, gender, art, and immigration.

With an introduction by Greg Brownderville, poet and editor of the Southwest Review

Renee Simms, author of Meet Behind Mars (moderator) with Deesha Philyaw, author of The Secret Lives of Church Ladies; Brian Gilmore, author of elvis presley is alive and well and living in harlem; and Desiree Cooper, author of Know the Mother

Yiyun Li, Whiting Award-winning author of Tolstoy Together: 85 Days of War and Peace with Yiyun Li in conversation with Brigid Hughes, editor of A Public Space