Lit Fest - Lighthouse Writers Workshop 2026

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 livestream version of this event.

At the start of every great story is a question and the need to explore or understand better. In this class, we’ll explore how intentional research can enrich your creative work and give it depth, texture, and authority. Drawing from my background in journalism, I’ll show you practical ways to design a research plan, find reliable sources, and conduct meaningful interviews with relatives and strangers. Whether you’re writing an essay, memoir, profile, or novel, you’ll leave with tools to approach research as a creative, ethical and enjoyable practice.

Panelists include: Kurestin Armada (Root Literary), Nicole Cunningham (Trellis Literary Management), and Julie Stevenson (Massie, McQuilkin & Altman Literary Agents).

The slush pile is real, the inbox is overwhelming, and the rules keep changing—especially now. Join Shana Kelly and several agents for a candid conversation about what the querying process actually looks like in 2026: how they find new writers, what makes them keep reading, and what makes them stop. Come with your burning questions. Leave with a real map.

Fiction writers are conditioned to assume the climax of our novel/short story is simply the point of highest action. But this is a narrow, purely situational definition of climax. And for nonfiction writers, the necessity of a climax in our structure is mentioned as an afterthought if at all. This seminar will reconceptualize narrative climax as an alchemical transformation deeply connected to a work's motivating questions and utterly necessary to all prose works, regardless of genre. Writers will leave equipped with tools for plotting the climaxes of their own works and integrating these into their narrative structures.

This course will demystify the TEDx process by helping writers find a TEDx organization taking applications, understand what organizers are looking for in your application, apply for a TEDx talk to be selected, and learn the difference between writing a TED talk script and an essay. I'll provide handouts with templates and links to helpful resources. My content will include personal anecdotes and interviews I've had with three TEDx show producers and two essayists who have given TEDx talks.