october, 2026
Event Details
Hay Festival Forum Dallas brings three days of literature, journalism, music and ideas to Bishop Arts, October 16–18. The festival unfolds across The Wild Detectives, the Texas Theatre, Whose Books, Oak Cliff Cultural Center and other neighborhood spaces. Explore Saturday’s programme below; select any event title for full details and tickets.
Saturday, October 17 · Program
12:00 PM · NBF Presents: The Heart of Nonfiction
Kelly Lytle Hernández and Nilo Tabrizy, in conversation with Ruth Dickey
The Wild Detectives — Ideas · Free
Presented by the National Book Foundation (NBF), this conversation brings Kelly Lytle Hernández and Nilo Tabrizy together to explore the stories behind today’s headlines. Their work explores immigration, identity and the women-led uprising in Iran, asking whose experiences shape the public record.
12:30 PM · Dallas: A City in Transition
Stephanie Drenka, Veletta Forsythe Lill and Mark Lamster
The Wild Detectives — Stories · Free
What does Dallas keep as it grows, and what does it leave behind? Presented alongside Deep Vellum, three local voices consider architecture, preservation and the changing identity of the city we share.
1:00 PM · Claudia Piñeiro: Cathedrals and Beyond
Claudia Piñeiro, in conversation with Lori Feathers
Texas Theatre — Upstairs · $5
Acclaimed Argentine writer Claudia Piñeiro discusses Cathedrals and a body of work that moves between fiction, theatre and the screen. Her stories probe family, faith, gender and power with the tension of a thriller.
2:00 PM · The Atlantic Across America: Dallas
The Atlantic journalists and guests
Texas Theatre — Downstairs · Free
The Atlantic brings its national conversation to Dallas. Journalists and guests look at the forces shaping the United States through the perspectives, questions and stories of Texas.
2:30 PM · Writers & the Archive of the Indies
Liliana Colanzi, Edmundo Paz Soldán and Yásnaya Elena A. Gil, in conversation with María Ramos Pacheco
The Wild Detectives — Stories · Free
Three writers revisit the Archive of the Indies and the histories it holds. Through fiction and reflection, they examine colonial memory, the power of archives and the stories that can be told beyond them.
3:00 PM · Living with Difficult Emotions
Mariana Alessandri and Anna Pazos, in conversation with Katherine Davies
Texas Theatre — Upstairs · $5
Philosopher Mariana Alessandri and writer and filmmaker Anna Pazos consider what anxiety, grief and uncertainty can teach us. Together they question the pressure to be happy all the time and make room for more complicated feelings.
4:00 PM · A Filipino Story of Family, Migration & Belonging
Adrian De Leon, in conversation with Rowena Pedrena
The Wild Detectives — Stories · Free
In Notes from a Wayward Son, Adrian De Leon traces family, migration and the complicated bonds between fathers and sons. This conversation follows the Filipino experience across borders and generations.
4:00 PM · Reframing the American Story
Nikole Hannah-Jones, in conversation with Dr. Michael J. Sorrell
Texas Theatre — Downstairs · $10
Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist Nikole Hannah-Jones, creator of The 1619 Project, joins Dr. Michael J. Sorrell. They discuss history, race, education and how the stories we tell about America shape its future.
5:00 PM · The Great Remembering
June Cohen, in conversation with Jenny Bhatt
Texas Theatre — Upstairs · $10
June Cohen explores the ideas behind The Great Remembering: community, ritual and older ways of living that still speak to the present. A conversation about belonging and connection in an increasingly lonely world.
5:00 PM · Writing from Our Lives
Rodrigo Hasbún and Brenda Navarro, in conversation with John Bradley
The Wild Detectives — Ideas · Free
Rodrigo Hasbún and Brenda Navarro discuss how lived experience becomes fiction. They explore family, memory and displacement, and the choices that turn intimate histories into stories others can inhabit.
6:00 PM · Menp këtäkp: Ayuujk Futurism
Yásnaya Elena A. Gil and Kumantukxuxpë
Texas Theatre — Downstairs · $10
Language, music and imagination meet in an evening of Ayuujk futurism. Yásnaya Elena A. Gil and Kumantukxuxpë bring Indigenous expression into a conversation about memory, creativity and possible futures.
6:00–7:00 PM · Bar Politics
Josh Kumler
The Wild Detectives — Stories · Free
Stay for an informal conversation about politics at the bar with Josh Kumler. A chance to keep the day’s questions going over a drink and in good company.
