Chicago’s first annual South Asian American Literary Festival brought writers, poets, scholars and readers to the South Asia Institute on August 22 for a free day of readings, panels, book signings and conversation.
The institute presented the event as a celebration of South Asian literary traditions and their place within Chicago’s wider cultural landscape. Its published program featured 23 voices and opened with representatives from the city, local government and South Asia Institute leadership.
Fatimah Asghar leads the inaugural program
Poet, screenwriter and educator Fatimah Asghar delivered the keynote conversation, followed by a book signing. Asghar is the author of the poetry collection If They Come for Us and the novel When We Were Sisters, and co-created the Emmy-nominated web series Brown Girls.
The wider lineup included writers and cultural figures working across fiction, poetry, scholarship and community storytelling. The program combined formal literary sessions with opportunities for readers and participants to connect throughout the day.
Hosted at the institute’s South Loop location, the festival received support from the Chicago Department of Cultural Affairs and Special Events, the English PEN/South Asian Literature in Translation Project at the University of Chicago, the Hundal Foundation and community sponsors.
By placing diaspora writing inside a major urban cultural program, the festival created a shared platform for stories shaped by migration, language, memory and belonging—without treating South Asian literature as separate from Chicago’s civic life.
