LitHop 2018, the third annual literary festival in Fresno’s Tower District and Fresno City College, found a new headliner in Carmen Giménez Smith,  according to their website, after Randa Jarrar withdrew from the event amid national controversy after calling former first lady Barbara Bush an “amazing racist” on Twitter. 

Smith is a professor of English at Virginia Tech and an American Book Award winner for her memoir “Bring Down the Little Birds.” She is poetry editor at The Nation magazine alongside Stephanie Burt, and is the author of six poetry collections, and the co-editor of “Angels of the Americlypse: New Latin@ Writing,” an anthology of Latinx writings, according to the LitHop website.

Smith is replacing Jarrar, who canceled her appearance at LitHop following a national Twitter controversy. On April 17th, Jarrar took to Twitter to call the late former first lady Barbara Bush an “amazing racist” who “raised a war criminal.”  

Jarrar’s tweets garnered thousands of responses, mostly attacking Jarrar and calling for her firing. She later withdrew from LitHop.

Smith will speak in the Old Administration Building at FCC at 7:00 p.m. on Saturday, April 21.