Show your Pride in literature at the 2nd Annual Glitterary Festival! The Glitterary Festival is back for its second year in Oxford as a part of Oxford Pride Week and will take place in the Gertrude C. Ford Ballroom at the Inn at Ole Miss on Friday, Apr. 29 from 9 a.. to 7:30 p.m. with a break for lunch and 5 p.m. happy hour at McCormicks at the Inn.

Registration is free and comes with a drink ticket for the happy hour. 

The Glitterary Festival is a queer literary festival with a broad definition of what is literature and what is queer. According to the Glitterary Festival statement, the event is interested in texts “where gender, sexuality, masculinity and femininity can be challenged and explored.”

“We’re invested in conversations about race and class and issues of intersectionality,” the official statement continues. “We’re intrigued by transgressions of boundaries, queering what we think we know about identity. We are curious about the intersections of the written word with the natural world and with other art forms, such as music, dance, film, visual arts, etc. And we’re creating an inclusive space that welcomes not only academics and writers but anyone open to learning and celebrating queer literature.”

Glitterary Festival 2022 will host five panels and keynote readings by Jericho Brown and torrin a. greathouse.  The two morning panels feature current University of Mississippi students in conversation with scholars in the field, while the afternoon panels are comprised of writers from all over the country. 

SCHEDULE

9 – 10 a.m. ~ Queer Ecology Round Table

10:15 – 11:15 a.m. ~ ACE Round Table

11:30 a.m. – 12:30 p.m. ~ Writing the Queer Body

12:30 – 2:30 p.m. ~ Break for Lunch

2:30 – 3:30 p.m. ~ Getting Queer Words into the World

3:30 – 4:45 p.m. ~ Queer Intersections

5 – 6 p.m. ~ Happy Hour

6:15 – 7:30 p.m. ~ Keynote Readings

For author bios please follow the above links. Panel descriptions and a list of books by our authors are available upon request. 

Festival officials advise those who plan to fly to the festival to book their flights to and from Memphis (Tennessee) International Airport (MEM). If attendees plan to drive, Oxford is located at the intersection of MS Hwy 7 and US Hwy 278 (HS Hwy 6) and is less than thirty minutes from Interstates 22 and 55. There are several hotels in Oxford, but the festival hotel is The Inn at Ole Miss. 

The Festival will operate under the University’s COVID protocols at the time of the event. Currently masks are not required. However, there will be spacing out seating in the ballroom during events. 

Organizers are finalizing events for Pride Week, but the main events on Saturday, Apr. 30 will include a parade at 2 p.m., Pride on the Plaza from 3 to 6 p.m., and a drag show fundraiser at 8 p.m. More information about Pride events can be found at www.oxfordmspride.rocks.

If attendees want to buy books and support the authors, the University’s bookstore will be onsite during the Festival to sell books. Our community partner, Violet Valley Bookstore, at www.violetvalley.org, will have some of the books available for shipping in advance. If you are looking for a specific book that you don’t see on their site, email them at violetvalleybooks@gmail.com or contact them at www.violetvalley.org/contact-us. 

For more information on Glitterary Festival, visit all social media pages on:

Facebook www.facebook.com/glitteraryfestival

Instagram @glitteraryfestival 

Twitter @glitteraryfest 

Website glitteraryfestival.com