Photo courtesy of Teresa Nguyen.
A four day celebration of Vietnamese American literature and the arts is coming to Oak Cliff this weekend.
The Foreword Literary Festival, named as a nod to Four Palaces Publishing’s mission to amplify unheard voices, spans multiple venues across Dallas and Arlington from Oct. 8 to 11.
The festival will host intimate readings, workshops, and conversations with nationally recognized queer Vietnamese American authors Truong Tran and Andrew Lam. Their work explores themes of migration, memory, identity, and queerness.
At the University of Texas at Arlington on Wednesday, Oct. 8, the festival kicks off with the UTA’s Bountiful Harvest Reading. Lam and Tran will do a public reading, followed by a Q&A moderated by Creative Writing professor Laura Kopchick. There will also be book sales and signing at the UTA Bookstore.
The festival then moves to a weekend in Oak Cliff starting with the “Word and World: A Literary Night” which will take place Friday, Oct. 10 from 7–9 p.m. at The Wild Detectives.
This event is an evening of readings and dialogue with Tran and Lam, exploring cultural identity and personal storytelling.Lam and Tran will each share readings from their work along with a moderated dialogue and book signing. Registration is free and limited to 50 guests.
Letter Writing as Personal Essay Workshop with Andrew Lam takes place Saturday, Oct. 11 from 10 a.m. to 12 p.m. at the Apprentice Creative Space inside the Oak Cliff Assembly.
This hands-on workshop guides 25 participants to discover their literary voice through the art of letter writing and literary nonfiction. The prompt is to write a letter to someone you know and admire or love, exploring both the personal and philosophical.
Finally, the Memoir Workshop with Truong Tran takes place Saturday, Oct. 11 from 2 to 4 p.m. at Apprentice Creative Space. This is a generative session focused on unlocking memory and crafting personal narratives where Tran will guide 25 participants to consider the memoir as an act of questioning.
The festival also marks the launch of When Home Hurts: Solastalgia, the debut nonfiction anthology from Four Palaces Publishing. Edited by Emily Townsend with a forward by Erica Hoffmeister, the anthology features 13 emerging voices reflecting on environmental grief and displacement.
