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.

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.

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.

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?

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.

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.

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.

Panelists: Brian Katcher, Maia Kobabe, Lyrissa Lidsky

Moderator: Nancy West

It’s always a good time to talk about banned books, but in view of the recent outcry surrounding a Tennessee school board’s decision to ban Art Spiegelman’s Maus, and the increasing prevalence of similar actions throughout the country, this felt like a particularly important conversation to have this year. Is it ever appropriate to ban a book? Who is really being protected, and from what? Authors Brian Katcher and Maia Kobabe have both had their books challenged; in addition to being a writer, Brian is also a school librarian, and so he brings a unique perspective to the question. Lyrissa Lidsky, Dean of the MU law school, is a renowned First Amendment scholar and will provide essential legal context to the discussion at hand. It’s going to be a fascinating conversation.

Panelists: David Berry, Eric Nguyen, Caki Wilkinson

Moderator: Donald Quist

On the one hand, the word “nostalgia” stirs up commercial-ready memories and fond attachments to antiquated things. On the other hand, it conjures up associations with unquestioned loyalty to tradition. These three writers (a poet, a novelist, and an essayist) explore the complexities and poignancy of nostalgia in life and literature.

Panelists: Angela Hume, Vincent Ialenti, Sequoia Nagamatsu

Moderator: Soren Larsen

Human life may be but a blip on the geological timescale, but it is also all that we will ever know of the cosmos. In this panel, three authors will speak to what it means to write literature in an era in which humans are having a devastating influence on the health of the planet.

Panelists: Patrick Radden Keefe, Katherine Standefer

Moderator: Bill Kerwin

There are few things as wide-reaching and impactful as health care. People access it, want access to it or have to use it at numerous times in their lives, but these systems don’t always “do no harm.” In this panel, our authors explore different aspects of the medical systems that are designed to help, but often harm, those it seeks to treat.

Panelists: Ames Hawkins, Maia Kobabe, Julietta Singh

Moderator: Becca Hayes

Whether it’s experiencing life stages out of order, finding rebirth through transition, or the way the AIDS crisis gave many the sense (and reality) of a shortened lifespan, time can run much differently for queer people. This panel brings together three writers to consider the complex relationship between time and queerness.

Panelists: Marcia Chatelain, Kim Kelly, Hilary Leichter

Moderator: Keona Ervin

We are witnessing a resurgence of labor organizing across the United States. Through strikes and unionization efforts, workers from Amazon to Starbucks are pushing labor, capitalism, and economic power to the center of public debate. Our panelists will discuss how work—past and present—shapes their writing.

Panelists: Ames Hawkins, Barbara Heller, Julie Schumacher, Corey van Landingham

Moderator: Alexandra Socarides

The purposeful culture of letter-writing—the private thrill of drafting, posting and receiving, and opening letters—has largely been subsumed by instantaneous (and impulsive) digital means. In their work and on this panel, these four authors convey how letter-writing still holds a special cultural and social significance for us in the age of the instant message.

Panelists: Herb Boyd, francine j. harris, M.L. Liebler

Moderator: Stephanie Williams

Arguably, no other city is as emblematic of the promise of urban life in the US than Detroit, with its outsized influence over national culture, art, economics, and politics. The three writers on this panel will consider how Detroit’s complicated past and present informs their writing.

Panelists: Malaka Gharib, Maia Kobabe, Kristen Radtke

Moderator: Ron A. Austin

Since the publication of Art Spiegelman's Maus, graphic (i.e. illustrated) memoir has soared in popularity, not to mention critical acclaim. This panel assembles three writers who have created graphic memoirs, and asks them to discuss the possibilities and challenges of autobiographical literature that is both verbal and visual.

Panelists: Emily Nemens, Emily Rutter, Andrea Williams

Moderator: Gabe Fried, MU Department of English

Baseball is often hailed as the most literary of sports. Countless writers have taken up our national pastime in compelling, revealing, and moving ways. The line-up of this all-star panel includes three authors whose recent books, whether fiction or nonfiction, offer fresh, surprising insights into the baseball and its connection to the American Dream—its optimism, plausibility, and complexity.

Location: The Tiger Hotel ballroom