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Lit Fest 2025
Type: Fiction clear filter
Friday, June 6
 

9:00am MDT

Create Your Novel's Bible
Friday June 6, 2025 9:00am - 11:00am MDT
Lighthouse
Register
Wherever you are in the process of writing your novel, keeping tabs on when, where, and how characters do what they do is a Herculean task. In this hands-on seminar, you’ll learn how to highlight the craft components best suited to your novel, create a template, and complete a scene-by-scene breakdown for up to three chapters. Please bring a computer or notebook and at least the first three chapters of your work in progress! There will be a lot of writing; sharing is optional.
Speakers
JT

Jan Thomas

Instructor
J.E. Thomas spent her early summers stuffing grocery bags with books at the local library, reading feverishly, then repeating the process week after week. So it's not surprising that she thinks books and imagination are the best streaming service around. J.E. is an award-winning writer... Read More →
Friday June 6, 2025 9:00am - 11:00am MDT
Lighthouse 3870 York Street Denver, CO 80205
  Fiction

9:00am MDT

Writing Beyond Walls: Resilience and Difficult Subject Matter
Friday June 6, 2025 9:00am - 11:00am MDT
Lighthouse
Register
Writing can feel overwhelming, especially with challenging themes. When daunting themes leave us frozen, that's when it's time to get your game plan on. In this workshop, we'll practice exercises to help navigate obstacles in our writing, whether mountains or molehills. We'll learn techniques to tackle both big and small challenges, making difficult subjects work for us, regardless of genre or skill level. All skill levels are welcome.
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 →
Friday June 6, 2025 9:00am - 11:00am MDT
Lighthouse 3870 York Street Denver, CO 80205
  Fiction   Nonfiction/Memoir   Poetry   Hybrid

9:00am MDT

Tuning In: Using Music and Playlists to Develop Character in Prose
Friday June 6, 2025 9:00am - 11:00am MDT
Lighthouse
Register
In this seminar, we'll explore how writers use music to convey their characters' desires, contradictions, fears, aspirations, and aesthetic sensibilities. We’ll discuss practical tips on using music in written narratives to serve a similar function as soundtracks in film and help view and develop our characters through another medium. We’ll even touch on copyright issues and how to artfully avoid infringing on another artist’s material without compromising your own creative intentions. Please bring a list of songs that relate to your current project. All genres welcome!
Speakers
AD

Anthony D'Aries

Instructor
Friday June 6, 2025 9:00am - 11:00am MDT
Lighthouse 3870 York Street Denver, CO 80205
  Fiction   Nonfiction/Memoir   Poetry   Hybrid   Dramatic Writing

1:30pm MDT

Welcome to the Sh*t Show: Your Inciting Incident
Friday June 6, 2025 1:30pm - 3:30pm MDT
Lighthouse
Register
The “inciting incident” is the narrative event that propels your whole story into forward motion. But what should the inciting incident be, and where? Does “inciting” also mean “exciting”? What makes it work, and what makes it flop? By exploring elements such as stakes and dramatic questions, we’ll look at ways to heighten that inciting incident to invite your reader into your protagonist’s lovable disaster. Open to all prose writers.
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 →
Friday June 6, 2025 1:30pm - 3:30pm MDT
Lighthouse 3870 York Street Denver, CO 80205
  Fiction   Nonfiction/Memoir   Hybrid   Dramatic Writing   YA/Children's

1:30pm MDT

Queer(ing) Images for Our Futures
Friday June 6, 2025 1:30pm - 3:30pm MDT
Lighthouse
Register
Samuel R. Delany has emphasized that science fiction gives us images not OF but FOR our futures; its power lies not in prediction but in manifestation. Extending this idea to speculative literature more broadly—and rejecting the notion that spec-lit is merely formulaic or escapist—what can we learn from its radical visions and thought experiments to help us contend with bigotry and existential threats? In this generative seminar, we'll discuss the pleasures and challenges of queer(ing) speculative writing; explore how to center historically marginalized images and imaginations; and dare to write toward a multiplicity of inclusive futures.
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 →
Friday June 6, 2025 1:30pm - 3:30pm MDT
Lighthouse 3870 York Street Denver, CO 80205
  Fiction   Nonfiction/Memoir   Poetry   Hybrid

1:30pm MDT

Erasures, Lacunae, and Voids: Writing What's Not There
Friday June 6, 2025 1:30pm - 3:30pm MDT
Lighthouse
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Sometimes what's not in a piece of writing is just as crucial to making it tick as what's explicitly spelled out. The holes in our work can serve as invitations for readers to fall more deeply into the text and start creatively connecting the dots on their own. By breathing deliberate space into the page, we can write more engagingly—and in deeper, more active collaboration with our readers. This craft seminar will offer generative opportunities to play with withdrawal, opacity, and negative space as valuable creative techniques.
Speakers
avatar for Sasha Geffen

Sasha Geffen

Instructor
Sasha Geffen is the author of Glitter Up the Dark: How Pop Music Broke the Binary, an analysis of queerness and gender nonconformity in the past century of popular music. Their writing attends to the intersections of gender, pop culture, the body, and technology, and has been published... Read More →
Friday June 6, 2025 1:30pm - 3:30pm MDT
Lighthouse 3870 York Street Denver, CO 80205
  Fiction   Nonfiction/Memoir   Poetry   Hybrid   Dramatic Writing

1:30pm MDT

Creating Our Personal Language (V)
Friday June 6, 2025 1:30pm - 3:30pm MDT
Zoom
Register
In this class, we’ll explore the unique power of personal language and its impact on creative writing. Writers will reflect on their relationship with language, incorporating words and phrases invented or uniquely used in their homes. We’ll analyze how these personal elements, alongside experiences of bilingualism or multilingualism, shape prosody, voice, and plot development. Emphasizing authenticity, writers will craft stories and poems that are distinctively theirs—pieces only they could write. This course deepens our connection to language and empowers us to create original work with personal and cultural depth.
Speakers
avatar for Oso Guardiola

Oso Guardiola

Instructor
Oso Guardiola received his M.F.A. in Creative Writing - Fiction from the Iowa Writers’ Workshop, where he was the recipient of the Maytag Scholarship and the Arthur James Pflughaupt Prize in Fiction. His short stories have been awarded the 2023 Gulf Coast Prize for Fiction, the... Read More →
Friday June 6, 2025 1:30pm - 3:30pm MDT
Zoom
  Fiction   Poetry

4:00pm MDT

Dynamic Scenes
Friday June 6, 2025 4:00pm - 6:00pm MDT
Lighthouse
Register
Scenes are the engine that makes a story “go.” Right now you may be saying, yes, yes, I know how to write a scene, scenes are easy. But they’re really not, and many writers believe they’re writing a scene when they’re really writing summary or description or something else. So what's the difference between a dynamic scene that leaps off the page and a dull one that just lies there, snoring? In this class, we'll investigate scene-building techniques such as conflict-driven action, setting, situation, sensory language, dramatic pacing, surprise, tension, and suspense, so you can create that must-turn-the-page feeling.
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 →
Friday June 6, 2025 4:00pm - 6:00pm MDT
Lighthouse 3870 York Street Denver, CO 80205
  Fiction   Nonfiction/Memoir   Dramatic Writing   YA/Children's

4:00pm MDT

Write a Happy Story
Friday June 6, 2025 4:00pm - 6:00pm MDT
Lighthouse
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Dramatic stories tend to focus on negative events and bad things happening to all kinds of people. In this class, we'll flip the script and work through examples, exercises, and discussion to examine what it would mean to write a happy story, how to go about it, why we usually don't, and what happy story elements we can use to enrich our more typical, more unhappy stories.
Speakers
avatar for Nick Arvin

Nick Arvin

Instructor
Nick Arvin is the author of In the Electric Eden, Articles of War, and The Reconstructionist. His work has appeared in The New Yorker, The New York Times, and Wall Street Journal and has been honored with awards from the American Academy of Arts and Letters, the American Library Association... Read More →
Friday June 6, 2025 4:00pm - 6:00pm MDT
Lighthouse 3870 York Street Denver, CO 80205
  Fiction   Nonfiction/Memoir   Dramatic Writing   YA/Children's

4:00pm MDT

Developing Writing Habits
Friday June 6, 2025 4:00pm - 6:00pm MDT
Lighthouse
Register
With jobs and family/personal responsibilities, sustaining a writing practice seems harder these days than ever before. We struggle to find the time and energy to find our way into our creative space. This course will offer prompts and habit-building techniques to help us sustain our writing practices, whether to exercise our muscles or to make it through long-term projects.
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 →
Friday June 6, 2025 4:00pm - 6:00pm MDT
Lighthouse 3870 York Street Denver, CO 80205
  Fiction   Nonfiction/Memoir   Poetry   Hybrid   Dramatic Writing   Publishing/Career   YA/Children's

4:00pm MDT

Vocational Poetics: Working, Writing, Calling Out
Friday June 6, 2025 4:00pm - 6:00pm MDT
Lighthouse
Register
Most of us aren't able to support ourselves materially through what we would consider our “calling” (an idea that doesn’t recognize the inequities and issues of access shaped by capitalism, racism, and ableism). Lacking a single “vocation,” we may cobble together our livelihood through many sources. Beyond the fantasy of a consistent work/life balance, this lecture considers the root of vocation: both the labor of writing and the “calling out.” Through what forms and technologies are we able to be heard?
Speakers
avatar for Cass Eddington

