Celebrating its 30th anniversary, the Highland Park Literary Festival (HP LitFest) recently announced that Mark Sullivan, New York Times bestselling author of Beneath a Scarlet Sky and a former investigative reporter, will be the featured speaker of this year’s community keynote event on February 20, 2025, in the Highland Park High School Auditorium. Doors will open at 6:30 p.m. and the program will begin at 7 p.m. Admission is free.The HP LitFest Committee would like to thank La Fiesta de la Seis Banderas for generously supporting its mission for the past 24 years, enabling the organization to achieve prominence as a community literary festival.
HP LitFest was founded in 1995 by parents and Highland Park High School (HPHS) faculty members who mutually desired to create a program to provide literary enrichment and spark the interest and imagination of high school students. HP LitFest has since grown into a highly anticipated series of events for students and community members, culminating in a two-day festival. HP LitFest remains committed to its mission of inspiring and encouraging students, the local community, and the greater Dallas area to celebrate language in all its written and spoken forms. In the past several years, HP LitFest has proudly expanded its programming from the high school into every HPISD school.
“Each year, HP LitFest serves thousands in and around our community, in every age group. We are proud to serve more than 6,500 people from children to adults,” said HP LitFest Co-chair Ashley Blanchette. “Thanks to the leadership that came before us, HP LitFest is widely recognized for the caliber of keynote and featured speakers and workshop presenters we secure for our students and community. As we mark this significant milestone in our event’s history, we are thrilled to welcome author Mark Sullivan.”
Mark is the acclaimed author of over 18 novels, including the #1 New York Times bestselling “Private” series, which he writes with James Patterson. His beloved book, Beneath a Scarlet Sky, based on the epic tale of forgotten war hero Pino Lella, has resonated deeply with audiences everywhere.
Before becoming a celebrated novelist, Mark was a correspondent at Reuters and a reporter at States News Service, where he served as a backup reporter to the D.C. bureaus of the New York Times, Newsday and the New York Daily News. He later became an award-winning investigative reporter at the San Diego Tribune, where his unique journalistic style focused on the cultures of the things he was investigating. His first novel, The Fall Line, was named a New York Times Notable Book of the year, a rare honor for a debut author. Later, his breakout novel, The Purification Ceremony, made bestseller’s lists all over the world.
“We believe that literary writing offers unique insight into the human experience and has its value not only in the story that it tells, but also in how the story is told,” said HP LitFest Co-Chair Julie Melihercik. “Consequently, HP LitFest showcases and provides access to professional writers who offer substantive artistic content through either fiction or nonfiction, and who can offer guidance or inspiration with respect to the craft and the appreciation of literary writing.”
Not only will approximately 2,100 HPHS students attend an assembly-style presentation with our featured author; they will also participate in at least one workshop during their high school’s regularly scheduled English class on February 21, 2025. These workshops are put on by 25 accomplished novelists, journalists, poets, songwriters, and playwrights from all over the country.
HP LitFest’s programming includes a poetry competition in the elementary schools, judged by LitFest Student Committee Members, with winning poetry, illustrated by middle school art students, displayed at the Highland Park and University Park Public Libraries; an open Mic Night, providing a safe platform for high school students to showcase literary expertise among their peers; a student writing contest and awards breakfast; two scholarships awarded to HPHS students who have demonstrated a passion for writing; parent and student book clubs; and a LitFest Student Committee for HPHS students wishing to further explore various forms of literature.
In addition, Flick Fest for LitFest, the primary fundraising event for HP LitFest, will feature acclaimed screenwriter and two-time Academy Award nominee, David Magee. It will be held Thursday, January 30, 2025, at 7 p.m. at the Angelica Theater in Mockingbird Station. Flick Fest will offer a showing and discussion of movie clips of which David has written the screenplays. Donations of $35 or more include the movie screening, discussion, a beverage and popcorn. Visit https://hplitfest.com/flick-fest/ for reservations and additional detail.
HP LitFest is made possible by the generous donations from La Fiesta de las Seis Banderas, HP Arts and HPHS PTA along with families of the school district and beyond.
HPLitFest is free and open to the public. For more information or to support HP LitFest, visit https://hplitfest.com/.