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Lit Fest 2025
Venue: Lighthouse clear filter
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Monday, June 9
 

9:00am MDT

Advanced Weeklong Workshop
Monday June 9, 2025 9:00am - 11:30am MDT
Lighthouse
Register
Advanced weeklong workshops include those with Steve Almond, Ingrid Rojas Contreras, Eduardo Corral, Paul Harding, Mat Johnson, Alex Marzano-Lesnevich, Elizabeth McCracken, Eileen Myles, Helen Phillips, Tony Tulathimutte, and Matthew Zapruder.
Monday June 9, 2025 9:00am - 11:30am MDT
Lighthouse 3870 York Street Denver, CO 80205
  All Genres

12:00pm MDT

Lunchtime Business Panel: Getting Past the Gatekeepers
Monday June 9, 2025 12:00pm - 1:00pm MDT
Lighthouse
Register
This panel of writers and editors will share their screening process for determining what manuscripts make it into publication or the final rounds of a contest. We’ll share some suggestions for what to do (and what not to do) to make your work stand out and get the green light. Panelists include Jenny Shank, who served as a screener judge for this year’s Flannery O’Connor Award for Short Fiction, and more.
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 →
MI
Monday June 9, 2025 12:00pm - 1:00pm MDT
Lighthouse 3870 York Street Denver, CO 80205
  Publishing/Career

1:30pm MDT

How to Create Unforgettable Characters
Monday June 9, 2025 1:30pm - 3:30pm MDT
Lighthouse
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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
  Fiction   Nonfiction/Memoir

1:30pm MDT

Borderless: Writing Against Containment
Monday June 9, 2025 1:30pm - 3:30pm MDT
Lighthouse
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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
  Fiction   Nonfiction/Memoir   Poetry   Hybrid

1:30pm MDT

So You Want to Go Indie
Monday June 9, 2025 1:30pm - 3:30pm MDT
Lighthouse
Register
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
CS
Monday June 9, 2025 1:30pm - 3:30pm MDT
Lighthouse 3870 York Street Denver, CO 80205
  Fiction   Nonfiction/Memoir   Poetry   Hybrid   Publishing/Career   YA/Children's

1:30pm MDT

Tragedy Plus Time: Writing Traumedy
Monday June 9, 2025 1:30pm - 3:30pm MDT
Lighthouse
Register
Tragedy plus time equals comedy, and in this seminar, we'll do that math and make readers laugh while PUNCHING THEM IN THE HEART.
People listen to a joke when they ignore a sob story or a rant, and humor can get your point and feelings across in more palatable and profound ways. To repurpose tragedy, we’ll read other sad-funny writers to steal their tricks, and we’ll cover every known device to turn a diary entry into publishable writing. Because if you can’t say something straight (if it’s too saccharine, confessional, or harrowing), then say it slant. Prerequisite: being in therapy.
Speakers
avatar for Elissa Bassist

Elissa Bassist

Instructor
Elissa Bassist is the editor of the “Funny Women” column on The Rumpus and author of the tragicomic memoir Hysterical, a semifinalist for The Thurber Prize for American Humor. As a founding contributor to The Rumpus, she’s written cultural and personal criticism since the website... Read More →
Monday June 9, 2025 1:30pm - 3:30pm MDT
Lighthouse 3870 York Street Denver, CO 80205
  Nonfiction/Memoir

1:30pm MDT

My Own Alphabet
Monday June 9, 2025 1:30pm - 3:30pm MDT
Lighthouse
Register
Using letters from the alphabet, participating writers will utilize free-association and automatic writing to generate ideas and call upon their memories to begin drafting and crafting their own lyric essays. This class will primarily be a generative space. The title of the workshop pays homage to Bobbie Louise Hawkins who published a collection of stories, essays, and memoirs of the same name with Coffee House Press in 1989 (there is no need to read this book).
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 1:30pm - 3:30pm MDT
Lighthouse 3870 York Street Denver, CO 80205
  Nonfiction/Memoir   Hybrid

1:30pm MDT

Just Two Poems
Monday June 9, 2025 1:30pm - 3:30pm MDT
Lighthouse
Register
In this class, we’ll experience the power of deep reading. Before class, you’ll be given two poems that serve as jumping-off points to explore and be inspired by master poets of exceptional craft. We’ll explore both the measured unfolding of a longer poem and the lyric compression of another. Exercises, experiments, and your own poems will follow.
Speakers
avatar for Lynn Wagner

Lynn Wagner

Instructor
Lynn Wagner is the author of No Blues This Raucous Song, which won the Slapering Hol Chapbook competition. She received an MFA from the University of Pittsburgh, where she won the Academy of American Poets prize. She has earned fellowships to the Virginia Center of the Creative Arts... Read More →
Monday June 9, 2025 1:30pm - 3:30pm MDT
Lighthouse 3870 York Street Denver, CO 80205
  Poetry