Cass Eddington

Instructor
Cass Eddington is a poet, teacher, and editor originally from Utah. They are the author of the chapbooks Vernal Hurt (Magnificent Field) and TRANSIT (Spiral Editions, forthcoming January 2023) with recent work in Annulet, Deluge, DREGINALD, La Vague. They are a PhD candidate in the... Read More →
Friday June 6, 2025 4:00pm - 6:00pm MDT
Lighthouse 3870 York Street Denver, CO 80205
  Fiction   Nonfiction/Memoir   Poetry   Hybrid   Dramatic Writing   Publishing/Career   YA/Children's

4:00pm MDT

The Importance of Gaps (V)
Friday June 6, 2025 4:00pm - 6:00pm MDT
Zoom
Register
The secret to a great story is not plot or fantastic characters but leaving gaps—that is, crafting spaces to allow the reader to lean in or enter your story to make connections on their own. In this seminar, we’ll examine techniques for crafting action, gestures, and dialogue that help readers take leaps with you or your characters. Plan to practice writing.
Speakers
avatar for Karen Auvinen

Karen Auvinen

Instructor
Karen Auvinen (she/her/hers) is poet, mountain woman, life-long westerner, writer, and the author of the memoir Rough Beauty: Forty Seasons of Mountain Living, a finalist for the 2019 Colorado Book Award. Her body of work traverses the intersection of landscape and place, examining... Read More →
Friday June 6, 2025 4:00pm - 6:00pm MDT
Zoom
  Fiction   Nonfiction/Memoir

4:00pm MDT

"Tell Me What You Really Think: Writing Dialogue"
Friday June 6, 2025 4:00pm - 6:00pm MDT
Lighthouse
Register
In prose writing, why is it a generally accepted rule that dialogue is so difficult to write? What unique struggles does dialogue present to a writer? How can we break down those difficulties into more manageable strategies that will then elevate our dialogue to seamless, riveting levels? In this class, we’ll discuss dialogue as an integral element of prose in an effort to demystify its elusive principles. We’ll read contemporary examples of writers who’ve cracked the dialogue code: from Joy Williams and N.K. Jemisin to Richard Price and Cormac McCarthy, among others. We’ll also practice different approaches to dialogue by modeling after others’ work and through various writing prompts. For all levels of prose writers. Come ready to talk the talk!
Speakers
avatar for Alexander Lumans

Alexander Lumans

Instructor
Alexander Lumans was awarded a 2018 NEA Creative Writing Grant in Fiction. He received fellowships in 2015 and 2024 for expeditions with The Arctic Circle Residency and he was the Spring 2014 Philip Roth Resident at Bucknell University. His fiction and nonfiction have appeared in... Read More →
Friday June 6, 2025 4:00pm - 6:00pm MDT
Lighthouse 3870 York Street Denver, CO 80205
  Fiction   Nonfiction/Memoir   Hybrid

7:00pm MDT

Turn the Page with Colorado Matters and Kristin Koval
Friday June 6, 2025 7:00pm - 8:00pm MDT
Lighthouse
Register
Join novelist Kristin Koval, a Lit Fest advanced workshop regular, in conversation with Colorado Public Radio's Ryan Warner for a live taping of CPR's Turn the Page, a series that digs into works by Colorado writers. Koval's debut novel, Penitence, named an Indie First pick for February, has gotten national attention. The Washington Post raves, "Gripping and propulsive, Kristin Koval’s Penitence is an exploration of the struggles and impossible choices of two families linked by tragedy, guilt, blame and love.”
Speakers
MI
Friday June 6, 2025 7:00pm - 8:00pm MDT
Lighthouse 3870 York Street Denver, CO 80205
  Fiction
 
Saturday, June 7
 

8:30am MDT

Advanced Weekend Nonfiction Intensive: In Pursuit of the Story with Nicole Chung
Saturday June 7, 2025 8:30am - Sunday June 8, 2025 12:00pm MDT
Lighthouse
Register
In this weekend memoir intensive, you’ll be invited to pursue your story with new curiosity: What about it feels most urgent or exciting to you? What idea, question, obsession, or truth are you inviting readers to explore along with you? This workshop is designed to help you identify the most promising threads of your story and consider several possible approaches to revision. Together, we’ll dive into your work and engage in lively, affirming craft conversations about voice, characterization, setting, chronology, structure, and more. We’ll discuss the complications of rendering the truth on the page, how to do so when memory is imperfect, and the role of imagination in memoir. And we’ll talk about how you can nourish the writing practice you want, so that you can continue developing and pursuing the stories that matter most to you. Accepted participants will submit essays or excerpts from longer works of 1,500 to 3,500 words by May 9.
Speakers
avatar for Nicole Chung

Nicole Chung

Visiting Author
Nicole Chung is the author of the award-winning memoir A Living Remedy, which was named a Notable Book by The New York Times and a Best Book of the Year by over a dozen other outlets. Her 2018 debut All You Can Ever Know was a national bestseller and a finalist for the National Book... Read More →
Saturday June 7, 2025 8:30am - Sunday June 8, 2025 12:00pm MDT
Lighthouse 3870 York Street Denver, CO 80205
  Fiction

9:00am MDT

Art of Creative Research (V)
Saturday June 7, 2025 9:00am - 11:00am MDT
Zoom
Register
Research is a fundamental part of long-form writing projects. Knowing where to find the information and how to access it is a key skill for writers across genres. Background information, facts, and anecdotes all make a story richer and more authoritative. Drawing from journalism and the oral history tradition, this class provides tools for writers working on essays, profiles, memoirs, or novels. We'll create a roadmap for our research and discuss how to prepare and conduct interviews to collect information professionally, responsibly, and ethically.
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 →
Saturday June 7, 2025 9:00am - 11:00am MDT
Zoom
  Fiction   Nonfiction/Memoir

9:00am MDT

Managing the Middle: How to Not Lose Readers Along the Way
Saturday June 7, 2025 9:00am - 11:00am MDT
Lighthouse
Register
You’ve nailed your opening and you have a killer ending, but what about the middle? If you can’t hold your reader’s attention in the middle, they might not make it to that killer ending. In this class, we’ll examine how to maintain literary tensions to ensure your reader keeps turning the pages, focusing specifically on the concepts of conflicts, curiosities, and clocks. Please have in mind a novel or story you're working on or that you've read and admire for its ability to keep you reading. This class will be a mixture of lecture, discussion, and generative exercises.
Speakers
avatar for Kristin Koval

Kristin Koval

Instructor
Kristin Koval is a former lawyer who always wanted to be a writer but initially wandered down other paths. Her debut novel, Penitence, was named a Barnes & Noble Discover Pick for February 2025, a People Magazine Best Book of the Week, a Book of the Month Pick, an Indie Next, an Apple... Read More →
Saturday June 7, 2025 9:00am - 11:00am MDT
Lighthouse 3870 York Street Denver, CO 80205
  Fiction   Nonfiction/Memoir   Dramatic Writing

9:00am MDT

Two-Day Intensive: Breaking the Surface—Revision
Saturday June 7, 2025 9:00am - Sunday June 8, 2025 12:00pm MDT
Lighthouse
Register
You finish a draft—then what? The text can seem impenetrable, but you know you need to open it to new possibilities. You can change a word, add a comma, reorder the clauses, but you know (deep down) that you’re not yet getting at what you know needs to occur in order to dramatize your idea. Noodling around on the surface won’t suffice. In this intensive, we’ll break the surface of our drafts and discover the potential for meaningful change. Writers will come away with an expanded understanding of their texts.
Speakers
avatar for William Haywood Henderson

William Haywood Henderson

Instructor
William Haywood Henderson earned a BA in English from the University of California at Berkeley, an MA in creative writing from Brown University, and attended Stanford University as a Wallace Stegner Fellow in Creative Writing. He is the author of three novels: Native, The Rest of... Read More →
Saturday June 7, 2025 9:00am - Sunday June 8, 2025 12:00pm MDT
Lighthouse 3870 York Street Denver, CO 80205
  Fiction   Nonfiction/Memoir   Hybrid   Dramatic Writing   YA/Children's

9:00am MDT

Two-Day Intensive: Strange Story Structures
Saturday June 7, 2025 9:00am - Sunday June 8, 2025 12:00pm MDT
Lighthouse
Register
Freytag, get lost! In this weekend workshop, we’ll read, explore, and try a variety of short story structures that range from the alternative to the bizarre: the montage, the list, the instructional, the backward story, metafiction, the “Rashomon,” the floater, and much more! Emphasis will be on mass generation, rather than perfected and read-aloud-able work. Prose writers of any genre can expect example readings, brief discussions, and lots of exercises focusing on techniques you’ve never tried before. Come to class with one idea or fifteen; leave with exciting new writing and your mind on fire.
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 →
Saturday June 7, 2025 9:00am - Sunday June 8, 2025 12:00pm MDT
Lighthouse 3870 York Street Denver, CO 80205
  Fiction   Nonfiction/Memoir   Hybrid   YA/Children's

