Lit Fest - Lighthouse Writers Workshop 2026: Full Schedule

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8:30am MDT

Advanced Weekend Fiction Intensive: Narrative Movement with Megha Majumdar

Sunday June 14, 2026 8:30am - 12:00pm MDT

How does a story move? What constitutes successful movement, and what can we learn from moments where the story fails to achieve its own goals? With particular attention to plot, structure, character evolution, and logic, we’ll use this critique-based workshop to examine these questions as they pertain to participants' short stories or excerpts from longer work. We’ll begin workshop by having each participant read aloud one sentence from their work, to remind us of the spell of their fiction, and then we will discuss what we found to be persuasive, and what we found to be less so, with the aim of offering a path forward for revision.

Speakers

Megha Majumdar

Visiting Author

Megha Majumdar is the author of the National Book Award longlisted and Kirkus Prize finalist novel A Guardian and a Thief. Her first book, the New York Times bestselling novel A Burning, was nominated for the National Book Award, the National Book Critics Circle's John Leonard Prize... Read More →

Sunday June 14, 2026 8:30am - 12:00pm MDT
TBA 3844 York Street, Denver, CO 80305

Fiction

Audience Advanced Workshop

9:00am MDT

Becoming a Channel

Sunday June 14, 2026 9:00am - 11:00am MDT

Lighthouse Writers Workshop

In drafting and editing, there are often two different drives at play: our conception of what the text is “about” vs. the story that wants to be told. How, as writers, do we dismantle our egos, transcend the clutter of the conscious mind, and surrender control—even in a rigorous editing process—to tap into the fundamental heart of a story?

In this seminar, writers will be given a toolkit for doing just that. We’ll explore meditation, archetype, myth, ekphrasis, writing in motion, somatic exercises, stichomancy, and alchemy. We’ll also discuss the outlining process from a perspective of fluidity, and how, like the ship of Theseus, an outline can evolve as we write and edit.

This is the in-person version of this event.

Speakers

Melissa Broder

Visiting Author

Melissa Broder is the author of the novels DEATH VALLEY, MILK FED, and THE PISCES, the essay collection SO SAD TODAY, and five collections of poems, including SUPERDOOM: Selected Poems. Her books are translated in over twelve languages. Broder has written for The New York Times, Harper's... Read More →

Sunday June 14, 2026 9:00am - 11:00am MDT
Lighthouse Writers Workshop

Fiction

Audience Craft Seminar

9:00am MDT

Becoming a Channel (Livestream)

Sunday June 14, 2026 9:00am - 11:00am MDT

Virtual

Speakers

Melissa Broder

Visiting Author

Sunday June 14, 2026 9:00am - 11:00am MDT
Virtual

Fiction

Type advanced, intermediate, intro
Audience Craft Seminar

9:00am MDT

How to Write Sex Scenes without Shame

Sunday June 14, 2026 9:00am - 11:00am MDT

Lighthouse Writers Workshop

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

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... Read More →

Sunday June 14, 2026 9:00am - 11:00am MDT
Lighthouse Writers Workshop

Fiction

Audience Craft Seminar

9:00am MDT

Two-Day Intensive: Plotting Your Course—The Major Turning Points Every Story Needs

Sunday June 14, 2026 9:00am - 12:00pm MDT

Lighthouse Writers Workshop

Plotting your novel doesn’t have to feel like pulling teeth. Writers will learn about the plot points roadmap—the five major plot points in every story that you need to know before starting your first draft. We'll talk about the three-act structure, theme as the touchpoint for every story, and how plot and character rely on each other and propel each other forward. We’ll identify the five major turning points in every plot that keep your story on track to the finish line (even if the story wanders a little in between).

Speakers

Jenny Elder Moke

Faculty

Jenny Elder Moke is the award-winning author of children’s and adult literature. She enjoys fast-paced adventures with plenty of mysteries, surprising turns, and laughs along the way. Her most recent release is A Spark in the Cinders. She is also the author of Hood and the Curse... Read More →

Sunday June 14, 2026 9:00am - 12:00pm MDT
Lighthouse Writers Workshop

Fiction, YA/Children's

Audience Two-Day Intensive

9:00am MDT

Two-Day Intensive: The Undeniable Voice—Craft Lessons from Vigil by George Saunders

Sunday June 14, 2026 9:00am - 12:00pm MDT

Lighthouse Writers Workshop

The latest novel from Booker Prize–winning George Saunders, Vigil, takes place in a single evening—the last one, in fact, for dying oil baron K.J. Boone. During his twilight hours, Boone finds himself transported to otherworldly realms populated by the living and the dead. And everyone he meets has an urgent story to tell. In this class, we’ll dissect Saunders’s meaningful storytelling choices. We’ll discuss his emotionally affecting style that takes bigger and bigger risks by the page. And we’ll experiment in our own writing with his craft techniques. Come ready to learn from one of our modern masters!

Speakers

Alexander Lumans

Editor

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 →

Sunday June 14, 2026 9:00am - 12:00pm MDT
Lighthouse Writers Workshop

Fiction

Audience Two-Day Intensive

9:00am MDT

Two-Day Intensive: The Visionary Movement

Sunday June 14, 2026 9:00am - 12:00pm MDT

Lighthouse Writers Workshop

Using fundamental techniques such as writing like a camera and tracking the sensory experience of a POV character, we'll learn how to write successful visionary movements such as hallucinations, delusions, distorted realities, daydreams, and interior fantasy lives. We'll study literary examples and film sequences as models for how to convince our reader they too are seeing and experiencing what the characters on the page think they are seeing and experiencing, when in fact it’s all in their head.

