Originally Posted: March 21, 2021
The Dallas Literary Festival will bring together a bevy of writers, from here and elsewhere, on March 26 to 28 for diverse programs focusing on a topical theme: turbulence. Presented by Southern Methodist University, the online event will consist of panel discussions, author readings and one-on-one conversations.
Dallas author Sanderia Faye Smith, the director of the festival, says the pandemic and systemic racism in America collided in “a perfect storm … Now we’re trying to figure out how we’re going to deal with them.”
Many of the participating authors have written about systemic racism or being incarcerated. Alice Marie Johnson, an advocate for criminal justice reform, will be in conversation with Mitchell S. Jackson, author of Survival Math, for the keynote.
After being convicted of a nonviolent drug-related crime in 1996, Johnson was sentenced to life in prison. Former President Donald Trump commuted her sentence in 2018, and later granted her a full pardon. READ MORE