9:00am MDT

Two-Day Intensive: Finish It! Perspective and Persistence (V)
Saturday June 7, 2025 9:00am - Sunday June 8, 2025 12:00pm MDT
Zoom
Register
Working on a long poem, story, essay, play, or book? What will it take to finish? Can we do it—or at least create an actionable plan to finish—in a weekend? This intensive will provide solutions and strategies in the form of planning sessions, readings, discussions, writing exercises, charts, and other resources. We’ll cover the role of editors and feedback; myths and benefits of breaks; how to bypass blocks, fears and resistances; and where planning meets plain old knuckling down. Any genre welcome. This may be most useful for work between midway and “almost there.” Let’s find our way to the finish line together.
Speakers
avatar for Khadijah Queen

Khadijah Queen

Instructor
Khadijah Queen is the author of five books and four chapbooks of innovative poetry. Her full length collections are Conduit (Black Goat/Akashic Books 2008), featured in Poets & Writers magazine's Debut Poets issue; Black Peculiar, winner of the 2010 Noemi Press book award and published... Read More →
Saturday June 7, 2025 9:00am - Sunday June 8, 2025 12:00pm MDT
Zoom
  Fiction   Nonfiction/Memoir   Poetry   Hybrid   Dramatic Writing   Publishing/Career   YA/Children's

1:00pm MDT

Two-Day Intensive: Defining the Indefinable—Learning Description from Samantha Harvey's Orbital
Saturday June 7, 2025 1:00pm - 4:00pm MDT
Lighthouse
Register
Samantha Harvey was awarded the 2024 Booker Prize for her novel Orbital, which follows six astronauts aboard a space station circling our planet for twenty-four hours. Orbital is an eloquent meditation about the complex relationships between humanity, Earth, and their joined legacy. It’s Harvey’s richly layered and undeniably sublime prose that rockets her novel into the stratosphere of masterful description writing. In this intensive, we’ll read, discuss, and model various strategies Harvey employs to great reward. Together, we’ll elevate our own prose stylings and learn how to depict the most ineffable parts of the world around us.
Speakers
avatar for Alexander Lumans

Alexander Lumans

Instructor
Alexander Lumans was awarded a 2018 NEA Creative Writing Grant in Fiction. He received fellowships in 2015 and 2024 for expeditions with The Arctic Circle Residency and he was the Spring 2014 Philip Roth Resident at Bucknell University. His fiction and nonfiction have appeared in... Read More →
Saturday June 7, 2025 1:00pm - 4:00pm MDT
Lighthouse 3870 York Street Denver, CO 80205
  Fiction

1:00pm MDT

Two-Day Intensive: Asking The Oracle | Divination As Discipline
Saturday June 7, 2025 1:00pm - 4:00pm MDT
Lighthouse
Register
In this Two-Day Intensive, we'll experiment with the stations of "The Midwife" and "The Medium" to catch/channel the writing and reVISION to come. Through hermeneutic listening and asking the Oracle for guidance, we'll traverse the looping spectrum of creativity and craft by employing divination techniques to practice accessing the Muse; we'll use tried and true divinatory methods like communion with Ancestor; the Tarot; bibliomancy; dream-work; automatic writing; and more, to then develop our own entry points and intersections with Inspiration and Idea based on our individual needs as writers and the unique requirements each particular project demands.
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 →
Saturday June 7, 2025 1:00pm - 4:00pm MDT
Lighthouse 3870 York Street Denver, CO 80205
  Fiction   Nonfiction/Memoir   Poetry   Hybrid

1:30pm MDT

ChatGPT Is My Secretary (V)
Saturday June 7, 2025 1:30pm - 3:30pm MDT
Zoom
Register
ChatGPT is awful. It’s a plagiarist, it lies and fabricates, it will run us out of our jobs… but it’s also free, exploitable, non-human labor! AI can be the answer to our harried dreams: a sometimes-reliable entity to perform research, consolidation, organization, and administrative tasks that would otherwise take us hours or months to do. What are the many ways a writer can use recent technologies to save ourselves valuable time and labor? How much can we trust it, and what are the ways we really shouldn’t? No technical knowledge needed; your instructor doesn’t have any, either.
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 →
Saturday June 7, 2025 1:30pm - 3:30pm MDT
Zoom
  Fiction   Nonfiction/Memoir   Poetry   Hybrid   YA/Children's

1:30pm MDT

Advanced Weekend Fiction Intensive: Writers and Readers with Katie Kitamura
Saturday June 7, 2025 1:30pm - 5:00pm MDT
Lighthouse
Register
Good writers are good readers. In this workshop, we’ll focus on learning how to read each other’s work, and how to give critique that both helps and challenges each writer. Focusing on craft fundamentals including characterization, plot and voice, we’ll learn to ask the questions that can help locate and in some cases reimagine the parameters of a story. Each participant will workshop either a full story or an excerpt from a longer piece. Participation is at the heart of a good workshop, so please come to each session on time and having prepared thoughtful, detailed feedback. Accepted participants will submit up to 15 pages by May 9.
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 →
Saturday June 7, 2025 1:30pm - 5:00pm MDT
Lighthouse 3870 York Street Denver, CO 80205
  Fiction

4:00pm MDT

Everyday Objects, Luminous Things
Saturday June 7, 2025 4:00pm - 6:00pm MDT
Lighthouse
Register
In this workshop, we’ll consider several short works of fiction, specifically “Pet Milk” by Stuart Dybek and the lesser-known “I Have a Stapler” by Dom Leone, to see how a story can be built around and rise up from a common object or two—the staple that a can of baking cream might seem to be as well as the tabletop stapler which writers like us use every day to “staple things.” We’ll look for our own everyday objects that might be made to be luminous or charged with a sense of meaning and matter, heft and story.
Speakers
avatar for Peter Markus

Peter Markus

Instructor
Peter Markus is the author of the novel Bob, or Man on Boat, as well as the books of stories, We Make Mud and The Fish and the Not Fish, all three published by Dzanc Books. A recent book of poems, When Our Fathers Return to Us as Birds, was published in September of 2021 from Wayne... Read More →
Saturday June 7, 2025 4:00pm - 6:00pm MDT
Lighthouse 3870 York Street Denver, CO 80205
  Fiction

4:00pm MDT

Cultivate Your Metaphors
Saturday June 7, 2025 4:00pm - 6:00pm MDT
Lighthouse
Register
Metaphor is the art of drawing connections between things to create new meanings. In this workshop, we'll learn to identify the metaphors in our writing, explore ways to cultivate new associations, and generate new possibilities. Bring a draft of your writing—it will be your starting point for our journeys into the latent imagination.
Speakers
avatar for Teow Lim Goh

Teow Lim Goh

Instructor
Teow Lim Goh is the author of two poetry collections, Islanders (2016) and Faraway Places (2021), and an essay collection Western Journeys (2022). Her essays, poetry, and criticism have been featured in The Georgia Review, Beloit Poetry Journal, Los Angeles Review of Books, PBS NewsHour... Read More →
Saturday June 7, 2025 4:00pm - 6:00pm MDT
Lighthouse 3870 York Street Denver, CO 80205
  Fiction   Nonfiction/Memoir   Poetry   Hybrid

4:00pm MDT

Learning Craft Techniques from Literature in Translation
Saturday June 7, 2025 4:00pm - 6:00pm MDT
Lighthouse
Register
Different languages and literary traditions invite and make possible the use of different craft techniques. Fortunately, the US literary landscape is gradually holding more space for works in translation, though they still comprise a small percentage of the market. In this course, we'll study craft techniques used in some very recent publications in translation and discuss what we can learn from both the authors and the translators to adopt into our own writing practices.
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 →
Saturday June 7, 2025 4:00pm - 6:00pm MDT
Lighthouse 3870 York Street Denver, CO 80205
  Fiction   Nonfiction/Memoir   Poetry   Hybrid

5:30pm MDT

Faculty Showcase
Saturday June 7, 2025 5:30pm - 6:30pm MDT
Lighthouse
Register
Grab a refreshment and hear readings from recently published works by Lighthouse faculty members.
Speakers
MI
Saturday June 7, 2025 5:30pm - 6:30pm MDT
Lighthouse 3870 York Street Denver, CO 80205
  Fiction   Nonfiction/Memoir   Poetry   Hybrid

7:00pm MDT

Visiting Authors Reading: Nicole Chung, Claire Dederer, Katie Kitamura, and Solmaz Sharif
Saturday June 7, 2025 7:00pm - 8:15pm 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
Saturday June 7, 2025 7:00pm - 8:15pm MDT
Lighthouse 3870 York Street Denver, CO 80205
  Fiction   Nonfiction/Memoir   Hybrid   Poetry

7:00pm MDT

Visiting Authors Reading: Nicole Chung, Claire Dederer, Katie Kitamura, and Solmaz Sharif (Livestream)
Saturday June 7, 2025 7:00pm - 8:15pm MDT
Zoom
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
Saturday June 7, 2025 7:00pm - 8:15pm MDT
Zoom
  Fiction   Nonfiction/Memoir   Hybrid   Poetry
 
Sunday, June 8
 

9:00am MDT

Art Writing, Writing Art
Sunday June 8, 2025 9:00am - 11:00am MDT
Lighthouse
Register
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
  Fiction   Nonfiction/Memoir

