Lit Fest - Lighthouse Writers Workshop 2026: Full Schedule

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9:00am MDT

Advanced Weeklong Fiction Workshop: Finding the Subterranean Story with Danielle Evans

Wednesday June 17, 2026 9:00am - 11:30pm MDT

Often, the process of drafting fiction is one of uncovering: What is it we actually mean to be writing about, and how can we bring that thread to the surface in revision? At the same time, one of the great pleasures of reading is the consideration of suggestions or questions that remain just beneath the surface of the text.

In this workshop, we'll consider the “layers” of a story, and we’ll explore how some of those subterranean layers can guide us toward structures and narrative arcs that serve the project. We'll negotiate the balance between what works best when said directly and what works best when it’s left to be discovered by the reader. Each workshop will open with discussion of a published short story and a brief responsive writing exercise; then we’ll move to an in-depth discussion of work submitted by participants.

Speakers

Danielle Evans

Visiting Author

Danielle Evans is the author of the story collections The Office of Historical Corrections and Before You Suffocate Your Own Fool Self. Her first collection won the PEN American Robert W. Bingham Prize, the Hurston-Wright award for fiction, and the Paterson Prize for fiction; her... Read More →

Wednesday June 17, 2026 9:00am - 11:30pm MDT
TBA 3844 York Street, Denver, CO 80305

Fiction

Audience Advanced Workshop

9:00am MDT

Advanced Weeklong Fiction Workshop: Intimate Distance with Mat Johnson

Wednesday June 17, 2026 9:00am - 11:30pm MDT

TBA

Novels are long, often unruly, and inherently ambitious projects that require the writer to be both intimate with and distant from the text. It's easy to type a bunch of pages, but it’s hard to make them captivate the reader and ensure that the journey adds up to more than the sum of its parts. This course will explore the tools needed to bring your novel-length manuscript to life in its strongest form. Your novel has strengths: we'll explore how you can build on them. Your novel has weaknesses: we'll identify them and create strategies for you to overcome them. Together, we'll reveal what your novel is actually about, as opposed to what you planned for it to be. We’ll examine its hidden structures, and we’ll enable your characters and their struggles to come alive on the page.

Speakers

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 17, 2026 9:00am - 11:30pm MDT
TBA 3844 York Street, Denver, CO 80305

Fiction

Audience Advanced Workshop

9:00am MDT

Advanced Weeklong Fiction Workshop: Situation and Event with Brandon Taylor

Wednesday June 17, 2026 9:00am - 11:30pm MDT

TBA

In this weeklong workshop, we’ll explore the intimate relationship between situation and event in narrative using work submitted by participants. The goal is to gain a stronger understanding of and appreciation for the underlying or pre-existing dramatic context that gives meaning to plot, character actions, and even the structure of a piece. We’ll use this stronger understanding to develop a more thorough conceptualization of our work so that we can make exciting, unexpected, and more meaningful choices in our stories.

We’ll be working with the below definitions:

Situation: All of the facts that comprise the starting condition of a character’s life at the beginning of a given story, novel, scene, or act. We may understand situation as another word for circumstance raised to the level of dramatic action and intent.

Event: The event is the happening or the trigger shot of a given scene, story, or novel. There are capital E Events and little e events. But regardless, both kinds of events should be drawn out of the very bedrock of your narrative and dramatic situation.

Speakers

Brandon Taylor

Visiting Author

Brandon Taylor is the author of the novels Minor Black Figures, The Late Americans, and Real Life, which was shortlisted for the Booker Prize and the National Book Critics Circle John Leonard Prize, and named a New York Times Book Review Editors’ Choice and a Science + Literature... Read More →

Wednesday June 17, 2026 9:00am - 11:30pm MDT
TBA 3844 York Street, Denver, CO 80305

Fiction

Audience Advanced Workshop

9:00am MDT

Advanced Weeklong Fiction Workshop: The BS Detector with Steve Almond

Wednesday June 17, 2026 9:00am - 11:30pm MDT

TBA

Writing is decision making, nothing more and nothing less. What word? Where to place the comma? How to shape the paragraph? Join Steve Almond for a workshop focused on improving the decisions you make in your writing. By looking critically and carefully at other people’s work, you’ll walk away with a better sense of how to improve your own. The idea is not to slow your rate of composition via compulsive revision, but to instead make better decisions in the first place and to recognize quickly when you haven’t.

