About the Festival

Named for the six bridges that connect the downtowns in Little Rock and North Little Rock, the Festival bridges communities and brings people together. CALS actively solicits input from a variety of demographic groups with the goal of offering a diverse, inclusive, and widely appealing festival.

The event celebrates reading, literacy, stories, and wordsmithing. Scores of nationally known authors converge on the city to offer panels on a wide variety of topics, from cooking demonstrations to award-winning comedy. Authors also venture into the community for efforts such as Writers in the Schools (WITS), bringing the joy of writing to hundreds of students in central Arkansas.

Since inception, the Festival has been an important showcase for nationally and internationally writers known writers, as well as locally-based talent.

Presenters from past festivals include Ann Patchett, John Waters, Sebastian Junger, Jacqueline Woodson, David Sedaris, Kiese Laymon, Tim O’Brien, Congressman John Lewis, Issa Rae, Mary Roach, Charles Yu, Jericho Brown, Vashti Harrison, TJ Klune, Sandra Cisneros, James Beard Award winners Dorie Greenspan and Vishwesh Bhatt,  and critically acclaimed Arkansas authors such as Kevin Brockmeier and Trenton Lee Stewart.