Tulsa and OKC Events to Feature World Literature Today Centennial Anthology

In the next few weeks, Daniel Simon will do two local events to continue promoting A Compass on the Navigable Sea: 100 Years of World Literature (Restless Books, 2026), his edited anthology commemorating the WLT centennial:

Saturday, April 25, 9:30-11:00am
Publishing from the Ground Up
In Conversation with Will Evans, Shook, and Matt Carney
(register here)
Part of Tulsa LitFest 2026!
Flagship x Tulsa Artist Fellowship | 112 N Boston Ave, Tulsa, OK 74103
Books available for signing
Organizers: M. Wright & Boris Dralyuk

Saturday, May 2, 6:00-8:00pm
Workshop, Reading, and Book Signing at Literati Press Bookshop
(register here)
3022 Paseo, Oklahoma City, OK 73103
Organizer: Ashley Korpela

The Eventbrite description for April 25 reads: “A panel discussion promoting translation and building readerly communities. The University of Tulsa, in partnership with LitFest, Art Directors Club, and the Tulsa Artist Fellowship, presents ‘Publishing from the Ground Up,’ a symposium about independent publishing and the creative communities it sustains. Join us on Saturday, April 25, for a roundtable conversation. Matt Carney (editor-in-chief of The Pickup) will moderate a panel about publishing and promoting literature in translation, organized by Boris Dralyuk and featuring Will Evans (founder of Deep Vellum, Dallas), Shook (translator and founder of Phoneme Editions), and Daniel Simon (editor-in-chief of World Literature Today).” To reserve a spot, please register here.

On Saturday, May 2, Simon will visit Literati Press in OKC’s Paseo District. First, at 6pm cdt, he’ll offer a free forty-five-minute workshop, “Submitting Your Work to Lit Mags: Inside Tips from a Longtime Editor,” about putting your best foot forward when submitting work to literary journals. Drawing on his own experience as a published poet and translator—as well as an editor with thirty years of publishing experience—he will help demystify the process for aspiring writers (register here). Then from 7-8pm, he’ll do a reading from the centennial anthology and sign books for attendees.

Now in its second printing, A Compass on the Navigable Sea features more than 130 essays, book reviews, interviews, poems, stories, and letters that have appeared in the magazine since its founding in 1927.” According to Library Journal, “Transcending the limits of genre, geography, and time period, this superb anthology of world literature deserves a place in every library collection that supports literature and international studies.” Award-winning photographer and writer Yousef Khanfar, based in Edmond, had this to say about the anthology: “Bringing together a century of world literature, with all its voices, histories, tensions, and contradictions, is an enormous undertaking. What struck me most as I read A Compass on the Navigable Sea is how naturally the pieces speak to one another. The book feels less like a compilation and more like a living conversation across time, language, and geography.” And Kirkus Reviews calls the book “literature as news that stays news, because timeless couldn’t be more timely.” All royalties derived from sales of the anthology will be donated to World Literature Today’s student scholarship funds at the University of Oklahoma.

An award-winning anthologist, poet, editor, translator, and essayist, Simon has published three verse collections, most recently Under a Gathering Sky (2024), and edited three anthologies. His poems have been translated into six languages and nominated for multiple awards. In addition to his roles as assistant director and editor in chief of WLT, he also serves as an affiliate faculty member in English, International Studies, and Judaic Studies at the University of Oklahoma.

For accommodations, interview requests, or other questions, contact the individual event organizers, email Lydia McOscar at Restless Books, or call 405-325-0317.