9:00am MDT

Writing Food
Sunday June 8, 2025 9:00am - 11:00am MDT
Lighthouse
Register
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
  Fiction   Nonfiction/Memoir   Poetry   Hybrid

1:30pm MDT

Drama-rama: Conflict and Dramatic Questions
Sunday June 8, 2025 1:30pm - 3:30pm MDT
Lighthouse
Register
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
  Fiction   Nonfiction/Memoir   Hybrid   Dramatic Writing   YA/Children's

5:00pm MDT

Advanced Weeklong Workshop Orientation
Sunday June 8, 2025 5:00pm - 6:00pm MDT
Lighthouse
Register
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!
Speakers
MI
Sunday June 8, 2025 5:00pm - 6:00pm MDT
Lighthouse 3870 York Street Denver, CO 80205
  Fiction   Nonfiction/Memoir   Poetry   Hybrid
 
Monday, June 9
 

1:30pm MDT

How to Create Unforgettable Characters (Livestream)
Monday June 9, 2025 1:30pm - 3:30pm MDT
Zoom
Register
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
  Fiction

1:30pm MDT

How to Create Unforgettable Characters
Monday June 9, 2025 1:30pm - 3:30pm MDT
Lighthouse
Register
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

The Laundry Line (V)
Monday June 9, 2025 1:30pm - 3:30pm MDT
Zoom
Register
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
  Fiction   Nonfiction/Memoir

1:30pm MDT

Borderless: Writing Against Containment
Monday June 9, 2025 1:30pm - 3:30pm MDT
Lighthouse
Register
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

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

4:30pm 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

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
Zoom
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
Zoom
  Fiction   Nonfiction/Memoir   Hybrid   Poetry
 
Tuesday, June 10
 

9:00am MDT

The Radical Four-Act Eastern Storytelling Structure (V)
Tuesday June 10, 2025 9:00am - 11:00am MDT
Zoom
Register
Discussions in the West around diversity in the arts often focus on the identities of characters and creators. However, true diversity is about more than just plopping different faces into stories that are 100 percent Western in spirit; it can―and should―encompass diverse structures, themes, and values. The program explores how storytelling staples in the West, such as the three-act structure and themes of empowerment and change, are far from universal. It introduces viewers to the East Asian four-act story structure and explains how Eastern value systems such as collectivism can dictate form.
Speakers
avatar for Henry Lien

Henry Lien

Instructor
Henry Lien is a 2012 graduate of Clarion West Writers Workshop, Seattle. He is the author of the critically-acclaimed and award-winning Peasprout Chen middle grade fantasy series, which he began writing under the guidance of George R.R. Martin, Kelly Link, and Chuck Palahniuk at Clarion... Read More →
Tuesday June 10, 2025 9:00am - 11:00am MDT
Zoom
  Fiction   Nonfiction/Memoir   Poetry   Dramatic Writing   YA/Children's

1:30pm MDT

The Murder Book: A Roadmap to Writing Killer Fiction
Tuesday June 10, 2025 1:30pm - 2:30pm MDT
Lighthouse
Register
The case file, often called the “murder book,” is used by homicide detectives to gather information about their investigation, from autopsy reports to witness interviews. In this workshop, we’ll develop our own writer’s murder book. Our case file will include tools for developing the structure of our mystery or thriller, creating our cast of characters, planting clues and red herrings, and more. Our murder books will contain everything we need to write page-turning, believable stories, including how to handle that essential requirement of the modern thriller—the twist.
Speakers
avatar for Barbara Nickless

Barbara Nickless

Instructor
Barbara Nickless is the #1 Amazon Charts and Wall Street Journal bestselling author of the “blisteringly original” Sydney Parnell crime novels featuring a railway cop and her K9 partner. About the series, Jeffery Deaver promises “you’ll fall in love with one of the best characters... Read More →
Tuesday June 10, 2025 1:30pm - 2:30pm MDT
Lighthouse 3870 York Street Denver, CO 80205
  Fiction

1:30pm MDT

The Power of Description
Tuesday June 10, 2025 1:30pm - 2:30pm MDT
Lighthouse
Register
In this seminar, we'll discuss the idea that, for creative writing, it is often more fruitful to think of a poem or story or novel or whatever as a rich, elaborate, precise description—of events, of the characters' experience of those events—than to approach a work with a motive or sense of obligation to explain things for the reader. This opens onto all kinds of freeing distinctions that can disburden writers from what can be pretty paralyzing worries—e.g. of having to "understand" a work before you begin it, of having to "know" everything before you start; to know something is not the same as to understand it; to describe something is not the same thing as to explain it.
Speakers
avatar for Paul Harding

Paul Harding

Visiting Author
Paul Harding is the author of three novels, the Pulitzer Prize-winning Tinkers, Enon, and This Other Eden, which was a finalist for the National Book Award, and shortlisted for the Booker Prize. He has received fellowships from the Guggenheim Foundation, the National Endowment for... Read More →
Tuesday June 10, 2025 1:30pm - 2:30pm MDT
Lighthouse 3870 York Street Denver, CO 80205
  Fiction

1:30pm MDT

Diving Into the Wreck—Finding Your Obsessions
Tuesday June 10, 2025 1:30pm - 2:30pm MDT
Lighthouse
Register
Denis Johnson said, “The stories of the fallen world lay inside us. That’s the interesting stuff.” At our best, we all write about that slice of experience and knowledge that haunts and obsesses us. Does it have to be dark or fallen? No. But it has to be true to the deepest corners of your consciousness. In this seminar, we’ll look at what you write about and why. We’ll find the richest avenues for you to pursue, to set you off from the pack.
Speakers
avatar for William Haywood Henderson

William Haywood Henderson

Instructor
William Haywood Henderson earned a BA in English from the University of California at Berkeley, an MA in creative writing from Brown University, and attended Stanford University as a Wallace Stegner Fellow in Creative Writing. He is the author of three novels: Native, The Rest of... Read More →
Tuesday June 10, 2025 1:30pm - 2:30pm MDT
Lighthouse 3870 York Street Denver, CO 80205
  Fiction   Nonfiction/Memoir   Poetry   Hybrid   Dramatic Writing

1:30pm MDT

The Art of Literary Submission
Tuesday June 10, 2025 1:30pm - 2:30pm MDT
Lighthouse
Register
You've been polishing your writing and you're ready to submit it to literary journals, but just how do you do that? In this seminar, we'll learn about many of the journals waiting for your work. We'll discuss cover letters, tracking your submissions, useful websites, how to gauge whether you received a "good" rejection, and how to know when to keep submitting a piece, pull it for revisions, or put it in the recycle pile. By the end of this seminar, you'll be armed with a thick-anti-rejection hide and a list of journals to submit your work to.
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 →
Tuesday June 10, 2025 1:30pm - 2:30pm MDT
Lighthouse 3870 York Street Denver, CO 80205
  Fiction   Nonfiction/Memoir   Poetry   Hybrid   Publishing/Career

1:30pm MDT

How to Be Less Afraid of Omniscient Point of View
Tuesday June 10, 2025 1:30pm - 3:30pm MDT
Lighthouse
Register
An omniscient narrator—that godlike knowing, the bird’s eye view—holds the potential to access characters’ minds while also panning out to observe the wider sweep of place, time, and history. For a writer, that’s a lot to juggle! In practice, omniscient narration exists in degrees, and it’s up to us to decide how all-seeing our narrators are, a task that demands not only a slew of narrative choices, but also a certain finesse to pull off. In this seminar, we’ll tackle the scope of omniscience by learning to shape it to the specific needs of our fiction.
Speakers
avatar for Andrea Bobotis

Andrea Bobotis

Instructor
Andrea Bobotis is the author of the debut novel The Last List of Miss Judith Kratt. A native of South Carolina, she holds a PhD in English literature from the University of Virginia, where she was honored with the All-University Graduate Teaching Award. Her fiction has received support... Read More →
Tuesday June 10, 2025 1:30pm - 3:30pm MDT
Lighthouse 3870 York Street Denver, CO 80205
  Fiction

1:30pm MDT

The Power of Description (Livestream)
Tuesday June 10, 2025 1:30pm - 3:30pm MDT
Zoom
Register
We'll discuss the idea that, for creative writing, it is often more fruitful to think of a poem or story or novel or whatever as a rich, elaborate, precise description - of events, of the characters' experience of those events, than to approach a work with a motive or sense of obligation to explain things for the reader. This opens onto all kinds of freeing distinctions that can disburden writers from what can be pretty paralyzing worries - e.g. of having to "understand" a work before you begin it, of having to "know" everything before you start; to know something is not the same as to understand it; to describe something is not the same thing as to explain it.
This is the livestream version of the class, if you would like to attend in person, click here.
Speakers
avatar for Paul Harding

Paul Harding

Visiting Author
Paul Harding is the author of three novels, the Pulitzer Prize-winning Tinkers, Enon, and This Other Eden, which was a finalist for the National Book Award, and shortlisted for the Booker Prize. He has received fellowships from the Guggenheim Foundation, the National Endowment for... Read More →
Tuesday June 10, 2025 1:30pm - 3:30pm MDT
Zoom
  Fiction

