Keynote Announcement: Katie Farris

aisaak on April 21, 2023

Poet, translator, editor, and fiction writer, Katie Farris creates fluid hybrid forms that seek to carry readers across imaginative thresholds. In 2019’s boygirls, she travels through ancient and modern myths to create waking dreams, while her newest work, Standing in the Forest of Being Alive, has been called “luminous” by Carolyn Forche and “real genius” by Kaveh Akbar. A breast cancer survivor, she has written movingly about the often secretive experience of illness and recovery. 

Learn more here: https://www.theshipmanagency.com/katie-farris  

Register now to join us for this talk as well as dozens of other sessions featuring keynotes, artist conversations, roundtable discussions, musical performances, and much more. Conference events will be held at the Hyatt Regency in downtown Tulsa, which has made a special rate available for festival attendees.

Keynote Announcement: Reginald Dwayne Betts

aisaak on April 19, 2023

Photographed by the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation

A poet, lawyer, and McArthur genius winner, Reginald Dwayne Betts has spent over two decades exploring the world of prison and the effects of incarceration on American society. As the Executive Director of the non-profit Freedom Reads Initiative, he has led the effort to get literature into prisons to help empower people by imagining new possibilities for their lives. His award-winning books include A Question of Freedom, a memoir about his own journey from convicted felon to a Yale-trained lawyer, and Felon, a fierce, agile collection of poems that confronts the funk of post-incarceration existence and creates new forms from the redactions of his own court record. At Switchyard, he will perform a solo show based on Felon. 

Learn more here: https://www.dwaynebetts.com/bio  

Register now to join us for this talk as well as dozens of other sessions featuring keynotes, artist conversations, roundtable discussions, musical performances, and much more. Conference events will be held at the Hyatt Regency in downtown Tulsa, which has made a special rate available for festival attendees.

Keynote Announcement: Valeria Luiselli

aisaak on April 11, 2023

Photo by Diego Berruecos

Valeria Luiselli is the author of several renowned books, including The Lost Children’s Archive and Tell Me How it Ends: An Essay in 40 Questions. The former was long listed for the Booker Prize, and the latter won the American Book Award in 2018. Over the course of her career, her work has been awarded other literary prizes including the Vilcek and Folio; in 2019, Luiselli earned a MacArthur Fellowship, commonly known as the “Genius Grant.” As a Mexican-born author, Luiselli writes over the complex topics of immigration and displacement. At Switchyard, she will collaborate with sound and film artists to create an immersive journey along the US-Mexico border. 

Learn more here: https://www.valerialuiselli.com

Register now to join us for this talk as well as dozens of other sessions featuring keynotes, artist conversations, roundtable discussions, musical performances, and much more. Conference events will be held at the Hyatt Regency in downtown Tulsa, which has made a special rate available for festival attendees.

Keynote Announcement: Rebecca Makkai

aisaak on April 11, 2023

Rebecca Makkai’s dazzling stories have appeared in several prominent publications and anthologies, including The New England Review, This American Life, and The Best American Short Stories. Her novel, The Great Believers, was a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize and National Book Award. In it, Makkai tells the story of the gay community in the 1980s, and how it fought the HIV/AIDS epidemic. Makkai’s works explore the mysteries and forgotten parts of history, from activist social movements to more intimate family histories, taking readers on journeys of exploration and recovery. Her newest novel, I Have Some Questions for You, will appear in late February. 

Learn more here: https://rebeccamakkai.com  

Register now to join us for this talk as well as dozens of other sessions featuring keynotes, artist conversations, roundtable discussions, musical performances, and much more. Conference events will be held at the Hyatt Regency in downtown Tulsa, which has made a special rate available for festival attendees.

Keynote Announcement: Maia Kobabe

aisaak on April 11, 2023

Maia Kobabe is the author of Gender Queer, an acclaimed graphic novel that won the ALA Alex Award and Stonewall-Israel Fishman Award. Famous as it is infamous, Gender Queer earned the top spot for the most challenged book in 2021-22 for “sexually explicit” and LGBTQIA+ content, according to the American Library Association. Kobabe has become a voice for the LGBT community, and the text has become an anchor in conversations about trans and gender queer people, nonnormative sexuality, and censorship in libraries and schools. Kobabe’s work is also featured in various comic anthologies, including Tabula Idem: A Queer Tarot Comic Anthology, Rolled and Told Vol. 2, and Faster Than Light, Y’all. 

Learn more here: https://redgoldsparkspress.com

Register now to join us for this talk as well as dozens of other sessions featuring keynotes, artist conversations, roundtable discussions, musical performances, and much more. Conference events will be held at the Hyatt Regency in downtown Tulsa, which has made a special rate available for festival attendees.