Nan Cuba's greatest fear is that young people today, all too consumed with Facebooking, MySpacing and text messaging, are losing touch with literature.

“I would like to revive that,” she said.

Which is why she and others at Our Lady of the Lake University have expanded the annual literary festival into a weeklong affair. The festival — titled “Just Words/Palabras de Justicia,” in celebration of social justice — is set to take place March 31-April 6 on the OLLU campus. All events are free and open to the public.

“That's my priority and focus in everything I do professionally, encouraging people to read and understand that reading is a joy and a pleasure, and that everyone can have access to it,” said Cuba, the festivals coordinator and an assistant professor of English at OLLU. “Even if you come out and don't know anybody, you'll meet people who love books and love stories, and will find friends and partners in all of this.”

The festival will feature nearly 20 readings, panel discussions and workshops. Among the literary names slated to speak or attend the event are Pamela Johnston, Paul Rogat Loeb and Sandra Cisneros. Ernest Gaines, a prominent writer of African-American fiction, will conduct a reading/Q&A session at 7 p.m. on Wednesday, April 2, via a live video feed.

Gaines is perhaps most famously known for his 1993 novel, “A Lesson Before Dying,” which won the National Book Critics Circle Award for fiction and was nominated for a Pulitzer Prize.

Also on the agenda is Latino/Latina Arts Day, scheduled for Friday, April 4. The event will include appearances by artists/writers such as Ray Santisteban and Norma Elia Cantu.

Santisteban has directed a number of award-winning documentaries, touching on topics like the Black Panthers and the roots of Puerto Rican poetry. Cantu is a professor of English and U.S. Latino/Latina Literature at UTSA and is the director for the Center for Chicano Studies at California-Santa Barbara.

San Antonio works will also be on display, as “Art at Our Doorstep: San Antonio Writers and Artists,” will launch on Monday, March 31. The anthology, courtesy of Trinity University Press, features works from a number of San Antonio writers.

“I'm very excited about it,” Cuba said. “We're touting it as a representation of the creative talent in this city.”

CLINT HALE | 210SA