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Lit Fest 2025
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Monday, June 9
 

1:30pm MDT

How to Create Unforgettable Characters (Livestream)
Monday June 9, 2025 1:30pm - 3:30pm MDT
In this seminar, we’ll work through the process of building a character (or characters) who can serve as a catalyst for a larger narrative, propelling the story forward. From navigating backstory to placing characters in scene, we’ll focus on getting protagonists and antagonists out of our heads and onto the page through a series of writing exercises, discussion of example texts, and optional sharing.
This is the livestream version of this class, if you would like to attend in person, click here.
Speakers
avatar for Steve Almond

Steve Almond

Visiting Author
Steve Almond [www.stevealmondjoy.org] is the author of a dozen books, including the New York Times bestsellers Candyfreak and Against Football. His first novel, Which Brings Me to You (co-written with Julianna Baggott) was made into a major motion picture starring Lucy Hale. His second... Read More →
Monday June 9, 2025 1:30pm - 3:30pm MDT
Zoom

1:30pm MDT

How to Create Unforgettable Characters
Monday June 9, 2025 1:30pm - 3:30pm MDT
In this seminar, we’ll work through the process of building a character (or characters) who can serve as a catalyst for a larger narrative, propelling the story forward. From navigating backstory to placing characters in scene, we’ll focus on getting protagonists and antagonists out of our heads and onto the page through a series of writing exercises, discussion of example texts, and optional sharing.
Speakers
avatar for Steve Almond

Steve Almond

Visiting Author
Steve Almond [www.stevealmondjoy.org] is the author of a dozen books, including the New York Times bestsellers Candyfreak and Against Football. His first novel, Which Brings Me to You (co-written with Julianna Baggott) was made into a major motion picture starring Lucy Hale. His second... Read More →
Monday June 9, 2025 1:30pm - 3:30pm MDT
Lighthouse 3870 York Street Denver, CO 80205

1:30pm MDT

The Laundry Line (V)
Monday June 9, 2025 1:30pm - 3:30pm MDT
The journalist Michael Pollan asserts that every piece of nonfiction needs a “laundry line”: a main conceptual through-line that is strong yet flexible enough to hold the various vignettes and reflections that make up the piece. The same is true for fiction: even with plot to guide us, fiction writers need to think about how to balance the narration of physical events with psychological ones, how to weave backstory with present action. This class will offer writers a new vocabulary for articulating and experimenting with structure through lecture, discussion, and a writing exercise.
Speakers
avatar for Natalie Hodges

Natalie Hodges

Instructor
Born and raised in Denver, Natalie Hodges has performed as a classical violinist throughout Colorado and in New York, Boston, Paris, and the Italian Piedmont, as well as at the Aspen Music Festival and the Stowe Tango Music Festival. Her first book, Uncommon Measure: A Journey Through... Read More →
Monday June 9, 2025 1:30pm - 3:30pm MDT
Zoom

1:30pm MDT

Borderless: Writing Against Containment
Monday June 9, 2025 1:30pm - 3:30pm MDT
The border is highly permeable for some and completely rigid for others, as the pandemic, various humanitarian crises, and recent elections in the West have underscored. The terror of the border remains relentless. In this generative seminar, we'll discuss and write in response to the work of (im)migrant writers who question the border and contend with its shifting, dislocating provocations. We’ll consider how and why certain bodies and literatures are (b)ordered through denial, displacement, dispossession, and detainment. And we’ll explore how we can write to confound the ideologies, policies, and practices that seek to contain us.
Speakers
avatar for Kanika Agrawal

Kanika Agrawal

Instructor
Kanika Agrawal is a queer Indian writer, editor, and educator. As a mad diasporic hybrid who developed over six countries on four continents, she works between and across languages, geographies, and disciplines. She received a BS in Biology and a BS in Writing from MIT. She then earned... Read More →
Monday June 9, 2025 1:30pm - 3:30pm MDT
Lighthouse 3870 York Street Denver, CO 80205

1:30pm MDT

So You Want to Go Indie
Monday June 9, 2025 1:30pm - 3:30pm MDT
As the quality and readership of indie/self-published books increases, indie publishing—once considered a “less than” alternative to traditional publishing—is becoming a progressively popular choice for authors at all stages of their careers. What does it take to independently publish your book? In this seminar, we’ll explore what goes into the indie decision, the pros and cons of this publishing method, and the must-have attributes of a successful independently published book.
Speakers
Monday June 9, 2025 1:30pm - 3:30pm MDT
Lighthouse 3870 York Street Denver, CO 80205

4:00pm MDT

Writing Thrillers
Monday June 9, 2025 4:00pm - 6:00pm MDT
You’re looking to write that unputdownable thriller that agents and publishers can’t say no to. Pacing, cliffhangers, and empathy are just some of the tools you’ll learn to write your page-turning, pulse-pounding novel. In this craft seminar, we'll learn how to approache the craft of thriller writing, which includes art, science, and trusting your instincts.
Speakers
avatar for Carter Wilson