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 →

Wednesday June 17, 2026 9:00am - 11:30pm MDT
TBA 3844 York Street, Denver, CO 80305

Fiction

Audience Advanced Workshop

9:00am MDT

Advanced Weeklong Fiction Workshop: Who's Telling Your Story? with Christopher Castellani

Wednesday June 17, 2026 9:00am - 11:30pm MDT

TBA

The most important decision a writer makes is who tells their story. In this workshop, we will examine each other's manuscripts primarily through the lens of point of view and by using the concept of narrative strategy, but we will also take each manuscript as a whole and discuss how all the craft elements are working together. The primary question we will ask is, "How can the manuscript be a stronger, deeper version of itself?" This workshop is open to short story writers and novelists with stand-alone excerpts.

Speakers

Chris Castellani

Visiting Author

Christopher Castellani's fifth novel, Last Seen, will be published by Viking in February 2026. He is also the author of Leading Men (Viking, 2019) for which he received fellowships from the Guggenheim Foundation, MacDowell, and the Massachusetts Cultural Council, among others. Searchlight... Read More →

Wednesday June 17, 2026 9:00am - 11:30pm MDT
TBA 3844 York Street, Denver, CO 80305

Fiction

Audience Advanced Workshop

9:00am MDT

Advanced Weeklong Generative Fiction Workshop: Starting, or Starting Over with Rebecca Makkai

Wednesday June 17, 2026 9:00am - 11:30pm MDT

TBA

In this generative workshop, we’ll either begin brand new pieces, or begin a brand new version of an old piece. In either case, we’ll use our clean slates to find startling originality, optimal angles of approach, and the energies that will carry a story or novel through to the end. We’ll write both in class and outside of class and (voluntarily) share what we’ve written. In the last two days of class, we’ll squeeze in mini-workshops on everyone’s opening page. Accepted participants do not need to come in with an idea of what to write, although they may.

Speakers

Rebecca Makkai

Visiting Author

Rebecca Makkai is the author of the New York Times bestselling I Have Some Questions For You as well as four other works of fiction. Her last novel, The Great Believers, one of the New York Times’ Best Books of the 21st Century, was a finalist for both the 2019 Pulitzer Prize and... Read More →

Wednesday June 17, 2026 9:00am - 11:30pm MDT
TBA 3844 York Street, Denver, CO 80305

Fiction

Audience Advanced Workshop

9:00am MDT

Advanced Weeklong Nonfiction Workshop: Excavation with Andre Dubus III

Wednesday June 17, 2026 9:00am - 11:30pm MDT

TBA

We’ll begin with a difficult task: do not outline your novel or novella or short story or essay or memoir. Do not think out the plot, the narrative arc, the protagonist’s journey, whatever you want to call it. Instead, try to find the story through an honest excavation of the characters’ total experience of the situation in which they find themselves. Do that, and the story will begin to write itself.

But how, precisely, does one go about this “excavation”? And how, technically speaking, can we ignite a story into “writing itself”? Come to this workshop, and we’ll demystify those writerly tools and skills that, time and time again, if they are sharp enough, and if the writer can summon enough daily faith and nerve, can penetrate the mystery of story itself.

Fiction, as well as creative nonfiction is welcome. We will be doing in-class writing exercises and workshopping each participant’s submission.

Speakers

Andre Dubus III

Visiting Author

Andre Dubus III’s nine books include the New York Times’ bestsellers House of Sand and Fog, The Garden of Last Days, and his memoir, Townie. His most recent novel, Such Kindness, was published in June 2023, and a collection of personal essays, Ghost Dogs: On Killers and Kin, was... Read More →

Wednesday June 17, 2026 9:00am - 11:30pm MDT
TBA 3844 York Street, Denver, CO 80305

Nonfiction/Memoir

Audience Advanced Workshop

9:00am MDT

Advanced Weeklong Nonfiction Workshop: Find Your Focus with Beth Nguyen

Wednesday June 17, 2026 9:00am - 11:30pm MDT

TBA

Maybe you’ve been wanting to try writing creative nonfiction. Maybe you have been writing it but are feeling a little bit stuck. Maybe you’re restless, curious. Maybe you’re wondering how to create a cohesive work out of a lifetime of material. Where to start? How to shape it? This generative workshop is geared toward inspiration, starts and restarts, and rethinking nonfiction, at any level. Whether you’re interested in memoir, essays, memoir-in-essays, or anything in between, you’ll find guidance, support, writing prompts, and discussion aimed at helping you figure out your writing process. We’ll talk about ideas, structure, perspective, ethical concerns (how do we know what we should write? how do we write about other people?), and more. This workshop is all about gaining greater focus and understanding as we generate work and ideas in a fun and supportive environment.