Speakers

Sarah Elizabeth Schantz

Sarah Elizabeth Schantz is a writer living on the East Side of Old Town Longmont in a Victorian bungalow one alley away from the train tracks. Her first novel Fig debuted from Simon & Schuster in 2015 and was selected by NPR as A Best Read of the Year before going on to win a 2016... Read More →

Sunday June 14, 2026 9:00am - 12:00pm MDT
Lighthouse Writers Workshop

Fiction, Multi-Genre

Audience Two-Day Intensive

1:00pm MDT

Two-Day Intensive: Strange and Mundane—Pulling the Odd from the Everyday

Sunday June 14, 2026 1:00pm - 4:00pm MDT

Lighthouse Writers Workshop

The minutia of our lives is a rich and wild and wonderful place. In this course, we'll look at a variety of writers—Joy Williams, Grace Paley, Lynne Tillman, Stephen Dixon, Donald Barthelme, George Saunders— to see how they mine the strangenesses of the everyday. In looking at these writers, we’ll identify places in our own work where the fascinating inner life of the work we do, the food we eat, the tasks we complete, the rules we have to follow, can become the thrilling, perplexing, nuanced, and propulsive heart that keeps us invested in a story.

Speakers

Nini Berndt

Faculty

Nini Berndt's debut novel, There Are Reasons for This, comes out from Tin House Press in spring 2025. She's a graduate of the MFA program in Fiction at the University of Florida, and her work has appeared in The Southampton Review, Subtropics, Adroit, Passages North, Blackbird, and... Read More →

Sunday June 14, 2026 1:00pm - 4:00pm MDT
Lighthouse Writers Workshop

Fiction

Audience Two-Day Intensive

1:00pm MDT

Two-Day Intensive: Your Voice on the Page

Sunday June 14, 2026 1:00pm - 4:00pm MDT

Lighthouse Writers Workshop

Your fully developed literary voice is as individual as your brain, your intelligence, your sight. It will set you apart from all other writers. Taking inspiration from Ben Yagoda’s The Sound on the Page and Jane Allison’s Meander, Spiral, Explode, we’ll examine your voice, discover its strengths and individuality, and ultimately help you break through to an even more distinct and complex voice on the page.

Speakers

William Haywood Henderson

Faculty

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 →

Sunday June 14, 2026 1:00pm - 4:00pm MDT
Lighthouse Writers Workshop

Fiction, Multi-Genre

Audience Two-Day Intensive

1:30pm MDT

Beyond the Laugh: How and Why to Use Humor

Sunday June 14, 2026 1:30pm - 3:30pm MDT

Lighthouse Writers Workshop

There are serious reasons to crack a few jokes in your manuscript. In this class, we'll discuss how to use humor as a narrative tool. From deepening plot to establishing tone, we'll explore how and why comedy is an essential function in storytelling. The class will include close readings of examples from Twain to Tulathimutte, discussions of the various definitions of humor, and prompts using different joke forms. To note, the class will be focused on fiction, though all writers of all levels are welcome.

Speakers

Kathleen Boland

Faculty

Kathleen Boland is the author of the novel Scavengers. Her fiction has appeared in Tin House, Conjunctions, and Gulf Coast, among other places, and she has received support from the Tin House Summer Workshop, the Bread Loaf Writers’ Conference, and the Vermont Studio Center. She... Read More →

Sunday June 14, 2026 1:30pm - 3:30pm MDT
Lighthouse Writers Workshop

Fiction, Nonfiction/Memoir

Audience Craft Seminar

1:30pm MDT

Going Out in Style

Sunday June 14, 2026 1:30pm - 3:30pm MDT

Lighthouse Writers Workshop

We will explore the “baroque” and “plain song” writing styles. When we talk baroque, consider Angela Carter's adjective-heavy prose, filled with language demanding a reader have a dictionary nearby. In the case of plain song, Ernest Hemingway, a journalist, employs prose so simple it almost reads like Dick & Jane. While every writer cultivates their own style and individual voice, this class examines the impact style has on content. We’ll explore how (and when) to write a complex-compound sentence absolutely littered with modifiers and punctuation versus when to be economic, sparse, even fragmented.

Speakers

Sarah Elizabeth Schantz

Sunday June 14, 2026 1:30pm - 3:30pm MDT
Lighthouse Writers Workshop

Fiction, Multi-Genre

Audience Craft Seminar

1:30pm MDT

Plot: A Conjuror's Guide

Sunday June 14, 2026 1:30pm - 3:30pm MDT

Lighthouse Writers Workshop

An often daunting aspect of writing fiction can be conjuring a plot that snags and keeps a reader's attention. In this craft seminar, we’ll break down different ways to think about plot, and we’ll examine how plot can be an essential element of the stories we are trying to tell. With a mix of lecture, writing exercises, and some time for Q&A at the end, we’ll work to make plot less intimidating and see it as an organic, intrinsic, and hugely satisfying part of storytelling.

Speakers

Megha Majumdar

Visiting Author

Sunday June 14, 2026 1:30pm - 3:30pm MDT
Lighthouse Writers Workshop

Fiction

Audience Craft Seminar

1:30pm MDT

Advanced Weekend Fiction Workshop: Using Image with Melissa Broder

Sunday June 14, 2026 1:30pm - 5:00pm MDT

TBA

This immersive workshop invites writers of all levels to explore the vibrant intersection of visual art and the written word. Ekphrastic writing, poetry, or prose is directly inspired by works of art, and it offers a powerful way to deepen perception, escape the linear mind during drafting, and evolve originality and surprise in one’s artistic voice. Through guided in-class exercises and prompts, we’ll explore visual ekphrasis, as well as experimental forms of audio and somatic ekphrasis to generate new fiction. Participants will receive first-blush feedback on their work, and opportunities to share will be available to those who would like to do so.

Speakers