Grace Talusan's first book, The Body Papers, is a New York Times Editors’ Choice selection, a Must-Read for the Massachusetts Book Awards, and winner of the Restless Books Prize for New Immigrant Writing. Born in the Philippines and raised in New England, she graduated from Tufts University and the MFA Program in Writing at UC Irvine. She is the recipient of a U.S. Fulbright Fellowship to the Philippines and an Artist Fellowship Award from the Massachusetts Cultural Council. She taught writing for many years at Tufts University and Grub Street. Currently, Talusan is the Fannie Hurst Writer-in-Residence at Brandeis University.

This festival is made possible in part through sponsorship by the City of Norfolk Commission on the Arts and Humanities.