Speakers

Beth Nguyen

Visiting Author

Beth Nguyen is the author of the memoirs Owner of a Lonely Heart and Stealing Buddha’s Dinner, as well as two novels. She has received a Guggenheim award and an American Book Award, and her work has appeared in publications including The New Yorker, Paris Review, Time Magazine... Read More →

Wednesday June 17, 2026 9:00am - 11:30pm MDT
TBA 3844 York Street, Denver, CO 80305

Nonfiction/Memoir

Audience Advanced Workshop

9:00am MDT

Advanced Weeklong Nonfiction Workshop: Mapping the Memoir with Emily Rapp Black

Wednesday June 17, 2026 9:00am - 11:30pm MDT

TBA

Art is architecture; art is artificial; art is...? The biggest challenge for any writer of narrative is finding the map from beginning to end. This workshop is designed for writers working on book-length memoirs who wish to delve more deeply into the issues of structure, style, and voice: these three craft points will be our focus, as they make up the net that holds a narrative together in a propulsive, engaging, immersive, and beautiful way. The goal of this workshop is to take your completed manuscript to the next level. We'll also discuss different avenues of publication.

Speakers

Emily Rapp Black

Visiting Author

Emily Rapp Black is the author of Poster Child: A Memoir (BloomsburyUSA); The Still Point of the Turning World (Penguin Press), which was a New York Times bestseller, Editor’s Pick, and a finalist for the PEN-USA Award; Sanctuary (Random House), a New York Times Editor’s Pick... Read More →

Wednesday June 17, 2026 9:00am - 11:30pm MDT
TBA 3844 York Street, Denver, CO 80305

Nonfiction/Memoir

Audience Advanced Workshop

9:00am MDT

Advanced Weeklong Nonfiction Workshop: Shadow Narratives with Rachel Louise Snyder

Wednesday June 17, 2026 9:00am - 11:30pm MDT

TBA

Behind every piece of narrative nonfiction there exists a dual narrative. This partnership of story with meaning is often the blend that provides memoir, personal essay, and narrative nonfiction pieces with both tension and emotional consequence. There is the story as it exists on the page, and then there is the shadow narrative, whispering behind that story, trying to make sense of it. In this weeklong workshop, students will be asked to explore these dual narratives in their own work and in published works from contemporary practitioners such as Rachel Kaadzi Ghansah, Eula Biss, Richard McCann, and others. Particular attention will be paid to voice and point of view.

Speakers

Rachel Louise Snyder

Visiting Author

Rachel Louise Snyder is the author of Fugitive Denim: A Moving Story of People and Pants in the Borderless World of Global Trade; the novel What We’ve Lost is Nothing; No Visible Bruises: What We Don’t Know About Domestic Violence Can Kill Us; and the memoir Women We Buried, Women... Read More →

Wednesday June 17, 2026 9:00am - 11:30pm MDT
TBA 3844 York Street, Denver, CO 80305

Nonfiction/Memoir

Audience Advanced Workshop

9:00am MDT

Advanced Weeklong Poetry Workshop: Draft Exclusion with Paul Muldoon

Wednesday June 17, 2026 9:00am - 11:30pm MDT

TBA

The popular image of the poet is as a dasher off of poem drafts. So manic and mercurial are poets’ imaginations that not even champion typists can keep abreast of them. If there’s a problem, it’s something to which they can return in a quiet moment way down the road. The focus of this week will be to set ourselves against this popular image, to make every moment a quiet moment, to fix problems as they arise, to revise even as the poem’s vision for itself is slowly coming into being and, in the end, to cut down on a lot of unnecessary work. The key to this approach is to write the poem one line at a time, to allow one idea to lead to another, and to avoid getting ahead of ourselves. When we implement this approach, the poem is now, paradoxically, more likely to bring us to a place of genuine immediacy and vitality which had hitherto been illusory.

Speakers

Paul Muldoon

Visiting Author

Paul Muldoon is the author of a number of poetry collections, including New Weather (1973), Why Brownlee Left (1980), Quoof (1983), Meeting the British (1987), New Selected Poems: 1968-1994 (1996), Hay (1998), Moy Sand and Gravel (2002)—which won both the Pulitzer Prize and the... Read More →

Wednesday June 17, 2026 9:00am - 11:30pm MDT
TBA 3844 York Street, Denver, CO 80305

Poetry

Audience Advanced Workshop

9:00am MDT

No Genre/All Genre Generative Lab with Eileen Myles

Wednesday June 17, 2026 9:00am - 11:30pm MDT

TBA

In this weeklong seminar, poets, fiction writers, and memoirists (and even non-writers) will re-consider and even de-rail their works in progress (or write new ones) informed by some new approaches, formal constraints, good talk, and engagement with other art forms. We’ll write at least four pieces this week, taking cues from the history of poetry and prose, music, photos, and film, and we will effectively banish the lines that separate these forms of expression in order to instill our own work with the real breadth of this postmodern world. Bring a song, a problem (aesthetic or personal), or at least one significant photo, stuffed animal, flyer, something—a piece of real or artificial fruit. The goal is to create a live working environment, a studio effect, in order to generate more work and to get reinstalled or re-awakened in our writing process.

