All Lit Fest Offerings Available April 6
Lit Fest is an eight-day celebration of writers and readers, an extravaganza of weeklong and weekend advanced workshops, craft seminars, readings, salons, business panels, agent meetings, and parties. In 2023, Lit Fest will take place in Lighthouse's brand new, permanent building (with plenty of offerings for our virtual participants)!
Choose workshops and events à la carte or sign up for one of our festival passes for the full experience. Click here to browse the 2022 catalog to get a sense of the programming.
Visiting Authors for 2023 included fiction writers Steve Almond, Jonathan Escoffery, Sheila Heti, Katie Kitamura, Rachel Kushner, Rebecca Makkai, Claire Messud, and Akhil Sharma; nonfiction writers Grace M. Cho, Andre Dubus III, Amitava Kumar, Leslie Jamison, Nadia Owusu, and Michelle Tea; and poets Forrest Gander, Carmen Giménez, and Patrica Smith; and novelist/screenwriter Dean Bakopoulos.
Fellowship judges included Victoria Chang (Poetry), Vanessa Hua (Fiction), Mitali Jahagirdar (TV/screenwriting), and Leslie Jamison (Nonfiction).
Past visiting agents have included Anna Stein (Curtis Brown), Marya Spence (Janklow & Nesbit), Sarah Fuentes (Fletcher & Co.), Jenny Bent (The Bent Agency), Michelle Brower (Aevitas Creative), Alexa Stark (Trident Media Group), Kristin Nelson (Nelson Literary), Chris Parris-Lamb (Gernert), Duvall Osteen (Aragi), Sally Wofford-Girand (Union), and Tanusri Prasanna (DeFiore & Co.). Lit Fest passholders have the option of meeting one-on-one with an agent during Lit Fest.
Have questions? Visit our Lit Fest FAQs or give us a call at 303.297.1185.
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Advanced Workshops
Lit Fest 2023 features weeklong and weekend advanced workshops in novel, poetry, short story, memoir, narrative nonfiction, and screenwriting. Visiting authors include: Steve Almond, Dean Bakopoulos, Grace M. Cho, Andre Dubus III, Jonathan Escoffery, Forrest Gander, Carmen Giménez, Sheila Heti, Leslie Jamison, Katie Kitamura, Amitava Kumar, Rachel Kushner, Rebecca Makkai, Claire Messud, Nadia Owusu, Akhil Sharma, Patricia Smith, and Michelle Tea. Participation is by application only. The priority deadline is March 11.
Fellowships
Our Lit Fest Fellowships for Emerging Writers help defray the costs of a weeklong or weekend advanced workshop for writers with financial need. Applications close on March 11.
Two-Day Intensives
Want to learn more about a specific element of craft? Dive into the work of a certain writer? Lit Fest two-day intensives offer participants the chance to spend time in focused study on a particular topic.
Craft Seminars
Lit Fest craft seminars give writers of all levels the chance to gain new insight into particular topics, techniques, or genres. Whether you’re interested in worldbuilding convincingly, creating compelling characters, or perfecting your story's dialogue, we’ve got a class for you.
Agent and Editor Consultations
Need publishing advice? Our Full-Access Business Pass (which is included in the Gold, Weekend Gold, Bronze, and Penny Passes) gets you a one-on-one consultation with Lit Fest's visiting literary agents and editors. Visiting agents and editors for Lit Fest 2023 will be announced on April 6.
Business Panels
What's a "comp" title? How do you find an agent? How do you navigate first amendment issues when writing nonfiction? Our daily Business Panels provide the advice you need to master the publishing side of writing. Bring a lunch and join us.
Evening Events
Stick around after class for our evening events, which include nightly readings from Lit Fest faculty, participants, and visiting authors, as well as several dynamic events with music, conversations, and more.
Festival Passes
For those looking for a fuller Lit Fest experience, passes provide a taste of everything on offer at discount. Passes will be available for purchase, below, on April 6.