From a Washington Post story by Sophia Nguyen headlined “Smithsonian abruptly cancels Asian American literary festival”:

This year’s Asian American Literature Festival — the first since 2019 — seemed destined to feel special.

“Coming off of everything that has happened to the Asian American community in these last few years, it was a completely different feeling. We’ve experienced so much loss, increased violence, discrimination,” said Neelanjana Banerjee, managing editor of Kaya Press, one of the organizers of the event. “This festival is more important than ever.”