Tulsa LitFest Closing Night Festivities

Mingle with your fellow readers, authors, artists, and filmmakers one final time before LitFest 2026 becomes enshrined in memory. Join us for an after-hours event at Chimera Cafe where mulit-talented musical guest Damion Shade will perform and author Sarah Thankam Mathews will read from her work. Provided in partnership with NYU Tulsa.

Damion Shade is a creative and social justice force in Tulsa. By day, he works on public policy, championing a wide array of progressive social causes. By night, he raps, sings, and plays multiple instruments across a variety of bands and musical projects. He’s also a featured artist on the Fire in Little Africa project, which celebrates the Legacy of Black Wall Street, and the recipient of a Tulsa Artist Creative Fund grant. As a writer, he dabbles in many genres, and his work has been published in numerous magazines and journals. He’s presently working on a collection of poems and short stories and has plans to develop a novel in late 2026.

Sarah Thankam Mathews is the author of All This Could Be Different, which was shortlisted for the the Discover Prize, the Aspen Words Literary Prize, and 2022 National Book Award in Fiction. Mathews' debut novel was also a New York Times Editor's Choice and named a Best Book of the Year by NPR, Vogue, Vulture, Los Angeles Times, TIME, Slate, and Buzzfeed. Mathews grew up between Oman and India, immigrating to the United States at seventeen.

Read more about Sarah and her work here.

Tulsa LitFest is brought to you by the Center for Poets and Writers at OSU Tulsa, Tri City Collective, and Magic City Books.

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