September 26, 2026 Festival
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September 26, 2026 Festival
Participate
Official Panelists
Funders
About
What We're About
Who We Are
Most Recent Festival
Make a Contribution
Be a Funder
Become a Volunteer
Join as an Exhibitor
Suggest a Panelist
2026 Official Panelists
Look who's coming!
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Children
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Southern
Erin Austen Abbott
Erin Austen Abbott spent her early adult life globe-trotting through major cities before making the decision to settle in a small town in...
Dr. Stanley Andrisse
Dr. Stanley Andrisse, PhD, is an endocrinologist, tenured professor, author, and nationally recognized advocate for education and criminal justice reform. He is an...
Lee Bains
Lee Bains is a poet and songwriter from Birmingham, Alabama, who has released four studio albums of what Rolling Stone calls "Southern gospel...
Joe Bond
Hope House
is Joe Bond's first novel. He began working on it after his story "Damico" won The Masters Review Short Story...
H. W. Brands
H. W. Brands holds the Jack S. Blanton Sr. Chair in History at the University of Texas at Austin. He has written more than...
Belle Burden
Belle Burden is a pro bono immigration attorney specializing in juvenile cases. Her writing has appeared in the
New York Times
. She lives...
Saddiq Dzukogi
Saddiq Dzukogi is a Nigerian poet and an assistant professor of English at University of Nebraska-Lincoln. He is the author of
Your
...
W. Ralph Eubanks
W. Ralph Eubanks is a faculty fellow and writer in residence at the Center for the Study of Southern Culture at the University of...
Beth Ann Fennelly
Beth Ann Fennelly, a 2020 Academy of American Poets Laureate Fellow, was the poet laureate of Mississippi from 2016-2021 and teaches in the MFA...
Jordan LaHaye Fontenot
Born and raised in the Acadiana in South Louisiana, Jordan LaHaye Fontenot's work as a writer and editor is an ongoing exploration of...
Johanna Gohmann
Johanna Gohmann is an essayist, humor writer, and children's book author. Her work has appeared in
The New Yorker, The New York
...
Kaycie Hall
Kaycie Hall is a writer and translator from French. She lives in New York City with her son.
Jasmine L. Holmes
Jasmine Holmes is an educator, historian, and author whose work moves between the classroom and the archive. She has written several trade-published nonfiction...
Lauren Hough
Lauren Hough was born in Germany and raised in seven countries, and West Texas. She's been an Air Force airman, a bartender,...
Jenny Jackson
Jenny Jackson is the
New York Times
bestselling author of
Pineapple Street
and
The Shampoo Effect
. A...
Tom Junod
Tom Junod is senior writer for
ESPN
, where his work has won an Emmy and the Dan Jenkins Medal for Excellence in Sportswriting....
Kelly Foster Lundquist
Kelly Foster Lundquist is the author of
Beard: A Memoir of a Marriage
, named by SheReads as a Most Anticipated Memoir of...
Anne E. Marshall
Anne Marshall is Professor of History at Mississippi State University, where she has taught since 2006. She has served as Executive Director of the U...
Andrew McCarthy
Andrew McCarthy is the author of four books,
Walking with Sam: A Father, a Son, and Five Hundred Miles Across Spain, Brat: An '8
...
Kate McKinnon
Kate McKinnon is a #1
New York Times
bestselling author, award winning performer, and writer, who is celebrated globally for her work in film...
Loubna Mrie
Loubna Mrie is a Syrian journalist, photographer, and writer, and a frequent commentator on Syrian and Middle Eastern affairs. The recipient of fellowships...
Hallie Elizabeth Newton
Hallie Elizabeth Newton was born in Mississippi. She received her first screenplay credit for
At Any Price
, released by Sony Picture ...
Aimee Nezhukumatathil
Aimee Nezhukumatathil is the
New York Times
bestselling author of two illustrated collections of essays:
Bite by Bite
and
World
...
M. J. (Mike) O'Brien
M. J. (Mike) O'Brien is a writer and researcher who spent 30 years as the chief communications and public relations officer for a national...
Evan Peacock
Evan Peacock is an author, archaeologist, and long-time freshwater fishing enthusiast who grew up in the hill country of north-central Mississippi. He holds...
Deesha Philyaw
Deesha Philyaw’s debut short story collection,
The Secret Lives of Church Ladies
, won the 2021 PEN/Faulkner Award for Fiction, the 2020/2021 Story Prize,...
Kevin Powers
Kevin Powers was born and raised in Richmond, Virginia. Since publishing his first novel in 2012, his books have been translated into more than...
Rick Ross
Rick Ross is an American rapper, songwriter, entrepreneur and founder of the Maybach Music Group. All eleven of his albums have landed in the Billboard 200,...
George Saunders
The recipient of a 2006 MacArthur Foundation Fellowship (“Genius” Award), George Saunders has authored two novels, four collections of short stories, a novella, a book of...
Laurie Gwen Shapiro
Laurie Gwen Shapiro is an award-winning journalist and documentary filmmaker whose work has appeared in
The New Yorker, The Atlantic, The New
...
George Singleton
George Singleton has published eleven collections of stories, two novels, and two collections of essays. His stories have appeared in the
Atlantic
...
Katy Simpson Smith
Born and raised in Jackson, Mississippi, Katy Simpson Smith is the author of
The Story of Land and Sea, Free Men, The Everlasting,
...
Stephanie Soileau
Stephanie Soileau is the author of the critically acclaimed story collection
Last One Out Shut Off the Lights
. Her work has...
Darnell Lamont Walker
Darnell Lamont Walker is a Death Doula and Emmy-Nominated Writer whose work lives at the intersection of creativity, care, and transition. Sometimes that...
Tiffany L. Warren
Tiffany L. Warren is a novelist and screenwriter who has published over thirty novels. In addition to writing books, Tiffany has written and...
Marcus Wicker
Marcus Wicker was born in Ann Arbor and raised in Ypsilanti, Michigan. He is the author of three books of poetry:
Dear Mothership<
...
Michelle Young
Michelle Young is an award-winning journalist and author. Her latest book,
The Art Spy: The Extraordinary Untold Tale of World War II
...
