After Yang, the critically-acclaimed feature film starring Colin Farrell and written and directed by South Korean filmmaker Kogonada (and one of President Obama’s favorite films of 2022!) is based on a short story by one of this year’s festival guests, Alexander Weinstein. Sunday evening’s screening of the film at Ragtag will be followed by a Q&A with the author. (NB: Tickets must be purchased.)

Followed by Q&A with Alexander Weinstein

Two authors whose writing both crosses and defies genres, Will Schwalbe (We Should Not Be Friends) and Dani Shapiro (Signal Fires) are fans of each other’s work, and of each other. Come and listen to these two beloved writers talk frankly about books and reading, and the writing life. We can’t think of a better way to conclude the day’s proceedings.

Panelists: BJ Best, Andrew Ervin, Brittney Morris

Moderators: Whitney Terrell, V.V. Ganeshananthan

Life relies on play. Kittens learn to hunt by pouncing on siblings, springboks practice leaping away from predators, and great apes form bonds through bouts of tag. Video games are the latest installation of gameplay to humans. The writers on this panel have wrestled with the human desire to play games and attempt to answer: Is life one big multiplayer RPG? This conversation will be recorded as a Fiction/Non/Fiction podcast.

Ross Gay’s mesmerizing long-form poem, Be Holding, inspired by basketball genius Julius Erving, is a brilliant, captivating work which, as Claudia Rankine says, “reveals a multifaceted intimacy and lyricism within the history of a game, tracing how this history in interconnected with the saga of our country.” Come and listen to the poet read the work in its entirety. This is a unique, unmissable event.

Missouri’s Poet Laureate, Maryfrances Wagner, will teach us to write haiku, the super-short poem style from Japan. Although American haiku are often three lines with a 5-7-5 pattern of syllables, Maryfrances says that “more important is the image.” This event will be as much party as workshop. We will get together, write some poetry, and have some fun. Come and give it a try or rethink the ones you’ve written!

Between them, Mary Morris and Christina Baker Kline have written twenty-eight books, which hardly seems fair, really. There’s not much about the craft of writing that Christina (The Exiles) and Mary (All the Way to the Tigers) don’t know. We’ve dragged these two good friends from their bases in New York City all the way to Missouri to discuss their work and their lives in books.

Featuring: V.V. Ganeshananthan and Buki Papillon

Moderator: Faramola Shonekan

As first-generation and second-generation immigrants, Buki Papillon and V.V. Ganeshananthan are Americans writing back to their roots (in Nigeria and Sri Lanka respectively.) In this dialogue between two exciting literary voices, a wide-ranging conversation will touch upon social and cultural change in their countries of origin and what it is like to represent and evoke people and places familiar to them but foreign to many of their readers.

Panelists: Megan Kaminiski, Megan Giddings, Sun Yung Shin, Desideria Mesa

Moderator: Tina Casagrand Foss

Where do we find hope, community, and belonging in the face of a divided and distant society? If only there were some magic to see things differently. These writers’ latest books use witchcraft, divination, and the power of nature to turn our everyday world on its head and fight against oppressive power structures.

Poetry reading with Janine Joseph, Jenny Molberg, & Jose Faus

Panelists: Calvin Kasulke, Akil Kumarasamy, YZ Chin

Moderator: Donald Quist

Once upon a time, networks were made of connected people. Now, the most relevant networks are digital. As technology advances and invades our workplaces, we’re faced with a cloud of innovations that change the shape and nature of our work lives. These three writers trace the wires of influence in our workplace.

Poetry reading by Maryfrances Wagner, Danny Caine, & Nandi Comer

Panelists: Desideria Mesa, José Faus, CJ Janovy

Moderator: Whitney Terrell

How is Kansas City portrayed in literature? Four KC-based writers discuss the city’s long literary legacy and its future. The city has experienced unprecedented growth in its writing and artistic communities over the past twenty years. Has the “traditional” literary take on the city changed? How welcome are authors from diverse communities? What issues will Kansas City authors be tackling in the next twenty years?

Moderator: Sam Cohen, University of Missouri Department of English

Lydia Millet is one of the most acclaimed fiction writers of her generation. The author of more than a dozen novels and short story collections, every new book is a cause for celebration and is a fixture on that year’s “Best Of” lists. But that’s not all – she’s also a prolific writer of essays, reviews, opinion pieces, and “other ephemera.”

Sometimes literary friendships extend to a supportive professional and creative relationship. Even though their fiction takes different forms and addresses wildly different topics, Phong Nguyen (Bronze Drum) and Alexander Weinstein (Universal Love) share their work with each other at an early stage in the process, offer feedback and advice, and help each other navigate the often perilous journey from blossoming idea to completed manuscript.

Featuring: Jennifer Maritza McCauley and Dani Shapiro

Moderator: Caylin Capra Thomas

Writing is hard. Writing well is harder. Writing to stunningly high standards in more than one genre is so difficult that the few who can do it are, yes, literary unicorns. Dani Shapiro is a beloved memoirist and an acclaimed novelist. Jennifer Maritza McCauley had already published a well-received poetry collection when her debut book of short stories, When Trying to Return Home, was published last year to immense buzz. What is it that allows these two writers to excel in multiple different forms, and how do the different skills required for each inform the other?