4:00pm MDT

Beyond First and Third: Playing with Perspectives
Tuesday June 10, 2025 4:00pm - 6:00pm MDT
Lighthouse
Register
A book critic in The Guardian wrote, "It takes the nerve of a debutante to stray from the first- or third-person singular narrative voice." Even if you’re not a nervy debutante, what if you just wanna? Come learn about innovative ways contemporary writers tackle unusual perspectives including second-person singular, second-person plural, first-person peripheral, omniscient, and the gleefully uncategorizable. Read examples by Miriam Toews, Justin Torres, Joshua Ferris, Britt Bennett, Min Jin Lee, James McBride, TaraShea Nesbitt and more, and enjoy in-class exercises that encourage you to give offbeat perspectives a try.
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 →
Tuesday June 10, 2025 4:00pm - 6:00pm MDT
Lighthouse 3870 York Street Denver, CO 80205
  Fiction

4:00pm MDT

Short Stories Explained
Tuesday June 10, 2025 4:00pm - 6:00pm MDT
Lighthouse
Register
When people struggle to write short fiction, the problem usually begins with the idea. It often leads to a story that is too long, or the beginning of a novel, or so simplistic that it is dull. In this generative workshop, we'll walk through the process of how to create and structure a short story. The class gives you tools to understand how to structure a short story coupled with exercises that puts each tool to use and builds to a complete story. Come prepared to write!
Speakers
avatar for Mary Robinette Kowal

Mary Robinette Kowal

Instructor
Mary Robinette Kowal is the author of the Hugo, Nebula, and Locus award winning alternate history novel The Calculating Stars, the first book in the Lady Astronaut series which continues in 2025 with The Martian Contingency. She is also the author of The Glamourist Histories series, Ghost... Read More →
Tuesday June 10, 2025 4:00pm - 6:00pm MDT
Lighthouse 3870 York Street Denver, CO 80205
  Fiction

4:00pm MDT

Place-Based Writing (V)
Tuesday June 10, 2025 4:00pm - 6:00pm MDT
Zoom
Register
Place is deeper than setting; instead it articulates a unique landscape that is both emotional and physical. This workshop offers practices for infusing your stories and essays with a sense of place. How do we evoke it and how can we infuse our work with the power of place?
Speakers
avatar for Karen Auvinen

Karen Auvinen

Instructor
Karen Auvinen (she/her/hers) is poet, mountain woman, life-long westerner, writer, and the author of the memoir Rough Beauty: Forty Seasons of Mountain Living, a finalist for the 2019 Colorado Book Award. Her body of work traverses the intersection of landscape and place, examining... Read More →
Tuesday June 10, 2025 4:00pm - 6:00pm MDT
Zoom
  Fiction   Nonfiction/Memoir

4:00pm MDT

How to Write Riveting Scenes
Tuesday June 10, 2025 4:00pm - 6:00pm MDT
Lighthouse
Register
The key to any unforgettable work of prose resides in the quality of its scenes. In this class, we’ll examine some of the best scenes ever written by writers such as Megha Majumdar and Grace Talusan and investigate what it takes to write a scene that deepens our sense of character and conflict and escalates the action. Then we’ll work on an exercise to bring the lessons home.
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 →
Tuesday June 10, 2025 4:00pm - 6:00pm MDT
Lighthouse 3870 York Street Denver, CO 80205
  Fiction   Nonfiction/Memoir   Hybrid

4:00pm MDT

Find Your Unique Style
Tuesday June 10, 2025 4:00pm - 6:00pm MDT
Lighthouse
Register
Your style is yours alone. Readers will return to your writing again and again because they like the way you shape consciousness on the page. In this seminar, we’ll dig into your style, decide on what sets you apart, then hone your unique voice. You’ll come away with a clear sense of your true self on the page.
Speakers
avatar for William Haywood Henderson

William Haywood Henderson

Instructor
William Haywood Henderson earned a BA in English from the University of California at Berkeley, an MA in creative writing from Brown University, and attended Stanford University as a Wallace Stegner Fellow in Creative Writing. He is the author of three novels: Native, The Rest of... Read More →
Tuesday June 10, 2025 4:00pm - 6:00pm MDT
Lighthouse 3870 York Street Denver, CO 80205
  Fiction   Nonfiction/Memoir   Poetry   Hybrid   Dramatic Writing   YA/Children's

4:00pm MDT

To Outline or Blast Ahead? That is the Question
Tuesday June 10, 2025 4:00pm - 6:00pm MDT
Lighthouse
Register
Many novelist and memoirists swear by the outlining method, touting its efficiency and speed. Other writers feel constricted by the outlining process and prefer to write “by the seat of their pants.” How do you determine the best method for your novel or memoir? In this seminar, we’ll discuss the pros and cons of both methods, look at how they might apply to your particular project, and explore key questions to help you determine the best path forward for your individual situation.
Speakers
CS
Tuesday June 10, 2025 4:00pm - 6:00pm MDT
Lighthouse 3870 York Street Denver, CO 80205
  Fiction   Nonfiction/Memoir   YA/Children's

4:30pm MDT

Lit Fest Fellows Reading
Tuesday June 10, 2025 4:30pm - 6:00pm MDT
Lighthouse
Register
Help us celebrate the exceptional talent among this year’s Lit Fest Fellowship finalists and winners. Happy hour beverages and snacks available.

Our lineup so far:

Fellowship for Emerging Writers
Poetry: Sydney Mayes (selected by Rowan Ricardo Phillips)
Fiction: Mika Taylor (selected by Megha Majumdar)
Nonfiction: T Abeyta (selected by Mark Sundeen)

Veteran Writing Awardees (selected by Benjamin Hertwig):
Enrique Gautier
Matt Gallagher

LARRK Fellowship Winners:
Shelby Pinkham
Iggy Shuler

Speakers
MI
Tuesday June 10, 2025 4:30pm - 6:00pm MDT
Lighthouse 3870 York Street Denver, CO 80205
  Fiction   Nonfiction/Memoir   Hybrid   Poetry

7:00pm MDT

Visiting Authors Reading: Steve Almond, Ingrid Rojas Contreras, Eduardo Corral, and Paul Harding
Tuesday June 10, 2025 7:00pm - 8:15pm 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
Tuesday June 10, 2025 7:00pm - 8:15pm MDT
Lighthouse 3870 York Street Denver, CO 80205
  Fiction   Nonfiction/Memoir   Hybrid   Poetry

7:00pm MDT

Visiting Authors Reading: Steve Almond, Ingrid Rojas Contreras, Eduardo Corral, and Paul Harding (Livestream)
Tuesday June 10, 2025 7:00pm - 8:15pm MDT
Zoom
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
Tuesday June 10, 2025 7:00pm - 8:15pm MDT
Zoom
  Fiction   Nonfiction/Memoir   Hybrid   Poetry
 
Wednesday, June 11
 

9:00am MDT

Non-Linear Structures from Non-Western Storytelling (V)
Wednesday June 11, 2025 9:00am - 11:00am MDT
Zoom
Register
Western storytelling traditions decree that a linear structure (along with the three act structure, the hero’s journey, and a rising self-esteem arc) are mandatory features of any satisfying story. This program challenges that assumption by exploring non-linear structures, specifically cyclic and nested structures, using examples from non-Western stories and films.
Writers will come to understand how these non-linear structures allow for thematic stacking, embracing of moral complexity, and a synthesis between form and content to explode the idea that a straight line is the best way to tell every story.
Speakers
avatar for Henry Lien

Henry Lien

Instructor
Henry Lien is a 2012 graduate of Clarion West Writers Workshop, Seattle. He is the author of the critically-acclaimed and award-winning Peasprout Chen middle grade fantasy series, which he began writing under the guidance of George R.R. Martin, Kelly Link, and Chuck Palahniuk at Clarion... Read More →
Wednesday June 11, 2025 9:00am - 11:00am MDT
Zoom
  Fiction   Nonfiction/Memoir   Poetry   Dramatic Writing   YA/Children's

1:30pm MDT

Novel Whispering: How To Finish a Novel
Wednesday June 11, 2025 1:30pm - 3:30pm MDT
Lighthouse
Register
Have a novel that you just can’t finish, or finish well? Considering writing a novel and want an insight to how to actually complete one? In this seminar, we'll identify hurdles in completing the process of novel creation and how to get over them. The event will provide participants with practical techniques to kickstart their manuscripts such applied story structuring, thematic tuning, character mirroring, and more.
Speakers
avatar for Mat Johnson

Mat Johnson

Visiting Author
Mat Johnson is a Philip H Knight Chair of Humanities at the University of Oregon. His publications included the novels Invisible Things and Pym, the nonfiction novella The Great Negro Plot, and the graphic novel Incognegro. Johnson is the recipient of the American Book Award, the... Read More →
Wednesday June 11, 2025 1:30pm - 3:30pm MDT
Lighthouse 3870 York Street Denver, CO 80205
  Fiction

