Annual LGBTQ literary festival returns to D.C.
OutWrite D.C., the District’s annual LGBTQ literary festival, is returning Friday and runs through Sunday. The free event is completely virtual this year and will feature more than 55 LGBTQ authors, poets, novelists and playwrights, as well as curated panels and workshops.
Topics include queerness in crime fiction, writing about and living with AIDS and the history of LGBTQ bars. Panels and readings will be available for live viewing on Youtube.
Workshops will take place via Zoom and require registration. The festival, which is part of the D.C. Center for the LGBT Community, was first launched in 2016.
To Emily Holland, OutWrite’s chair, the event is especially important as legislative attacks against LGBTQ people continue. There are currently 492 anti-LGBTQ bills in the United States, according to the ACLU. “It’s extremely important to have these spaces that highlight and center the voices that are being silenced the most,” Holland said. “That’s the lens that we took when approaching the curation of this festival — is how do we put these events front and center, and show that we’re still here, and our stories matter, and people are hungry for this work in this way.” Kim Roberts, one of the creators of the D.C.
