Roxane with one N

Author and social commentator Roxane Gay spoke virtually Thursday, April 29, as part of the CALS Speaker Series. Her parting advice to aspiring writers is one that many can take to heart even outside of the realm of writing: “Be relentless.”  

She began by reading an essay,

What Are You Reading? Anne Orsi

I am a lawyer and the president of the Arkansas Society of Freethinkers, a group that promotes science literacy, humanism, and the separation of church and state. I organize the Freethinkers’ monthly lecture and discussion series on topics of social justice, philosophy, humanism, science, and current events.

History is one of my passions,

Six Bridges Book Festival: Virginia Walden Ford

Little Rock Family Taught This Education Activist to Stand Up for a Cause

Virginia Walden Ford is one of the few people who actually knows the answer to the question, “What actress would play you in the Hollywood version of your life?”

Ford made national news in the 1990s as leader of a grassroots effort to broaden school choice for public school students in Washington DC.

Six Bridges Book Festival: Dan Piepenbring

The Mystery Remains: Co-Writing Prince’s Memoir in His Last Days

As one of the most influential musicians of our time, Prince spread the funky gospel of love in all its forms. His frankness about sexual desire and experience was shocking to the 1980s world that saw him rise to mega-stardom. Self-appointed guardians of morality railed against his music even as his work shaped a young generation who learned through his funk fusions to love their physical bodies and to dance like the world was ending.

A New Name for the Arkansas Literary Festival Heralds a New Vision for Outreach

Little Rock is known for its many striking bridges, which make elegant silhouettes across the Arkansas River and provide pleasure to so many people who walk and bike the river trail. Our bridges light the night with color for all who enter and leave the city—a beautiful symbol of progress and hope.

Bridges take us across barriers that seem impassable.