Asian American Literature Festival - Literature + Museum

Festival Overview

Presented biannually by the Smithsonian Asian Pacific American Center, the Asian American Literature Festival (AALF) is the only festival of its kind: literature meets the museum, where literature comes off the page and takes full, multisensory life—from immersive poetry installations and mystery novel “Escape Rooms” to campfire-style queer ghost stories and workshops on refugee memory work.

Drawing 3,000 in-person visitors (with many more joining virtually), AALF is a national gathering to grow and nurture Asian American literature and literary community. It is a space of stewardship, of taking active responsibility for what we write and read, and why.

What makes the Asian American Lit Fest special?

• We are one of the only literary festivals in the world committed to pay equity for all performers and intersectional justice more broadly

• We have an express focus on, and track record of, engaging queer/trans/nonbinary communities of color, including youth leadership pipelines with performance, editorial, and curatorial tracks

• We give back to the community and donates hundreds of Asian American books to local DC-area spaces of need

• We build cooperative structures and long-term health across Asian American arts organizations and publishers

• We imagine and carry out our commitments to steward Asian American literature.

Partners and Community Partners

AALF showcases between 80-100 writers and artists, both emerging and critically acclaimed. The 2019 Festival showcased such luminaries as MacArthur “genius” Ocean Vuong, National Book Award-winner Arthur Sze, Guggenheim fellow Monique Truong, and VS podcast co-hosts Franny Choi and Danez Smith. The 2017 AALF featured American Book Award-winner Karen Tei Yamashita, former Poetry Society of American President Kimiko Hahn, and Utah state Poet Laureate Paisley Rekdal.

For the 2022 AALF, we’ve already confirmed best-selling authors Aimee Nezhumatathil, Alexander Chee, and Larissa Lai, as well as the award-winning writers Khaty Xiong, Saymoukda Duongphouxay Vongsay, Jennifer Chang, Timothy Yu, and Kazim Ali. More authors and artists to be confirmed in the coming months.

Featured Participants

AALF showcases between 80-100 writers and artists, both emerging and critically acclaimed. The 2019 Festival showcased such luminaries as MacArthur “genius” Ocean Vuong, National Book Award-winner Arthur Sze, Guggenheim fellow Monique Truong, and VS podcast co-hosts Franny Choi and Danez Smith. The 2017 AALF featured American Book Award-winner Karen Tei Yamashita, former Poetry Society of American President Kimiko Hahn, and Utah state Poet Laureate Paisley Rekdal.
For the 2022 AALF, we’ve already confirmed best-selling authors Aimee Nezhumatathil, Alexander Chee, and Larissa Lai, as well as the award-winning writers Khaty Xiong, Saymoukda Duongphouxay Vongsay, Jennifer Chang, Timothy Yu, and Kazim Ali. More authors and artists to be confirmed in the coming months.

What's in Store for 2022

• AALF 2022 will be held in late summer 2022 for 3 days and nights at Washington DC’s Eaton DC.

• Theme: Ghost World In haunted times, literature as a guide to what lies beyond the world we know

• Featured programs:

◦ Aimee Nezhukumatathil, author of the 2020 Barnes & Noble Book of the Year, World of Wonders, will lead an evening birdwatching and poetry hike in Washington, DC’s Rock Creek Park (signature program, high audience reach)

◦ Alexander Chee and Larissa Lai, acclaimed novelists, read from newly commissioned work on ghosts of the pandemic (signature program, high audience reach)

◦ Grief Garden, an immersive poetry installation on grieving and loss, by poet Khaty Xiong

◦ a seance by poet and playwright Saymoukda Duangphouxay Vongsay

◦ Literaoke, a mashup of literary readings and karaoke! (signature program, high audience reach)

◦ Story Hours for kids (and adults!)

◦ Live-time Choose-Your-Own Adventure experience, by Kazim Ali

◦ “Edscape Room” by mystery novelist Ed Lin

◦ Jalsa Muslim Writers Salon

◦ Wikipedia Edit-a-Thon on Asian American Literature

• Expected attendance: 4,000+ for in-person programming, 100,000+ for programs and projects on livestream or hosted virtually

Aligned Publications

Each AALF features collaborations with leading publishing houses and literary journals to launch special publications as part of the Festival, extending the Festival’s reach to readers everywhere, including:

• in 2017, a special issue with Poetry Magazine (circulation 30K+)

• in 2019, a special issue with Massachusetts Review (2.5K+) and special folios with Georgia Review (5K+) and Poetry Magazine

• in 2022, the launch of José Watanabe’s Historia Natural, translated by Michelle Har Kim, the first book-length English-language translation of this major Japanese Peruvian poet (published by University of Georgia Press in partnership with the Smithsonian)

• in 2022, a special issue with the Georgia Review and folios with New England Review and Poetry Magazine

The next Asian American Literature Festival will be in 2022. Feel free to email us with inquiries at APAC@si.edu, but please note that we do not accept individual proposals for sessions. All programming is developed through a “community curation system” led by participating Festival organizations--Kundiman, Kaya Press, the Asian American Writers’ Workshop, AALR, and Bamboo Ridge Press. We encourage you to get to know the Asian American lit community landscape by reaching out to these organizations.

If you are a press or organization that would like to explore partnership or otherwise becoming a participating Festival org, please feel free to contact us at APAC@si.edu.