1:30pm MDT

A Premise is Not a Promise: Thriving After the First Sentence
Wednesday June 11, 2025 1:30pm - 3:30pm MDT
Lighthouse
Register
You’ve gotten to the desk, opened the blank page, and written a new and stunning first sentence. Maybe it involves a crying yeti, or a forklift, or a forklift driven by a crying yeti. Regardless, your pen is fully prepped for sad cryptids and warehouse machinery. And there’s the problem. Sticking to a premise can force your writing down a single, limited path of telling. In this seminar we’ll learn how to treat any premise as an ever-branching path of rewarding surprise. By encouraging discovery and unexpected connections, we’ll become better equipped to thrive long after that first sentence.
Speakers
avatar for Alexander Lumans

Alexander Lumans

Instructor
Alexander Lumans was awarded a 2018 NEA Creative Writing Grant in Fiction. He received fellowships in 2015 and 2024 for expeditions with The Arctic Circle Residency and he was the Spring 2014 Philip Roth Resident at Bucknell University. His fiction and nonfiction have appeared in... Read More →
Wednesday June 11, 2025 1:30pm - 3:30pm MDT
Lighthouse 3870 York Street Denver, CO 80205
  Fiction   Nonfiction/Memoir   Hybrid

1:30pm MDT

Write Livelihood: Making a Living as a Writer (V)
Wednesday June 11, 2025 1:30pm - 3:30pm MDT
Zoom
Register
How do we support our writing habit without wearing ourselves out in our day jobs so much that it’s hard to write? Let’s talk about off-the-beaten path possibilities for Right Livelihood (the Buddhist term for work that serves the world) for writers, including translating what we know as writers into helping others grow their creativity, day jobs that don’t have anything necessarily to do with writing, cobbling together freelance work with enough time to write, or rearranging our time in our current work-life balance. We’ll also do writing prompts together to conserve with our callings and brainstorm possibilities and next steps.
Speakers
avatar for Caryn Mirriam-Goldberg

Caryn Mirriam-Goldberg

Instructor
Caryn Mirriam-Goldberg, Ph.D, the 2009-13 Kansas Poet Laureate is the author of 24 books, including How Time Moves: New & Selected Poems; Miriam's Well, a novel; Needle in the Bone, a nonfiction book on the Holocaust; The Sky Begins At Your Feet: A Memoir on Cancer, Community, and... Read More →
Wednesday June 11, 2025 1:30pm - 3:30pm MDT
Zoom
  Fiction   Nonfiction/Memoir   Poetry   Hybrid   Dramatic Writing

1:30pm MDT

Close, Close (Close) Third Person
Wednesday June 11, 2025 1:30pm - 3:30pm MDT
Lighthouse
Register
In this class, we'll talk about "close third person" point of view, and how to really embody a character’s innermost psyche and motivations. How can you heighten emotion in your writing through the closest point of view possible? In this class, we'll discuss the particular demands of close third POV by exploring elements such as free indirect discourse, the perception layer, psychic distance, "head-hopping," interiority, and embodied physical action.
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 →
Wednesday June 11, 2025 1:30pm - 3:30pm MDT
Lighthouse 3870 York Street Denver, CO 80205
  Fiction   Nonfiction/Memoir   Poetry   Hybrid   YA/Children's

1:30pm MDT

The Situation and the Story (V)
Wednesday June 11, 2025 1:30pm - 3:30pm MDT
Zoom
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In her craft book The Situation and the Story, Vivian Gornick differentiates between what a work is about on its surface and what it is "about" more deeply; the themes and motivating questions that allow it to contribute to our understanding of others and ourselves. This class will focus on how to identify the relationship between situation and story in both fiction and nonfiction, offering strategies for clarifying that relationship in our own work and concrete tips on how to build in both elements at the level of the prose. Writers can expect to participate in large group discussion, short break-outs, 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 →
Wednesday June 11, 2025 1:30pm - 3:30pm MDT
Zoom
  Fiction   Nonfiction/Memoir

1:30pm MDT

How to Hook a Reader in Your First Ten Pages
Wednesday June 11, 2025 1:30pm - 3:30pm MDT
Lighthouse
Register
It doesn’t matter how good your book is overall if your first ten pages don’t hook the reader. Most agents request the first couple pages to see if they want to read the rest of the book, most readers in a bookstore will give the opening pages a try to decide if they want to buy your book, and the Look Inside button on Amazon allows readers to check out your opening pages. In this class, we’ll discuss a variety of ways to ensure your opening pages are effective. Open to fiction and memoir writers of all levels. Writers should bring their first ten pages either on their computer or printed out for their reference only (meaning, no copies to distribute, just a copy for themselves to make changes to and reference).
Speakers
avatar for Rachel Weaver

Rachel Weaver

Instructor
Rachel Weaver is the author of the novel Point of Direction, which Oprah Magazine named a "Top Ten Book to Pick Up Now". Point of Direction was chosen by the American Booksellers Association as a Top Ten Debut for Spring 2014, by IndieBound as an Indie Next List Pick, by Yoga Journal... Read More →
Wednesday June 11, 2025 1:30pm - 3:30pm MDT
Lighthouse 3870 York Street Denver, CO 80205
  Fiction   Nonfiction/Memoir   Hybrid

1:30pm MDT

Story as Scrapbook: Structuring Prose with Documents, Letters, Journal Entries, and Articles
Wednesday June 11, 2025 1:30pm - 3:30pm MDT
Lighthouse
Register
Sometimes the best way to create the big picture of your story is to incorporate artifacts that illuminate an aspect that straightforward narration alone can’t offer. We'll look at examples from fiction and nonfiction that include journal entries, letters, documents, reports, and other artifacts in books by Justin Torres, Alexander Sammartino, Tess Gunty, Eowyn Ivey, Maureen Staunton, and more and explore how and when to use scrapbooking technique to craft our stories.
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 →
Wednesday June 11, 2025 1:30pm - 3:30pm MDT
Lighthouse 3870 York Street Denver, CO 80205
  Fiction   Nonfiction/Memoir   Hybrid

4:00pm MDT

Create a Moment, Create a World
Wednesday June 11, 2025 4:00pm - 6:00pm MDT
Lighthouse
Register
How can I evoke a world/situation/character/voice/emotion/idea swiftly and potently? These are questions that fiction writers are always asking, but flash fiction brings particular urgency to them. Participants will explore samples of flash fiction and then experiment with the form themselves. We’ll consider questions such as: How can a piece achieve arc and resonance in such a short space? How does one attain the precision of language essential to this form? What can this form offer the reader in lieu of the satisfaction of a longer narrative? How can the lessons learned by trying our hands at flash fiction be applied to longer works?
Speakers
avatar for Helen Phillips

Helen Phillips

Visiting Author
Helen Phillips is the author of six books, including, most recently, the novel Hum, a New York Times Editors’ Choice. She is the recipient of a Guggenheim Foundation Fellowship, a Rona Jaffe Foundation Writers’ Award, and the Italo Calvino Prize in Fabulist Fiction. Her novel... Read More →
Wednesday June 11, 2025 4:00pm - 6:00pm MDT
Lighthouse 3870 York Street Denver, CO 80205
  Fiction

4:00pm MDT

Fiction Stuckshop
Wednesday June 11, 2025 4:00pm - 6:00pm MDT
Lighthouse
Register
As writers we often hear about books supposedly written in one brilliant, continuous burst. But what if some stories don't burst so much as they dribble? What if some novels resist and evade, or just wander out into a field and collapse? In this workshop we’ll attempt to resurrect promising pieces of fiction that have somehow gotten stuck. We’ll experiment with techniques that have gotten fellow writers out of similar jams, and try to “re-see”our own work as well as our barriers to it. Come willing to write and experiment.
Speakers
avatar for Amanda Rea

Amanda Rea

Instructor
Amanda Rea's stories and essays have appeared in Harper's, Best American Mystery Stories, One Story, American Short Fiction, Freeman’s, The Missouri Review, The Kenyon Review, The Sun, Electric Literature's Recommended Reading, Indiana Review, Iowa Review, New South, Lit Hub, and... Read More →
Wednesday June 11, 2025 4:00pm - 6:00pm MDT
Lighthouse 3870 York Street Denver, CO 80205
  Fiction

4:00pm MDT

The Animal Kingdom (V)
Wednesday June 11, 2025 4:00pm - 6:00pm MDT
Zoom
Register
Animals? Don’t they usually belong in children’s fiction or young adult classics? Talking animals? Now we’re in the realm of fantasy. But animals can add depth and character engagement in literary fiction, as well—as embodiments of the natural forces we generally consign to “setting,” or as mirrors to our humanity, or as companionship when a character is otherwise alone and inert in terms of action. In this seminar, we'll explore how to incorporate the animal world—with varying degrees of consciousness—into our stories by examining great literature and discussing our own relations with the rest of the kingdom.
Speakers
avatar for Daniel Levine

Daniel Levine

Instructor
Daniel Levine is the author of the novel Hyde, a New York Times Editor's Choice and one of Washington Post's 5 Best Thrillers of 2014. He studied English Literature and Creative Writing at Brown University and received his MFA in Fiction from the University of Florida. He has taught... Read More →
Wednesday June 11, 2025 4:00pm - 6:00pm MDT
Zoom
  Fiction

