Over the summer, when many writers’ events were cancelled due to the pandemic, I was heartened to learn that a few created for writers from marginalized backgrounds continued as planned, but online. Here is the brief list I had compiled of events to attend over the summer and fall.
I later found out about several other diversity-focused writers’ events, which was also welcome news. Publishing in Color Online 2020 (for spiritual writers of colour), Lambda LitFest (a weeklong celebration of queer Black artistry) and FIYAHCON (for BIPOC+ in speculative fiction) have now concluded, but there’s still time to attend the following writers’ events.
U.S.-based events
Name: National Black Book Festival (NBBF)
Description: NBBF will feature author and publisher exhibits, a children’s festival, workshops and seminars, a book club meet-and-greet and more.
Dates: Oct. 23–24, 2020.
Price: Free, and registration is not required.
Additional notes: NBBF, the “largest African-American book event in the South,” is an annual event, sponsored by Cushcity.com, one of the largest online sources for African-American literature.
Name: Well-Read Black Girl Festival (WRBG Festival)
Description: The festival’s theme is “Black Political Power: Past & Present” and panelists include “your favorite poets and journalists to frontline activists and everyone in between.”
Dates: Nov. 6–8, 2020.
Price: Not yet indicated, but at the inaugural WRBG Festival held last year, tickets were $15.
Additional notes: Founded by Gloria Edim in 2015, WRBG’s goal is to “showcase the universality of Black women through literature.”
Name: Latinx Kidlit Book Festival
Description: A “virtual celebration of Latinx KidLit authors, illustrators, and books for all readers and educators. … Everyone is welcome!”
Dates: Dec. 4–5, 2020.
Price: Free
Additional notes: The festival was created by Las Musas, “a collective of women and non-binary (identifying on the female spectrum) Latinx picture book, middle grade, and young adult debut authors.”
International events
An international literary festival to look out for this fall is the Jaipur Literature Festival (JLF), described as “the greatest literary show on Earth.” Although the main festival is still planned for Jan. 28 to Feb. 1, 2021, in Jaipur, India, cities ranging from Adelaide to Toronto are hosting virtual events throughout the month of November via JLF Global.
Also being held online in the upcoming weeks is the Sharjah International Book Fair (SIBF), which launches Nov. 4, 2020, with the theme “the world reads from Sharjah,” and the Guadalajara International Book Fair, “the most important publishing gathering in Ibero-America,” Nov. 28 – Dec. 6, 2020.
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Previous post from Sangeeta Mehta: Three Online Diversity-Focused Writers’ Events to Attend This Summer and Fall
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Sangeeta Mehta
Sangeeta Mehta has worked in the book publishing field since the late 1990s. She has been an acquiring editor at both Little, Brown Books for Young Readers and Simon Pulse. Sangeeta currently consults on book projects for corporate and independent book publishers (with clients including Macmillan, Lee & Low, and Workman Publishing) and individual authors. She also leads workshops with Inked Voices.