Name: 48th Annual ODU Literary Festival: Suspend Your Disbelief
Start: 2025-10-05T11:00:00-04:00
End: 2025-10-10T21:00:00-04:00
Location: 4600 Hampton Boulevard, Norfolk, VA, United States, Virginia 23529

48th Annual ODU Literary Festival: Suspend Your Disbelief

Literature traps ideas in amber, preserving them to reawaken in future minds. This ancient technology, as potent as magic, requires no power source or machinery—only the willingness of readers to suspend disbelief. The act of surrender unlocks worlds, conjuring dreams, binding us to the shared human project of imagining what might be.
The 48th Annual Old Dominion University Literary Festival honors this leap of faith. To suspend disbelief is to trust the artist, to let the boundary between reality and imagination blur until the written word is a vessel of wisdom and marvel. From Sun 5 Oct to Fri 10 Oct, join us in celebrating a timeless craft that is the inheritance of all of us.
-Marianne Chan and John McManus, Festival Co-directors
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𝟒𝟖𝐭𝐡 𝐀𝐍𝐍𝐔𝐀𝐋 𝐎𝐃𝐔 𝐋𝐈𝐓𝐄𝐑𝐀𝐑𝐘 𝐅𝐄𝐒𝐓𝐈𝐕𝐀𝐋 𝐒𝐂𝐇𝐄𝐃𝐔𝐋𝐄
All events are in University Theatre unless indicated otherwise. All readings are free and open to the public.
𝐒𝐮𝐧𝐝𝐚𝐲, 𝐎𝐜𝐭. 𝟓:
⇨ 11:00 a.m. Young Adult Event: P. D'Jèlí Clark at Prince Books (109 E Main Street)
⇨ 4:00 p.m. Opening Reception at The Green Onion Restaurant (1603 Colley Avenue)
𝐌𝐨𝐧𝐝𝐚𝐲, 𝐎𝐜𝐭. 𝟔:
⇨ 12:00 p.m. MFA Alumni and Student Readings: Gregory Grosvenor & January Gill O'Neil, Constellate Launch Party
⇨ 1:30 p.m. Elizabeth White
⇨ 3:00 p.m. Ariana Benson
⇨ 4:30 p.m. P. D'Jèlí Clark
⇨ 7:00 p.m. 2025 Edith and Forrest P. White Writer in Residence: Lauren Oyler
𝐓𝐮𝐞𝐬𝐝𝐚𝐲, 𝐎𝐜𝐭. 𝟕:
⇨ 12:30 p.m. Workshop: Kristen Renee Miller, mpark (BAL 2027)
⇨ 3:00 p.m. Kristen Renee Miller
⇨ 4:30 p.m. Annabelle Tometich
⇨ 7:00 p.m. Crystal Wilkinson
𝐖𝐞𝐝𝐧𝐞𝐬𝐝𝐚𝐲, 𝐎𝐜𝐭. 𝟖:
⇨ 12:00 p.m. Workshop: Crystal Wilkinson, Gordon Art Galleries (4509 Monarch Way)
⇨ 3:00 p.m. Faculty Reading: Princess Joy L. Perry
⇨ 4:30 p.m. Musical Event: Tim Seibles & Chris Brydge
⇨ 7:00 p.m. Tony Tulathimutte
𝐓𝐡𝐮𝐫𝐬𝐝𝐚𝐲, 𝐎𝐜𝐭. 𝟗:
⇨ 12:30 p.m. Workshop: Kindra McDonald Greene, Elizabeth River Trail
⇨ 2:00 p.m. Erika Howsare, In Front of Webb Center
⇨ 3:30 p.m. Kindra McDonald Greene & JJJJJerome Ellis, In Front of Webb Center
⇨ 6:30 p.m. Shadows of the Imagination Game Jam, Monarch Hall 2116
⇨ 7:30 p.m. The Great Filipino American ASWANG Pageant followed by “Aswang: Mythic Monsters and the Magic of the Page" discussion panel
𝐅𝐫𝐢𝐝𝐚𝐲, 𝐎𝐜𝐭. 𝟏𝟎:
⇨ 7:00 p.m. What We Ask of Flesh (Remica Bingham-Risher, Christal Brown, INSPIRIT Dance), Attucks Theatre, 1010 Church Street
For more information, please contact the ODU Department of English at (757) 683-3991 or email [email protected].