1:30pm MDT

Practical Publishing: Journals as Models for Your Work
Monday June 9, 2025 1:30pm - 3:30pm MDT
Lighthouse
Register
This workshop will focus on studying several literary journals and the writings they publish in order to plan better where to submit our work. We'll read several genres recently published in journals such as The Adroit, The Sun, Guernica, and others to get down to business—discovering prompts from what we find for workshop exercises. We’ll also discuss cover letters, author bios, and aesthetics within journals to avoid pitfalls when submitting.
Speakers
avatar for Hillary Leftwich

Hillary Leftwich

Instructor
Hillary Leftwich is a neurodivergent, multimedia writer and the author of Ghosts Are Just Strangers Who Know How to Knock (CCM Press, 2019 and Agape Editions, 2023 new edition), Aura (Future Tense Books and Blackstone Audio Publishing, 2022), and Saint Dymphna’s Playbook (forthcoming... Read More →
Monday June 9, 2025 1:30pm - 3:30pm MDT
Lighthouse 3870 York Street Denver, CO 80205
  Publishing/Career

4:00pm MDT

Writing in Color Presents: Finding the Ghost
Monday June 9, 2025 4:00pm - 6:00pm MDT
Lighthouse
Register
This all-genre craft seminar will include a literature survey, highlighting moments when strangeness enters the room, and what it can offer a narrative, as well as in-class generative prompts based on readings. We'll take a look at nonfiction from Daisy Lafarge and Anna Lindsey, the poetry of Anna Swir, the prose-meets-poetry of Anne Carson, and the fiction of Victor Heringer. One of the most valuable modes a writer can be in is a blissful state of porosity. No matter our genre, we’ll open ourselves to the possibilities and tools of other genres to see what we can take away and bring back to our own. This seminar will encourage you toward strangeness, to investigate and play with structure and form.
Speakers
avatar for Ingrid Rojas Contreras

Ingrid Rojas Contreras

Visiting Author
Ingrid Rojas Contreras was born and raised in Bogotá, Colombia. Her memoir, The Man Who Could Move Clouds, was a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize. It tells the story of the author's lineage of curanderos, or shamans, and her mother, who was the first woman in her family to become... Read More →
Monday June 9, 2025 4:00pm - 6:00pm MDT
Lighthouse 3870 York Street Denver, CO 80205
  All Genres

4:00pm MDT

Writing Thrillers
Monday June 9, 2025 4:00pm - 6:00pm MDT
Lighthouse
Register
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
  Fiction

4:00pm MDT

Building the Writer's Notebook
Monday June 9, 2025 4:00pm - 6:00pm MDT
Lighthouse
Register
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
  Fiction   Nonfiction/Memoir   Hybrid

4:00pm MDT

Channeling Palimpsest in Your Writing
Monday June 9, 2025 4:00pm - 6:00pm MDT
Lighthouse
Register
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
  Fiction   Nonfiction/Memoir   Poetry   Hybrid

4:00pm MDT

The Big Voice: How to Amplify Your Narratives
Monday June 9, 2025 4:00pm - 6:00pm MDT
Lighthouse
Register
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
  Fiction   Nonfiction/Memoir   Hybrid   YA/Children's

4:00pm MDT

The Art of Iteration: How to Revise Your Poetry Manuscript
Monday June 9, 2025 4:00pm - 6:00pm MDT
Lighthouse
Register
When is a poetry manuscript truly “done”? This seminar explores the balance between productive revision and perfectionism, drawing insights from poets like Ocean Vuong and Victoria Chang. Learn to approach your manuscript as a cohesive body of work, clarifying its themes, voice, and style. We’ll challenge the myth of linear progression, embrace curiosity, and help you recognize when your work feels whole enough to share with the world—so that you can seek publication with confidence.
Speakers
avatar for Radha Marcum

Radha Marcum

Instructor
Radha Marcum, MFA, won the 2023 Washington Prize for her forthcoming collection, Pine Soot Tendon Bone (2024). She was also awarded the New Mexico Book Award in 2018 for her first collection of poems, Bloodline (3: A Taos Press), about her grandfather's work building the first atomic... Read More →
Monday June 9, 2025 4:00pm - 6:00pm MDT
Lighthouse 3870 York Street Denver, CO 80205
  Poetry

4:30pm MDT

First Draft Live: The Debut Journey
Monday June 9, 2025 4:30pm - 6:00pm MDT
Lighthouse
Register
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.
Speakers
MI
Monday June 9, 2025 4:30pm - 6:00pm MDT
Lighthouse 3870 York Street Denver, CO 80205
  Fiction   Nonfiction/Memoir

7:00pm MDT

Visiting Authors Reading: Mat Johnson, Alex Marzano-Lesnevitch, and Elizabeth McCracken
Monday June 9, 2025 7:00pm - 8:00pm MDT
Lighthouse
Register
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.
Speakers
MI
Monday June 9, 2025 7:00pm - 8:00pm MDT
Lighthouse 3870 York Street Denver, CO 80205
  Fiction   Nonfiction/Memoir   Hybrid   Poetry
 
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