The Virtual 2020 South Dakota Festival of Books includes some heavy hitters in the publishing world, including a homegrown Pulitzer Prize winner and a novelist whose book “World War Z” became a blockbuster movie starring Brad Pitt.

Festival of Books fans have become accustomed to meeting their favorite authors in person every fall over the event’s 17 year history. This year, they’ll find joy from their living rooms through a carefully curated slate of events held via Zoom and Facebook Live.

The South Dakota Center for the Book has selected David Heska Wanbli Weiden's "Spotted Tail" to represent South Dakota at the 2020 National Book Festival.

With the coronavirus pandemic continuing and the health of readers and writers in mind, the 2020 South Dakota Festival of Books will be an all-virtual experience in 2020.

2020 South Dakota Festival of Books presenter Brenda Child has written extensively about Native American life.

Journalist and author Lee Shippey said, “The right book at the right time, may mean more in a person’s life than anything else.”

Every summer, the statewide South Dakota Humanities Council’s One Book South Dakota author tours South Dakota to meet readers and fans. Due to the coronavirus pandemic, this year’s author, former Westboro Baptist Church member Megan Phelps-Roper, is interacting with fans virtually.

The South Dakota Humanities Council has opened a second round of grant funding to assist South Dakota cultural organizations struggling to maintain operations during the coronavirus pandemic.

The South Dakota Humanities Council, in cooperation with longtime SDHC scholar Lawrence Diggs, has developed a weekly discussion program to address civic unrest and racial bias in the wake of the George Floyd incident in Minneapolis.

Franklin Delano Roosevelt was elected president in a landslide in 1932. Dust storms were on the rise; 14 were reported across the country, and the number would double in the following year. World War I veterans marched on Washington, D.C., demanding back pay and pensions to help survive the growing Depression.