4:00pm MDT

Freelance Writing: Getting Started and Building your Career
Wednesday June 11, 2025 4:00pm - 6:00pm MDT
Lighthouse
Register
How do you query editors at websites, magazines, and newspapers to achieve your first assignment, and what habits can help the first one lead to more? We'll discuss ground rules for freelance writers, learn how to find venues open to new writers, study examples of query letters and write our own. We'll discuss useful resources for freelancers, including newsletters and websites that list venues open to pitches, and share info about pay rates and writer’s guidelines. Jenny has been a freelance writer of essays and articles about books, music, sports, and travel for decades, and looks forward to addressing the particular interests of each student.
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 →
Wednesday June 11, 2025 4:00pm - 6:00pm MDT
Lighthouse 3870 York Street Denver, CO 80205
  Fiction   Nonfiction/Memoir   Hybrid   Publishing/Career

4:00pm MDT

Endings: How to Wrap Things Up
Wednesday June 11, 2025 4:00pm - 6:00pm MDT
Lighthouse
Register
Very often, writers get to the two-third or three-quarter mark in a work and bog down, sometimes abandoning it to move on to something shinier. Why does this happen? It's a place at which we move from raising questions for the reader to needing to answer them. This change in mode requires a different set of tools than the beginning of a story, while needing to appear part of a seamless whole. In this workshop, we'll look at how to wrap up loose ends, decide which things we can leave dangling, and what elements make a strong closing sentence.
Speakers
avatar for Mary Robinette Kowal

Mary Robinette Kowal

Instructor
Mary Robinette Kowal is the author of the Hugo, Nebula, and Locus award winning alternate history novel The Calculating Stars, the first book in the Lady Astronaut series which continues in 2025 with The Martian Contingency. She is also the author of The Glamourist Histories series, Ghost... Read More →
Wednesday June 11, 2025 4:00pm - 6:00pm MDT
Lighthouse 3870 York Street Denver, CO 80205
  Fiction   Nonfiction/Memoir   Hybrid   YA/Children's

4:30pm MDT

The Book Project Showcase
Wednesday June 11, 2025 4:30pm - 6:00pm MDT
Lighthouse
Come meet our very successful Book Project authors Nini Berndt, Gloria Browne-Marshall, Jan Thomas, and Jenny Dandy read from their work and talk about writing their books. Stick around for book signings and Q&A from William Haywood Henderson and others from the Book Project!
Speakers
avatar for Gloria J. Browne-Marshall

Gloria J. Browne-Marshall

Instructor
Gloria J. Browne-Marshall is an Emmy Award-winning writer, a professor of Constitutional Law and Africa Studies at John Jay College (CUNY), civil rights attorney, and playwright. She is the author of She Took Justice: The Black Woman, Law, and Power; Race, Law, and American Society... Read More →

Wednesday June 11, 2025 4:30pm - 6:00pm MDT
Lighthouse 3870 York Street Denver, CO 80205
  Fiction   Nonfiction/Memoir   Hybrid
 
Thursday, June 12
 

9:00am MDT

Live in the Layers: Mindfulness and Writing (V)
Thursday June 12, 2025 9:00am - 11:00am MDT
Zoom
Register
“Live in the layers, not on the litter,” Stanley Kunitz writes in his poem, “The Layers.” Through cultivating a practice of mindful writing, we can bring greater curiosity to the layers of our lives and more vivid, compelling, and powerful writing to the page. Writing itself can be its own path of mindfulness, training us to open our peripheral vision wider as we learn to listen to and glimpse what wants to be said. We’ll engage in some short writing and meditation exercises, and we’ll talk about writing to grow our freedom, gratitude, courage, and resilience.
Speakers
avatar for Caryn Mirriam-Goldberg

Caryn Mirriam-Goldberg

Instructor
Caryn Mirriam-Goldberg, Ph.D, the 2009-13 Kansas Poet Laureate is the author of 24 books, including How Time Moves: New & Selected Poems; Miriam's Well, a novel; Needle in the Bone, a nonfiction book on the Holocaust; The Sky Begins At Your Feet: A Memoir on Cancer, Community, and... Read More →
Thursday June 12, 2025 9:00am - 11:00am MDT
Zoom
  Fiction   Nonfiction/Memoir   Poetry   Hybrid

1:30pm MDT

Gravity: Thinking About Physicality in Fiction
Thursday June 12, 2025 1:30pm - 3:30pm MDT
Lighthouse
Register
Writers can become so compelled by the inner lives of their characters that they, the characters, become like fireflies trapped in jars. In this seminar we will talk about how to think about the physical in fiction—keeping characters in their bodies, in rooms, and on the face of the earth—and try our hands at exercises that help us think about gesture, interaction, action, and consequence. Your characters may never raise their eyebrows again.
Speakers
avatar for Elizabeth McCracken

Elizabeth McCracken

Visiting Author
Elizabeth McCracken is the author of eight books: Here’s Your Hat What’s Your Hurry, The Giant’s House, Niagara Falls All Over Again, An Exact Replica of a Figment of My Imagination, Thunderstruck & Other Stories, Bowlaway, The Souvenir Museum, and The Hero of This Book. She’s... Read More →
Thursday June 12, 2025 1:30pm - 3:30pm MDT
Lighthouse 3870 York Street Denver, CO 80205
  Fiction

1:30pm MDT

Gravity: Thinking About Physicality in Fiction (Livestream)
Thursday June 12, 2025 1:30pm - 3:30pm MDT
Zoom
Register
Writers can become so compelled by the inner lives of their characters that they, the characters, become like fireflies trapped in jars. In this seminar we will talk about how to think about the physical in fiction—keeping characters in their bodies, in rooms, and on the face of the earth--and try our hands at exercises that help us think about gesture, interaction, action, and consequence. Your characters may never raise their eyebrows again.
This is the livestream version of this class, if you would like to attend in person, click here.
Speakers
avatar for Elizabeth McCracken

Elizabeth McCracken

Visiting Author
Elizabeth McCracken is the author of eight books: Here’s Your Hat What’s Your Hurry, The Giant’s House, Niagara Falls All Over Again, An Exact Replica of a Figment of My Imagination, Thunderstruck & Other Stories, Bowlaway, The Souvenir Museum, and The Hero of This Book. She’s... Read More →
Thursday June 12, 2025 1:30pm - 3:30pm MDT
Zoom
  Fiction

1:30pm MDT

How to Write Sex Scenes without Shame
Thursday June 12, 2025 1:30pm - 3:30pm MDT
Lighthouse
Register
Even though people think about sex all the time, and even have it occasionally, writers tend to shy away from the subject. Which is crazy. Because sex is the one experience that makes us all hopeful and horny and embarrassed and vulnerable. In this freewheeling afternoon, we’ll look at the work of Mary Gordon, James Salter, and other literary horndogs in an effort to figure out how to infuse our own sex scenes with genuine emotion and ecstatic sensation, not evasions and porn clichés. Arrive ready to lay your characters bare.
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 →
Thursday June 12, 2025 1:30pm - 3:30pm MDT
Lighthouse 3870 York Street Denver, CO 80205
  Fiction   Nonfiction/Memoir

1:30pm MDT

Imagination Station
Thursday June 12, 2025 1:30pm - 3:30pm MDT
Lighthouse
Register
Come with an open mind, leave with pages and pages (and pages) of fresh writing! In this generative class, our magical box of props, prompts, and writing activities will infuse your writing with new energy, sending you in exciting new directions. Exercises will be in 3-5 minute sprints, each inspired by a different source of inspiration to explore. Open to writers of all genres who are looking for inspiration and fun.
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 →
Thursday June 12, 2025 1:30pm - 3:30pm MDT
Lighthouse 3870 York Street Denver, CO 80205
  Fiction   Nonfiction/Memoir   Poetry   Hybrid   Dramatic Writing   YA/Children's

1:30pm MDT

Writing the Law
Thursday June 12, 2025 1:30pm - 3:30pm MDT
Lighthouse
Register
In this seminar, we'll infuse law into our fiction, memoir, or nonfiction, without sounding like an info dump cut from Law & Order. Explore nuances in courtroom scenes, and add social justice as a timestamp. Law is human conflict. Whether history, classic tales, speculative, or contemporary stories, we'll find strategies to imbue your work with intriguing legal dimensions while using prompts from films, nonfiction, and fiction.
Speakers
avatar for Gloria J. Browne-Marshall

Gloria J. Browne-Marshall

Instructor
Gloria J. Browne-Marshall is an Emmy Award-winning writer, a professor of Constitutional Law and Africa Studies at John Jay College (CUNY), civil rights attorney, and playwright. She is the author of She Took Justice: The Black Woman, Law, and Power; Race, Law, and American Society... Read More →
Thursday June 12, 2025 1:30pm - 3:30pm MDT
Lighthouse 3870 York Street Denver, CO 80205
  Fiction   Nonfiction/Memoir   Dramatic Writing

4:00pm MDT

Story Machine
Thursday June 12, 2025 4:00pm - 6:00pm MDT
Lighthouse
Register
Come with a blank page, and leave with the vital elements of a brand-new short story. In this generative session, we'll try to outrun the inner critic, while drawing on the techniques of great writers to create compelling character, meaningful conflict, and economical depth.
Speakers
AR
Thursday June 12, 2025 4:00pm - 6:00pm MDT
Lighthouse 3870 York Street Denver, CO 80205
  Fiction

4:00pm MDT

Story Structure and Shape
Thursday June 12, 2025 4:00pm - 6:00pm MDT
Lighthouse
Register
When you write a story, do you find it hard to get things off the ground? Does your middle sag? Do you have problems sticking your ending? In this two-hour craft intensive, we'll consider how structure and shape can help resolve these problems, making your story more focused and more propulsive. We’ll discuss the elements of good beginnings, middles, and endings—the basic building blocks of structure—and figure out how to use these elements to move readers through your stories. We’ll consider story shape—both classic shapes and those which might already be inherent in our drafts, just waiting to be revealed. How might story shape suggest directions for your story? How might it be used to create surprise? Bring a project you’d like to work on, and come prepared to read, discuss, reflect, and write.

