Hurca!/Adobe Stock
Audio By Carbonatix
The Dallas Literary Festival is marking its 50th anniversary by upping the festival atmosphere while still bringing authors, musicians, and other professionals to SMU for a two-day event on April 2-3 that will provide a platform for local artists to perform and speak about their work.
“This is my fourth year, and this year … it really will be a festival atmosphere like you don’t ordinarily always see at the Dallas Literary Festival,” says Sanderia Faye Smith, executive director of this year’s festival.
“And that means that as soon as you walk on the SMU campus, there’s going to be a stage and vendors and things going on outside that encourages you to go inside Hughes-Trigg [where panel discussions and speakers will be] to hear these amazing, acclaimed authors that we have from all over.”
Lori Ann Stephens, a professor at SMU and author who will serve as a panelist this year, is the 2025 festival’s music director.
“This is the first time we’ve gotten a huge stage, and it’s outside, and there’s music,” Stephens says. Many of the visiting musicians have ties to SMU, having previously majored or minored in English, then taking what they learned and applying it to their art. “So that’s super exciting for me, to bring those alumni to SMU to show the students the ways that English and writing and literature can enrich your lives outside of a degree plan.”
While the festival’s musical profile is more significant than ever, the focus remains on storytelling. However, the evolution allowed for some cross-pollination among the guests. Smith says local musician Dacia Kings will perform songs written by guest speaker Alice Randall on Wednesday, April 2.
Kings’ performance and the rest of the festival will be free to attend. That was important to Smith, who considers accessibility and impact when planning events.
“I don’t think the arts should only be for a certain class of people,” she says. “I think they should be for everyone. How are we going to find our next Alice Walker or Toni Morrison or Harper Lee if we don’t open up the arts to everyone?”
Another critical aspect of the Dallas Literary Festival is balancing regional influence with a global perspective. This year’s theme and the festival’s subtitle are “My Country,” and Stephens explains the layers of meaning they hope to peel back during panels and performances.
“Texas is very, very proud of its sort of countryside, and so it sort of has a larger-than-life ego, and so we’re trying to tap into … the positive aspect of that, but also the concept of country that is shared by all of us, and how we all fit into that narrative of our belonging to a country and feeling ties to our country in spite of our differences.”
Smith curated a lineup of guests to bring literary figures she admires and respects to Dallas. “I want Dallas to see literature through my eyes,” she says. “These are the people that I love.”
Author Tomi Adeyemi (Children of Blood and Bone), James Beard Award-winning chef and restaurateur Alexander Smalls and Pulitzer Prize-winning poet Tyehimba Jess are some of the names who will speak and share their work. Literary agent Ali Kominsky and publicist Lauren Cerand will join a panel to explain how writers can “position their work in a competitive market while staying true to the stories they need to tell.”
“Love books or don’t love books, [you will] have an opportunity to rub elbows with these authors,” Smith says. “They are on campus. They are not just walking in, doing their thing and walking away, where you don’t have the opportunity to … mingle with them.”
After 50 years, the Dallas Literary Festival is still finding ways to grow and evolve, amplifying new and different voices and seeking to inspire the next generation of the city’s artists. Local high schools and an elementary school have been invited to attend the festival, so younger students have the opportunity to see how writing can help shape and define their lives.
It is an opportunity that all of Dallas can take advantage of, with world-class talent converging to celebrate the power of storytelling and discuss ideas of community, belonging and identity through the written word, music and more.
A list of the 2025 Dallas Literary Festival’s guests and agenda can be found at dallasliteraryfestival.org.
