About a year after it was abruptly called off with little explanation, the Asian American Literature Festival will return in September, organized by a collective of literary groups — and this time, without the Smithsonian.

Last year, the Smithsonian Asian Pacific American Center (APAC), which curated and funded the biennial gathering, canceled itjust weeks before the planned kickoff. Festival staff and outside organizing partners, dissatisfied by what they viewed as the changing rationale for the decision, questioned whether concerns over potential cultural controversy played a role. (The Smithsonian denied that the festival’s contents factored into the cancellation.)