Now in its eighth year, Dallas’ Hay Festival Forum has become a sprawling literary gathering that reaches beyond a discussion of books and its home base of the Wild Detectives bookstore in Oak Cliff.
Contemporary social and political issues affecting Latin America, other parts of the developing world and the U.S. remain at the forefront of the three-day festival. Its two dozen events — featuring for the first time four writing workshops — are spread across the neighborhood to include the Texas Theatre, Oak Cliff Cultural Center and North Oak Cliff Branch Library. Many of the events are free.
“I think this year’s forum illustrates better than ever the philosophy behind the festival: bringing people from many different backgrounds together to discuss how they approach their work, how that work connects with society and how they perceive what is really happening in our cities and our world today,” says Javier García del Moral, one of two Spanish civil engineers who founded the Wild Detectives in 2014.
The eclecticism of the only American offshoot of Wales’ famed Hay Festival of Literature and Arts is most apparent in the breadth of authors in conversation with other writers and thinkers, the forum’s dominant format. Though half of those sessions feature Latin American authors, other participants have roots in Malta, India, Morocco, Jamaica and the United Kingdom, 25 of them coming from outside the U.S., García del Moral says.
The range extends past origins. Music, for instance, is a big part of the festival, anchored by a free late-night dance party dubbed AfroPerreo and described as “a celebration of resistance and rhythm.”
In addition, Mexican rapper Bocafloja will perform during his conversation with UTD history professor Paula Cuéllar about the ways in which hip-hop, poetry and other kinds of storytelling can address the legacy of colonialism.
Another session features a talk with punk rock drummers Brendan Canty of Fugazi in Washington, D.C., and Hugo Burnham of Leeds’ Gang of Four moderated by Houston-based college professor David A. Ensminger. They’ll discuss how percussion became a form of protest and music a tool of cultural disruption during the punk era.
Another musician, Manuel “Pantro Puto” Sánchez Viamonte of the band El Mato a Un Policia Motorizado, will present a U.S. edition of Festiclip, a compilation of music videos from the Argentine contemporary indie-rock scene he’s part of.
As in past years, there’s no stated theme to the Dallas Hay.
“When you start putting together a festival like this, it can feel paradoxical,” García del Moral explains. “In some ways it’s easier to have a single theme and narrow down whom to invite and what topics to explore. But in our case, we began by asking: What issues matter most right now in society? Who are the people bringing us the most urgent stories and reflections?”
If there’s an implied theme, it’s about how to think through and address strife around the world, including the battle between those in power and people caught up in political struggles. The approach is often research-based, with writers responding to events they witnessed, sometimes using new or unusual mediums.
For example, the festival opens with Maltese American graphic journalist Joe Sacco in conversation with Guardian columnist Arwa Mahdawi about the power of comics to confront uncomfortable truths. Reporting from Bosnia, India and Gaza, Sacco has chronicled war zones, refugee camps and marginalized communities, drawing comparisons to Maus author Art Spiegelman.
Other sessions feature Indian scholar and activist Suraj Yengde discussing the caste system’s role as a form of power and social control in not only his home country but also through a global lens; McAllen-raised National Book Award winner and UCLA anthropologist Jason De León talking about his seven years embedded with migrant-smuggling “coyotes” across Central America and Mexico; Jamaican American poet, playwright and cultural critic Claudia Rankine on race and the difficulty of acknowledging everyday racism as a cornerstone of society; and the Spanish author of Against Amazon, Jorge Carrión, on the necessity of independent bookstores in the face of digital monopolies and algorithmic culture.
Patriarchal systems and the feminist response to them are the subject of two discussions:
Science journalist Angela Saini on how deeply ingrained ideas about race, gender and hierarchy have been shaped not just by culture and politics but by science itself, and Marina Azahua, Gabriela Jauregui and Sara Uribe -- contributors to the feminist anthology Tsunami: Women’s Voices from Mexico -- on the plurality of women’s experiences around gender violence, power and liberation.
The best known writer on the 2025 Hay Festival Forum roster is probably Dominican American Pulitzer Prize winner Junot Díaz (The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao, This Is How You Lose Her), who will talk about the meaning of belonging in a world shaped by migration and diaspora.
“The festival itself is a sign that Dallas is ready to embrace challenging ideas,” García del Moral says, “and that its citizens are willing to expose themselves to different points of view and share them together.”
Details
Oct. 17-19 at the Wild Detectives, Texas Theatre, Oak Cliff Cultural Center and North Oak Cliff Branch Library. Many events are free with registration. Ticketed events are $10 each. Passes, $50-$95. Reservations and tickets at thewilddetectives.com/events/ and hayfestival.com/forum/dallas/programme.
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