March 23, 1:00-2:20 PM Panel 3 – Poetry Reading, Conversation, and Book Signing with Dr. Ignacio Ruiz Pérez, author of Isles of Firm Ground (Deep Vellum, 2022)

Moderator: Natalia Trigo, Department of Modern Languages, UTA

English translation reader: Andrea Varela, Department of Modern Languages, UTA

MArch 24, 12:00-1:00 PM Lunch & Keynote Address: “Cultural Catalysts: Alternative Economies of Literature” by Will Evans

Moderator: Ignacio Ruiz-Pérez, Department of Modern Languages, UTA

Will Evans is an award-winning publisher, writer, translator, bookstore owner, and literary arts advocate. In 2013, he moved to Dallas and founded Deep Vellum, a nonprofit publishing house, bookstore, and literary arts center, dedicated to bringing the world into conversation through literature by publishing the world’s vital stories by underrepresented writers, and cultivating a lifelong love of reading through creative programming and outspoken advocacy for the literary arts. He was awarded CLMP’s Golden Colophon Award for Paradigm Independent Publishing in 2019 and was admitted to the Texas Institute of Letters in 2022. He received BA degrees in History and Russian Literature from Emory University, and an MA in Russian Culture from Duke University. A native of Wilmington, North Carolina, he lives in Dallas with his native Texan wife and two 10th-generation Texan children.