Carter Wilson

Instructor
Carter Wilson is the Publishers Weekly and USA Today bestselling author of ten award-winning psychological thrillers. His works have earned starred reviews from all major trade publications, have been optioned for television and film, and his 2025 release Tell Me What You Did was... Read More →
Monday June 9, 2025 4:00pm - 6:00pm MDT
Lighthouse 3870 York Street Denver, CO 80205

4:00pm MDT

Building the Writer's Notebook
Monday June 9, 2025 4:00pm - 6:00pm MDT
Have you ever stared at a blank page and had no idea how to fill it? In this class, we'll learn how keeping a vibrant writer's notebook can provide us with material to use, whether we're trying to craft a compelling personal essay, fill a novel with vivid characters and settings, or capture the perfect image for a poem. We'll examine the notebook practices of some of the greats, including Joan Didion, Mark Twain, and Charles R. Johnson, and embark on our own journals. Bring in a fresh notebook, and we'll set it up to capture the inspiration, observations, and ideas that will fuel your next literary work.
Speakers
avatar for Jenny Shank

Jenny Shank

Instructor
Jenny Shank's short story collection, Mixed Company, won the George Garrett Fiction Prize and is a finalist for the Colorado Book Award (General Fiction). Jenny Shank's novel, The Ringer, won the High Plains Book Award in fiction, was a finalist for the Mountains & Plains Independent... Read More →
Monday June 9, 2025 4:00pm - 6:00pm MDT
Lighthouse 3870 York Street Denver, CO 80205

4:00pm MDT

Channeling Palimpsest in Your Writing
Monday June 9, 2025 4:00pm - 6:00pm MDT
Drawing inspiration from the idea of a palimpsest—medieval manuscripts on papyrus or parchment whose text was scraped or washed off, and then written over—the workshop will consider what is erased from the past versus what remains and how that shows up in our lives and our writing. We’ll try techniques that sample the writing of others, such as erasure or the cento, and also write from prompts that consider what parts of ourselves have been erased and written over, or how scraps of the past are embedded in the places and objects that surround us.
Speakers
MM

Malinda Miller

Instructor
Monday June 9, 2025 4:00pm - 6:00pm MDT
Lighthouse 3870 York Street Denver, CO 80205

4:00pm MDT

The Big Voice: How to Amplify Your Narratives
Monday June 9, 2025 4:00pm - 6:00pm MDT
In this seminar, we'll contemplate what Chuck Palahniuk refers to as the big voice and little voice; we'll look at the different strategies writers have used to amplify the little voices they have to use in both fiction and creative nonfiction. We'll learn how to create tension via the back-and-forth “dialogue” a big and little voice can evoke while paying attention to the ways the big voice can be utilized to make a character’s motivations more believable. Finally, the big voice can serve as a loophole to get around the limitations of first-person or close-third points-of-view for revealing big picture information the reader needs to know.
Speakers
avatar for Sarah Elizabeth Schantz

Sarah Elizabeth Schantz

Instructor
Sarah Elizabeth Schantz is primarily a fiction writer living on the outskirts of Boulder, Colorado in a Victorian-era farmhouse where her family is surrounded by open sky and century-old cottonwoods. She literally grew up in a bookstore with parents who worshipped all things literature... Read More →
Monday June 9, 2025 4:00pm - 6:00pm MDT
Lighthouse 3870 York Street Denver, CO 80205

4:30pm MDT

First Draft Live: The Debut Journey
Monday June 9, 2025 4:30pm - 6:00pm MDT
Join Mitzi Rapkin for a live episode of her popular First Draft podcast. This one will feature a conversation between debut authors Nini Berndt and Evanthia Bromiley and as they discuss their publication journeys, their book launch learning curve, their inspiration and challenges, and more. Mitzi's First Draft: A Dialogue on Writing, a literary podcast now in its 11th year of production, has more than 450 interviews in the archive.
Monday June 9, 2025 4:30pm - 6:00pm MDT
Lighthouse 3870 York Street Denver, CO 80205

7:00pm MDT

Visiting Authors Reading: Mat Johnson, Alex Marzano-Lesnevitch, and Elizabeth McCracken
Monday June 9, 2025 7:00pm - 8:00pm MDT
Hear your favorite visiting author perform their recent works. Shop at the Lit Fest pop-up bookstore operated by The Bookies and get your book signed afterward.
Monday June 9, 2025 7:00pm - 8:00pm MDT
Lighthouse 3870 York Street Denver, CO 80205

7:00pm MDT

Visiting Authors Reading: Visiting Authors Reading: Mat Johnson, Alex Marzano-Lesnevitch, and Elizabeth McCracken (Livestream)
Monday June 9, 2025 7:00pm - 8:00pm MDT
Hear your favorite visiting author perform their recent works. Shop at the Lit Fest pop-up bookstore operated by The Bookies and get your book signed afterward.
Monday June 9, 2025 7:00pm - 8:00pm MDT
Zoom
 
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