Lit Fest - Lighthouse Writers Workshop 2026

Inspired by Rick Rubin’s The Creative Act, this generative workshop will loosen your sense of perfectionism and open the door to creative possibility. Through the practices of stillness, attention, and mindful observation, we’ll quiet the inner critic, welcome flaws on the page, and make them part of the creative process. Guided exercises will turn mistakes into unexpected openings and reveal new textures in your writing. Leave with pages that surprise you and a renewed sense of creative freedom.

This seminar will begin with an artist talk focused on revision. We’ll look at the (r)evolution of selected poems and lyrical essays from personal archives—from their raw and earnest first attempts into their final forms. We’ll explore the process of research and material collection; intellectual/emotional considerations; and the detachment from initial ideas and embrace of new directions and forms. We’ll also watch a few short videos of other poets discussing their revision processes. We’ll think about the ways that revision opens the doors for our poem’s liberation and freedom. Together, through group discussion and hands-on exercises, we’ll develop our own set of  “best practices” for revision.
This is the livestream version of this event.

Panelists include: Camille Bromley (NYT Opinion Special Projects), Alexander Lumans (American Short Fiction), Holly Amos (Poetry), and Jane Huffman (Denver Quarterly)

Publishing a poem, essay, news piece, or short story can be a huge accomplishment on its own, but it can also be the first move in a much longer game. This panel brings together editors from literary magazines, newspapers, and major outlets (including an editor from American Short Fiction, a special projects editor from New York Times Opinion, and others TBA) to talk about what they're looking for, how to get their attention, and what a single well-placed piece can set in motion. One Lighthouse writer published just such an essay in the Times, and watched it become the foundation of her book published in February. Come hear how that happens, and how to start building your own trail of clips, credits, and opportunities.

In his writing workshops, the journalist Michael Pollan says that every piece of writing, whether fiction or nonfiction, needs a "laundry line": a main conceptual through-line that is strong yet flexible enough to hold the various vignettes, reflections, and analyses that make up the piece. This craft seminar will provide an opportunity for writers to begin developing a sturdy laundry line for their current projects, focusing on the difference between narrative and chronology, how voice evolves across structure, how to braid personal reflection with reportage and analysis, and much more.

Rhapsody: an expression of ecstasy or uncontrolled emotion. This is not a genre we hear much about in poetry classes, but this workshop invites writers to play in language and sing out their most unbridled feelings. We will look at how sound and image—and even the use of punctuation and the page—can open the poem to articulate what we might otherwise hesitate to express.

Hear readings from members of Lighthouse’s faculty while enjoying some of our Happy Hour offerings. This is the Livestream version of this event, if you'd like to attend this in-person, click here.
Our Lineup
Christina Rivera
Joy Sawyer
Megan O'Grady
Seth Brady Tucker
Rachel Weaver

Grab a drink or a bite from our food truck and buckle down in Beacon Hall to hear your favorite visiting author perform their recent works. Afterwards, you can shop at the Lit Fest pop-up bookstore operated by Spell Books and get your book signed. This is the livestream version of this event.