2024 FESTIVAL PANELS
An Overdue Discussion \ Beyond Thoughts and Prayers: A Literary Response to Gun Violence \ Department of Disinformation: Propaganda in Life and Literature \ Found in Translation \ Kitchen Traditions Old and New \ Let's Talk About Sex, Baby \ Love Unbound (or potentially bound, we don't judge) \ Mission-Driven Bookshops \ Mythwesterners \ Saving Throws: The Influence of Roleplaying Games \ The Spectrum of Truth: Graphic History \ The Things They Created: Veteran Writers
10-11:15 a.m. / Serendipity Salon and Gallery / 1020 E Walnut St., Suite 100
Featuring: Sommer Browning, Margaret Conroy (Executive Director of Daniel Boone Regional Library), Laura Sims, Pete Zambito (moderator)
Libraries play an important role in the vitality of communities everywhere. They provide space where folks can gather and gain needed resources. These noble institutions stand on the front line of national debates about culture and waves of recent book banning. In this panel, authors and librarians share their firsthand experiences among the stacks, discuss modern histories of libraries, and explain how these repositories of knowledge and imagination offer insights into larger issues facing society.
3:15-4:30 p.m. / Katy Ballroom in the Broadway Hotel (lower level) / 1111 E Broadway
Featuring: Jerri Bell, Alexandra Teague, Anne Valente, Emily Danker-Feldman (moderator)
We hold these truths to be self-evident: that no matter where you reside on the American political spectrum, guns are interwoven in the very fabric of the American experiment. Whether we consider the right to bear arms a boon or a curse, we know that guns are forever holstered to our society. In this panel, writers of poetry, fiction, and nonfiction to consider how history, culture, and community can enhance the storytelling around gun violence and its impact on our humanity.
10-11:15 a.m. / Katy Ballroom in the Broadway Hotel (lower level) / 1111 E Broadway
Featuring: Omékongo Dibinga, Kevin Prufer, Theodore Wheeler, Seth Howes (moderator)
“This tube is the most awesome goddamn propaganda force in the whole godless world, and woe is us if it ever falls into the hands of the wrong people.” – Network (1976)
When Paddy Chayefsky wrote “Network,” he was invoking the power of television to steer public attitudes and beliefs, but he had no idea what was coming. In the internet era, propaganda has become an even more insidious force. It is only natural that writers would explore and push back against this phenomenon in their literary work. These three writers take on the lies that shape us—about country, race, culture, religion, etc—thoroughly and thoughtfully in their stories, poems, and nonfiction."
1:30-2:45 p.m. / Serendipity Salon and Gallery / 1020 E Walnut St., Suite 100
Featuring: Philip Metres, Idra Novey, Kevin Prufer, Audrey Dae Bush (moderator)
The task of the translator is rich with complexity. Translators must balance their passion for reinvention with the responsibility of communicating the ideas of the original author. In this panel, three writers share their experiences creating and publishing works of literary translation. Discussing the artistry of translation and its geopolitical significance, they’ll reveal how they expanded their own creative life by finding words to bring other writers’ prose and verse to new audiences.
5-6:15 p.m. / Katy Ballroom in the Broadway Hotel (lower level) / 1111 E Broadway
Featuring: Stacey Mei Yan Fong, Hetty Lui McKinnon, Crystal Wilkinson, Jessica Vaughn Martin (moderator)
Craving a slice of literary and culinary delight? Join three cookbook authors as they dish on the delicious pairing of food and family. This panel digs into the cultural and familial aspects of food traditions, social influences on the dinner table, and the art of weaving together personal stories and mouthwatering recipes.
3:15-4:30 p.m. / Serendipity Salon and Gallery / 1020 E Walnut St., Suite 100
Featuring: Jubi Arriola-Headley, Taylor Byas, Eliza Smith, Becca Hayes (moderator)
Sex in writing is sometimes taboo, but this panel is getting hot and heavy. Three writers delve into the ins and outs (pun intended) of writing about sex from tender to titillating. Join us for a fun and frank discussion on the hows and whys of writing sex that is sure to leave you feeling ready to explore new ... genres.
1:30-2:45 p.m. / Katy Ballroom in the Broadway Hotel (lower level) / 1111 E Broadway
Featuring: Jessica Pryde, Cat Sebastian, Meryl Wilsner, Shane Mullen (moderator)
Romance can take you to a million places, fill your heart, break your emotions, and give you a happily ever after. Join us for an exploration of what amazing things are going on in the genre with authors Taj McCoy, Cat Sebastian, and Jessica Pryde. Are you a friends to lovers, enemy to lovers, forced proximity, or opposites attract kind of person? What level of spice are you looking for? You can be honest, we won't judge. Whether you are an avid reader in the genre or new to the wonderful world of romance, you will definitely find a supportive crowd here to explore your curiosity.
10-11:15 a.m. / Big Ragtag at Ragtag Cinema / 10 Hitt St
Featuring: Candace Hulsizer (Black Tea Books), Kris Kleindienst (Left Bank Books), Ymani Wince (Noir Bookshop), Grace Hagen (moderator)
11:45 a.m. - 1 p.m. / Serendipity Salon and Gallery / 1020 E Walnut St., Suite 100
Featuring: Erika Bolstad, Taylor Byas, Bonnie Jo Campbell, Tina Casagrand Foss (moderator)
How can folklore help us see truths beneath the surface of Midwestern history? Each of these authors challenge the validity of local legends and use them to dig deeper into self and societal understanding. You'll recognize their sense of place and think more about what it means to live in the middle of the country, with all its complications.
11:45 a.m. - 1 p.m. / Big Ragtag at Ragtag Cinema / 10 Hitt St
Featuring: Kazim Ali, Matt Bell, Stephanie Hedge, Sam Edmonds (moderator)
Generations of writers have been impacted by roleplaying games. An activity that used to involve a group of outcast teenagers huddled around a table in a basement rolling dice has now penetrated into the mainstream and is represented in high-profile movie franchises, billion-dollar video games, as well as in the quieter realm of fiction. Writers join forces to talk about how collaborative storytelling has impacted their creative processes.
1:30-2:45 p.m. / Big Ragtag at Ragtag Cinema / 10 Hitt St
Featuring: Leela Corman, Pornsak Pichetshote, James Otis Smith, Hayli Cox (moderator)
Author-illustrators turn to history to inform, inspire, and instigate. Among more prominent forms of graphic nonfiction stands “graphic history,” utilizing research to illuminate episodes in history or using history as the background for new narratives. In this panel, three successful artists/storytellers will discuss how this fascinating genre dwells between the fictional and the nonfictional, the narrative and the expository, and the historical and the contemporary.
11:45 a.m. - 1 p.m. / Katy Ballroom in the Broadway Hotel (lower level) / 1111 E Broadway
Featuring: Jerri Bell, Dewaine Farria, Matt Gallagher, Brian Turner, Chris Deutsch (moderator)
Life and art inform one another, and military service entails a rare and sometimes extreme life experience that cannot be falsified. In this panel, four veteran writers explore the ways that military service has influenced their writing lives, and how a career in writing has shaped their perspective on their military service. Touching upon the personal benefit of writing about military experience, as well as the value of reading work informed by veterans’ experiences, these writers speak from a lifetime of knowledge about how these seemingly disparate enterprises coexist.