Loading…
Lit Fest 2025
arrow_back View All Dates
Sunday, June 8
 

9:00am MDT

Art Writing, Writing Art (Livestream)
Sunday June 8, 2025 9:00am - 11:00am MDT
What does it mean to write critically about art in fiction or creative nonfiction? How can writing about art allow us to write more deeply about character and world? How can it allow us to explore ideas in ways we might not otherwise have access to? We'll look at a number of examples in both fiction and nonfiction, from authors including John Berger and Sheena Patel. Please bring something to write with, as this talk will be centered on generative exercises.
This is the livestream version of this class, if you would like to attend in person, click here.
Speakers
avatar for Katie Kitamura

Katie Kitamura

Visiting Author
Katie Kitamura’s most recent novel is Intimacies. One of The New York Times’ 10 Best Books of 2021 and one of Barack Obama’s Favorite Books of 2021, it was longlisted for the National Book Award and the PEN/Faulkner Award, and was a finalist for the Joyce Carol Oates Prize... Read More →
Sunday June 8, 2025 9:00am - 11:00am MDT
Zoom

9:00am MDT

Art Writing, Writing Art
Sunday June 8, 2025 9:00am - 11:00am MDT
What does it mean to write critically about art in fiction or creative nonfiction? How can writing about art allow us to write more deeply about character and world? How can it allow us to explore ideas in ways we might not otherwise have access to? We'll look at a number of examples in both fiction and nonfiction, from authors including John Berger and Sheena Patel. Please bring something to write with, as this talk will be centered on generative exercises.
Speakers
avatar for Katie Kitamura

Katie Kitamura

Visiting Author
Katie Kitamura’s most recent novel is Intimacies. One of The New York Times’ 10 Best Books of 2021 and one of Barack Obama’s Favorite Books of 2021, it was longlisted for the National Book Award and the PEN/Faulkner Award, and was a finalist for the Joyce Carol Oates Prize... Read More →
Sunday June 8, 2025 9:00am - 11:00am MDT
Lighthouse 3870 York Street Denver, CO 80205

9:00am MDT

Writing Food
Sunday June 8, 2025 9:00am - 11:00am MDT
Food connects us to our origins as well as to people beyond our immediate families. It has a language of its own, telling many stories with many ingredients—not all jolly and nostalgic but also complex and multilayered, sometimes hard and heavy. In this course, we'll gather around a table to nourish ourselves with many food stories and learn from a wide range of dishes and their narratives.
Speakers
avatar for Poupeh Missaghi

Poupeh Missaghi

Instructor
Poupeh Missaghi is a writer, translator, and editor. Her debut book trans(re)lating house one was published in 2020 and her second book Sound Museum was published in 2024 (Coffee House Press). Her most recent translation In the Streets of Tehran, a book of witness narratives, was... Read More →
Sunday June 8, 2025 9:00am - 11:00am MDT
Lighthouse 3870 York Street Denver, CO 80205

9:00am MDT

Intimate Strangers: Writing the Family (V)
Sunday June 8, 2025 9:00am - 11:00am MDT
“It took me half my life to achieve seeing my parents as cartoons,” Jonathan Franzen once said about managing to write with emotional detachment and lucidity about his family. We can be faced with myriads of emotions when working on an essay, memoir, or family history making it challenging to see parents or siblings as complex human beings with unique and valuable perspectives. We’ll approach family-related projects from a place of deep curiosity and explore writing about those we know as if they were intriguing strangers. We’ll discuss interviewing methods to initiate deep and meaningful conversations, and self-care tips.
Speakers
avatar for Ladane Nasseri

Ladane Nasseri

Instructor
Ladane Nasseri is a journalist and writer. A former Middle East correspondent for Bloomberg News where she led Iran’s news coverage, Ladane has reported for a decade and a half from Tehran, Dubai, and Beirut. Her work has appeared in The New York Times, McSweeney’s, Businessweek... Read More →
Sunday June 8, 2025 9:00am - 11:00am MDT
Zoom

9:00am MDT

Equanimity and the Long-Lined Poem (V)
Sunday June 8, 2025 9:00am - 11:00am MDT
In these days of environmental, military, social, and—for some—personal upheaval, the feeling of equanimity can be illusive. The Buddha said that if we want to be happy, we need to be able to stand like a great tree amid praise and blame, gain and loss, pleasure and sorrow. We’ll look at a forest of such trees comprised of ancient and contemporary poems that manage to convey equanimity—not by looking away, but by seeing clearly and articulating that seeing onto the page. We’ll consider various approaches and begin the creative process of writing our own equanimous poems.
Speakers
avatar for Sawnie Morris

Sawnie Morris

Instructor
Sawnie Morris is author of Her, Infinite, winner of the 2015 New Issues Poetry Award. Recent honors include the Ruth Stone Poetry Prize, inclusion in BAX: 2016, Best American Experimental Writing, and a feature in Poets & Writers. She's the Inaugural Poet Laureate of Taos (2018-2... Read More →
Sunday June 8, 2025 9:00am - 11:00am MDT
Zoom

12:00pm MDT

Lunchtime Business Panel: Truth of Writing About Our Families, Friends, and Other Real People—Permission and Consequences
Sunday June 8, 2025 12:00pm - 1:00pm MDT
What are the repercussions of writing about family and friends? What are our responsibilities to the truth as writers and how may that affect our family dynamic? Join a group of writers who have wrangled with these questions, and more, as they address the wide range of responses from loved ones and the balance that may be right for you as you work on your nonfiction or memoir.
Speakers
avatar for Amanda McCracken