Speakers
DE
Thursday June 12, 2025 4:00pm - 6:00pm MDT
Lighthouse 3870 York Street Denver, CO 80205
  Fiction

4:00pm MDT

What Carver Teaches us About Storytelling
Thursday June 12, 2025 4:00pm - 6:00pm MDT
Lighthouse
Register
We'll be collaboratively reading through a Raymond Carver story line-by-line to see at the most granular level what goes into putting a story together. What does the reader need to know, and when? How does a story progress? How do we use symbolism in non-pretentious ways? We’ll save some time for writerly questions towards the end.
Speakers
avatar for Tony Tulathimutte

Tony Tulathimutte

Visiting Author
Tony Tulathimutte is the author of Private Citizens and Rejection. A graduate of Stanford University and the Iowa Writers’ Workshop, he’s received a Whiting Award and an O. Henry Award, was longlisted for the National Book Award, and has written for The Paris Review, N+1, Playboy... Read More →
Thursday June 12, 2025 4:00pm - 6:00pm MDT
Lighthouse 3870 York Street Denver, CO 80205
  Fiction

4:00pm MDT

Writing Cinematically: Using Moving Pictures to Tell Your Story (V)
Thursday June 12, 2025 4:00pm - 6:00pm MDT
Zoom
Register
Whether you are writing a novel or a memoir, your narrative is made up of moving pictures. We’ll draw on inspiration from select movies, that show how the narrative language of cinema can help you craft a vivid, cinematic narrative. Plan to practice writing.
Speakers
avatar for Karen Auvinen

Karen Auvinen

Instructor
Karen Auvinen (she/her/hers) is poet, mountain woman, life-long westerner, writer, and the author of the memoir Rough Beauty: Forty Seasons of Mountain Living, a finalist for the 2019 Colorado Book Award. Her body of work traverses the intersection of landscape and place, examining... Read More →
Thursday June 12, 2025 4:00pm - 6:00pm MDT
Zoom
  Fiction   Nonfiction/Memoir

4:00pm MDT

Writing Fight Scenes (V)
Thursday June 12, 2025 4:00pm - 6:00pm MDT
Zoom
Register
Fighting—with words, fists, or guns—is an unavoidable fact of human life. Which makes it pretty much unavoidable in our stories, a necessary feature of conflict, and when done right, with skillful build-up, a source of catharsis and climax. Learning how to write successful argument and combat will be the subject of this seminar, in which we'll analyze excellent examples and reflect on our own work in progress.
Speakers
avatar for Daniel Levine

Daniel Levine

Instructor
Daniel Levine is the author of the novel Hyde, a New York Times Editor's Choice and one of Washington Post's 5 Best Thrillers of 2014. He studied English Literature and Creative Writing at Brown University and received his MFA in Fiction from the University of Florida. He has taught... Read More →
Thursday June 12, 2025 4:00pm - 6:00pm MDT
Zoom
  Fiction   Nonfiction/Memoir

4:00pm MDT

Two-Day Intensive: The Problem with Evil (V)
Thursday June 12, 2025 4:00pm - Friday June 13, 2025 7:00pm MDT
Zoom
Register
The art of making satisfying villains, and the art of saying something new about bad, banal acts—all this can be tricker than it appears. How do we capture the reality of sinister characters without caricature? How do we dramatize bad behavior without glamorizing it or sermonizing, charting a course between theology and pathology? When is it worth separating bad people from bad acts? How do we steer clear of stereotypes? With so much real-life villainy afoot, with readers turning to books both for solace and for answers, these questions feel urgent as ever. Let's have a look at what successful stories have done, and how they've done it, and let's try a bunch of exercises together to make an old problem new.
Speakers
avatar for John Cotter

John Cotter

Instructor
John Cotter is the author of a memoir, Losing Music, winner of the Colorado Book Award for creative nonfiction, and of Under the Small Lights, winner of the Miami University Press novella competition. His essays and stories have appeared in Prairie Schooner, New England Review, Raritan... Read More →
Thursday June 12, 2025 4:00pm - Friday June 13, 2025 7:00pm MDT
Zoom
  Fiction   Hybrid

7:00pm MDT

Visiting Authors Reading: Helen Phillips, Eileen Myles, Tony Tulathimutte, and Matthew Zapruder
Thursday June 12, 2025 7:00pm - 8:15pm 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
Thursday June 12, 2025 7:00pm - 8:15pm MDT
Lighthouse 3870 York Street Denver, CO 80205
  Fiction   Nonfiction/Memoir   Hybrid   Poetry

7:00pm MDT

Visiting Authors Reading: Helen Phillips, Eileen Myles, Tony Tulathimutte, and Matthew Zapruder (Livestream)
Thursday June 12, 2025 7:00pm - 8:15pm MDT
Zoom
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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
Thursday June 12, 2025 7:00pm - 8:15pm MDT
Zoom
  Fiction   Nonfiction/Memoir   Hybrid   Poetry
 
Friday, June 13
 

1:30pm MDT

In the Trenches with Historical Fiction
Friday June 13, 2025 1:30pm - 3:30pm MDT
Lighthouse
Register
In historical fiction, you want to stay true to the period but resonate with modern readers. To feel like life, not a history book. So, how do our characters’ words capture the era? How does society decree they will relate to each other? Can you create an accurate world without overwhelming description? We'll explore shaping dialogue, choosing vocabulary, and making the best use of our research. Whether you have an idea or a first draft, bring your characters to the workshop and be prepared to write.
Speakers
avatar for Terri Lewis

Terri Lewis

Instructor
Terri Lewis fell in love with medieval history in college. Not the dates or wars, but the mysterious daily lives of the people. Building on this love, she read and traveled widely, and finally, two sentences in a book bought at Windsor Castle led her to write her debut novel, Behold... Read More →
Friday June 13, 2025 1:30pm - 3:30pm MDT
Lighthouse 3870 York Street Denver, CO 80205
  Fiction

1:30pm MDT

How to Publish A Book While Staying (Reasonably) Sane
Friday June 13, 2025 1:30pm - 3:30pm MDT
Lighthouse
Register
If you’re ready to publish your book, but have no idea how do that, this is the class for you. We'll discuss different pathways for publishing a book; including finding an agent or working without one, submitting your manuscript to publication contests, or self-publishing. We'll learn how to query agents and publishers, how to find comp titles for your book, when you need to write a book proposal, and share useful websites and resources that will support you along your journey to publication.
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 →
Friday June 13, 2025 1:30pm - 3:30pm MDT
Lighthouse 3870 York Street Denver, CO 80205
  Fiction   Nonfiction/Memoir   Publishing/Career

1:30pm MDT

Taking it Off the Nose: Using Dialogue to Show Conflict and Develop Character (V)
Friday June 13, 2025 1:30pm - 3:30pm MDT
Zoom
Register
Great dialogue is more about what is not said than what is said. This workshop explores how to listen to conversations, reveal character, and leave intentional gaps to make your dialogue something that doesn’t simply explicate or move plot. We’ll explore a few good examples and practice a bit. Intermediate or above. Nonfiction and fiction writers welcome. Plan to practice writing.
Speakers
avatar for Karen Auvinen

Karen Auvinen

Instructor
Karen Auvinen (she/her/hers) is poet, mountain woman, life-long westerner, writer, and the author of the memoir Rough Beauty: Forty Seasons of Mountain Living, a finalist for the 2019 Colorado Book Award. Her body of work traverses the intersection of landscape and place, examining... Read More →
Friday June 13, 2025 1:30pm - 3:30pm MDT
Zoom
  Fiction   Nonfiction/Memoir

1:30pm MDT

Details That Matter
Friday June 13, 2025 1:30pm - 3:30pm MDT
Lighthouse
Register
Is the sofa in your story gold or green? Does it matter? Yes, it actually does. In this seminar, we’ll work on creating specific details that add meaning and depth to your story. Specificity leads to subtext. Subtext leads to richness. The sofa is gold for a reason. Everybody wins!
Speakers
avatar for William Haywood Henderson

William Haywood Henderson

Instructor
William Haywood Henderson earned a BA in English from the University of California at Berkeley, an MA in creative writing from Brown University, and attended Stanford University as a Wallace Stegner Fellow in Creative Writing. He is the author of three novels: Native, The Rest of... Read More →
Friday June 13, 2025 1:30pm - 3:30pm MDT
Lighthouse 3870 York Street Denver, CO 80205
  Fiction   Nonfiction/Memoir   Poetry   Hybrid   Dramatic Writing
 
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