Pictures of the Year International is the oldest and most prestigious photojournalism competition in the world. It began at the Missouri School of Journalism nearly 80 years ago. Each year expert photographers and editors select the best pictures and stories from more than 1,000 photographers working in more than 100 countries. Partnering with POY, Unbound invites you to join a panel of winning photographers in this year’s competition. The conversation will be led by Mike Davis, a former editor at National Geographic Magazine, The White House and editor of more than 40 photographic books. Mike will be joined by three photojournalists: Danish photographer Mads Nissen, this year’s International Photographer of the Year; Louie Palu, a documentary photographer and filmmaker and winner of this year’s World Understanding Award; and Danish photographer Betina Garcia, winner of this year’s Community Awareness Award for her in-depth story about three-generations of a family who moved their ranch from California to Bowling Green, Kentucky, after fleeing violence in Guatemala 25 years ago. Sponsored by University Libraries

Poetry readings by Pat Rosal, Maria Isabelle Carlos, & BJ Best

Danny Caine, acclaimed poet and co-owner of Raven Book Store in Lawrence, KS, has been an outspoken critic of the seemingly unstoppable Goliath of the bookselling world: Amazon. In How To Resist Amazon and Why, he lays out the case for shifting our personal money and civic investment away from global corporate behemoths and to small, local, independent businesses. And he spells out a clear path to resistance, in a world where consumers are struggling to get by. Danny will be in conversation with fellow writer and bookstore owner, Alex George.

Panelists: Angela Hume, Jennifer Haigh, Natalie Y. Moore

Moderator: Molly Housch Gordon

In the aftermath of the Dobbs decision, Margaret Atwood wrote “I thought I was writing fiction in The Handmaid’s Tale.” A theocratic United States where women were treated as if they were “in 17th century New England” seemed to her, in 1985, to be “far-fetched” and “silly.” Yet Gilead is slowly becoming an American reality. How do writers fight back against the patriarchy that strives to silence them? These three writers take up the theme of reproductive rights and discuss literary challenges to America’s slide toward Gilead.

Panelists: Benjamin Percy, Gabino Iglesias, Ann Dávila Cardinal

Moderator: Sheri-Marie Harrison

Not all monsters are creatures that go bump in the night. Some horrors are everyday, and the most frightening tales often follow monstrous human behavior. This panel brings together three writers of thrilling fiction to discuss the ways scary stories reflect truths about the horrors constructed by society and the monsters we make.

Panelists: Alexander Weinstein, Akil Kumarasamy, Andrew Yoon

Moderator: John Joseph Adams

Ours is an era in which artificial intelligence is the hidden engine behind so much of society and culture, and is even making inroads into art. Depictions of AI in literature therefore have a relevance like never before. The authors on this panel are known for their thoughtful literary engagement with the increasing presence of AI in our world and its influence on, and implications for, human existence.

Poetry Readings by Sun Yung Shin, Jennifer Maritza McCauley & Andrew Yoon

Moderator: Alexandra Socarides

Kerri Arsenault’s acclaimed memoir, Mill Town: Reckoning with What Remains has met with tremendous critical acclaim since its publication. In addition to being a sharp and beautiful book of memoir and history, Mill Town is a spirited call-to-arms, a rallying cry for a true accounting of the costs – environmental, health, economic, and otherwise – that industries exact on the often impoverished communities that depend upon them for their survival.

Johnnie Christmas is a #1 New York Times Best Selling graphic novelist. His 2022 middle grade graphic novel debut Swim Team earned a spot on the National Book Awards longlist and a Harvey Awards nomination. He’s currently hard at work on two new middle-grade graphic novels for the HarperAlley imprint of HarperCollins. He’s the writer of the Image Comics sci-fi series Tartarus and Crema, a haunted romance published by Comixology. His book Firebug earned him a Joe Shuster Outstanding Cartoonist nomination. He’s perhaps best known for co-creating the series Angel Catbird with celebrated writer Margaret Atwood and adapting William Gibson’s lost screenplay for Alien 3 into a critically acclaimed graphic novel of the same name. His credits also include co-creating the pre-apocalyptic thriller Sheltered.

Panelists: Matthew Salesses, Nandi Comer, Peter Geye

Moderator: Faramola Shonekan

Sports are everywhere. The fields, the slopes, the courts, the rings. However one place you will never find sports is in a vacuum. They are informed by race, gender, colonialism, politics and the complexities that come with being humans that just so happen to sweat. These panelists — all of whom engage in the sport of writing — seek to place identity at centerfield, and to return trials and triumphs back to athletes and spectators and those of us that read about them.

Further Adventures in the Conservation and Celebration of Missouri’s Heritage of Traditional Fiddle Music with Howard Marshall. The third and final book in Howard Marshall’s series about the heritage and people of the fiddle, Missouri’s official State Musical Instrument, begins in the Folk Music Revival of the 1960s and ends in the present. To celebrate the publication of Keeping It Old-Time, Professor Marshall will discuss the history and cultural heritage of fiddle and dance music and present an informal concert with Columbia area musicians. “Keep it old-time” is a familiar phrase that echoes many fiddlers’ preference for carrying on the inherited tunes and styles of former times – but we know that most musicians learn from many sources and influences and appreciate many different styles. This will be a hugely entertaining and informative event! Sponsored by the University of Missouri Press

Panelists: Phong Nguyen, Jocelyn Cullity, Vanessa Riley

Moderator: Trudy Lewis

We often act as though the West invented the idea of the powerful woman. Yet women have succeeded as political and military leaders throughout the world, often in times of revolution and transition. These three writers of historical fiction have researched and written novels about three such historical moments in which powerful women leaders emerged and fought and reigned.

Panelists: Nana Kwame Adjei-Brenyah, Brenda Peynado, Alexander Weinstein

Moderators: Christie Yant & John Joseph Adams

In literature, the border between real and unreal has always been flexible. Some writers crouch firmly on one side or the other. This panel brings together three writers who dance on that border and sing out their short stories grounded in a reality close to our own, but delightfully (or horrifically) askew.