Amanda McCracken

Instructor
Amanda McCracken is a freelance journalist who is passionate about experiences that highlight the intersection of wellness and relationships. A few places her work has been published include the New York Times, Washington Post, Guardian, National Geographic, Elle, Outside, NPR... Read More →
avatar for Anna Qu

Anna Qu

Instructor
Anna Qu is a Chinese American writer. Her critically acclaimed debut memoir, Made In China: A Memoir of Love and Labor, was named a New York Times Editors’ Choice pick. Her work has appeared in Threepenny Review, Lumina, Kartika, Kweli, and Vol.1 Brooklyn, among others. She was... Read More →
Sunday June 8, 2025 12:00pm - 1:00pm MDT
Lighthouse 3870 York Street Denver, CO 80205

12:00pm MDT

Lunchtime Business Panel: Truth of Writing About Our Families, Friends, and Other Real People—Permission and Consequences (Livestream)
Sunday June 8, 2025 12:00pm - 1:00pm MDT
What are the repercussions of writing about family and friends? What are our responsibilities to the truth as writers and how may that affect our family dynamic? Join a group of writers who have wrangled with these questions, and more, as they address the wide range of responses from loved ones and the balance that may be right for you as you work on your nonfiction or memoir.
Speakers
avatar for Amanda McCracken

Amanda McCracken

Instructor
Amanda McCracken is a freelance journalist who is passionate about experiences that highlight the intersection of wellness and relationships. A few places her work has been published include the New York Times, Washington Post, Guardian, National Geographic, Elle, Outside, NPR... Read More →
avatar for Anna Qu

Anna Qu

Instructor
Anna Qu is a Chinese American writer. Her critically acclaimed debut memoir, Made In China: A Memoir of Love and Labor, was named a New York Times Editors’ Choice pick. Her work has appeared in Threepenny Review, Lumina, Kartika, Kweli, and Vol.1 Brooklyn, among others. She was... Read More →
Sunday June 8, 2025 12:00pm - 1:00pm MDT
Zoom

1:30pm MDT

Drama-rama: Conflict and Dramatic Questions
Sunday June 8, 2025 1:30pm - 3:30pm MDT
Sometimes in the effort to avoid melodrama, we avoid, well, drama. How can you create a conflict that matters to both you and your reader? We’ll discuss elements of compelling conflicts such as dilemma, inner and external struggle, conflicting codes and quests, dramatic questions, and thematic change. Come with a problem, and leave with a dramatic, story-generating conflict. Class will consist of discussion, readings, and in-class exercises.
Speakers
avatar for Erika Krouse

Erika Krouse

Instructor
Erika Krouse has taught at Lighthouse since 2008; she is a Book Project mentor and a winner of the Lighthouse Beacon Award. Erika's most recent collection of short stories, Save Me, Stranger, is out with Flatiron Books in January 2025. It has garnered starred reviews from Kirkus and... Read More →
Sunday June 8, 2025 1:30pm - 3:30pm MDT
Lighthouse 3870 York Street Denver, CO 80205

1:30pm MDT

Perchance to Dream: Crafting Our Dreams Into Poems (V)
Sunday June 8, 2025 1:30pm - 3:30pm MDT
Poetry, from its earliest known incarnation, has been shaped of dreams. The very architecture of what we call a poem may originate in our innate capacity for dreaming. We’ll read and discuss the work of a range of contemporary poets who write successfully and movingly from their dreams, looking with a keen eye at the craft moves that have made the private experience of a dream into a shared and inspiring experience for a reader. Then we’ll experiment with shaping our own dream(s) into poems. Bring a dream (or two or three), written or held in memory.
Speakers
avatar for Sawnie Morris

Sawnie Morris

Instructor
Sawnie Morris is author of Her, Infinite, winner of the 2015 New Issues Poetry Award. Recent honors include the Ruth Stone Poetry Prize, inclusion in BAX: 2016, Best American Experimental Writing, and a feature in Poets & Writers. She's the Inaugural Poet Laureate of Taos (2018-2... Read More →
Sunday June 8, 2025 1:30pm - 3:30pm MDT
Zoom

5:00pm MDT

Advanced Weeklong Workshop Orientation
Sunday June 8, 2025 5:00pm - 6:00pm MDT
Writers taking workshops with Steve Almond, Emily Rapp Black, Mark Doty, Danielle Evans, Amitava Kumar, T Kira Māhealani Madden, Claire Messud, Beth Nguyen, Jenny Offill, Rowan Ricardo Phillips, and Maurice Carlos Ruffin, join us on Sunday afternoon for quick introductions to your instructor and fellow classmates and a tour of the Lit Fest campus. Stay for the Lit Fest Kickoff Party!
Sunday June 8, 2025 5:00pm - 6:00pm MDT
Lighthouse 3870 York Street Denver, CO 80205

6:00pm MDT

Lit Fest Kickoff Party
Sunday June 8, 2025 6:00pm - 8:30pm MDT
The kickoff party brings together participants and instructors for a night of celebration. Enjoy musical performances from Youth On Record musicians, catered dinner, drinks, and more! 
Sunday June 8, 2025 6:00pm - 8:30pm MDT
Lighthouse 3870 York Street Denver, CO 80205
  All Genres
 
Share Modal

Share this link via

Or copy link

Filter sessions
Apply filters to sessions.
Filtered by Date -