*Since this is a generative class and can accommodate a few more people, Eileen cannot meet one-on-one with each participant, but they tend to be around Lit Fest and there are ample opportunities for additional talks.

Speakers

Eileen Myles

Visiting Author

Eileen Myles the author of more than twenty books, including a “Working Life,” For Now, Evolution, Afterglow (a dog memoir), Chelsea Girls, and I Must Be Living Twice: New & Selected Poems 1974-2014. Myles’s many honors include four Lambda Literary Awards, the Clark Prize for... Read More →

Wednesday June 17, 2026 9:00am - 11:30pm MDT
TBA 3844 York Street, Denver, CO 80305

Poetry, Multi-Genre

Audience Advanced Workshop

12:00pm MDT

Lunchtime Business Panel: Marketing Before, During and After Publication—Practical Strategies for Writers

Wednesday June 17, 2026 12:00pm - 1:00pm MDT

TBA

Panelists include: Angelique Stevens, Sara Megibow (Megibow Literary Agency), Helen Masvikeni (Megibow Literary Agency), and Megan Posco (Posco Publicity).

Writers often dread marketing, but connecting with readers doesn’t have to mean losing yourself in the process. Join us for a panel of writers and agents where we will discuss practical, sustainable strategies for building a solid, authentic presence as an author and uncovering opportunities with the aim of not running yourself ragged. Participants will leave with a clear timeline of promotional tasks organized from pre-publication to launch week. Topics will include but are not limited to identifying comp titles, finding your readers, positioning yourself and your book and social media strategies.

Speakers

Megan Posco

Megan Posco is a nonfiction book publicist who founded Posco Publicity in 2022 after several years working in-house at publishers including Hachette and Harvard University Press. The books she publicizes are primarily written by journalists and academics, about issues related to criminal... Read More →

Helen Masvikeni

Agent, Megibow Literary

Helen Masvikeni brings a fresh and multifaceted perspective to the publishing world. An internationally performing musician and photographer, she has also worked extensively in theater, film, and community engagement. With a strong foundation in business and marketing, Helen has spent... Read More →

Sara Megibow

Agent

Sara Megibow is a literary agent with KT Literary out of Highlands Ranch, CO. She’s worked in publishing since 2006 and represents New York Times bestselling authors including Casey McQuiston (Red, White & Royal Blue), Jason M. Hough (The Darwin Elevator) and Rebecca Roanhorse (Race... Read More →

Angelique Stevens

Faculty

Angelique Stevens lives in Upstate New York where she teaches creative writing, literature of genocide, and race literatures. Her nonfiction has been published or is forthcoming in Granta, LitHub, The New England Review, and a number of anthologies. Her essay “Ghost Bread,” which... Read More →

Wednesday June 17, 2026 12:00pm - 1:00pm MDT
TBA 3844 York Street, Denver, CO 80305

All Genres

Audience Lunchtime Business Panels

12:00pm MDT

Lunchtime Business Panel: Marketing Before, During and After Publication—Practical Strategies for Writers (Livestream)

Wednesday June 17, 2026 12:00pm - 1:00pm MDT

Virtual

Speakers

Megan Posco

Helen Masvikeni

Agent, Megibow Literary

Sara Megibow

Agent

Angelique Stevens

Faculty

Wednesday June 17, 2026 12:00pm - 1:00pm MDT
Virtual

All Genres

Audience Lunchtime Business Panels

1:30pm MDT

Advanced Structure Lab: Break the Story Free with Dean Bakopoulos

Wednesday June 17, 2026 1:30pm - 3:30pm MDT

Lighthouse Writers Workshop

In this seminar designed for screenwriters and prose writers of all levels, we’ll use dramatic structure to help us get unstuck. Bring along a draft that’s failing or an idea that’s not finding a form, and we’ll explore the intricacies and opportunities of narrative structure. Over the course of this week, we’ll utilize a four-part system Bakopoulos developed while writing television pilot scripts (but that YOU can apply to any form of narrative writing—short stories, memoirs, novels, screenplays, TV scripts, plays etc.) to move past any literary obstructions you’re battling.

While no system is a magic potion that can take away the agonies of creation, this character-based approach to structure allows you to rethink the possibilities of your project. We'll discuss characters and their journeys towards liberation, as well as the notion of dramatic escalation, the tension between exposition and plot, the construction of compelling scenes, and the importance of unexpected dialogue and minor characters. We’ll watch scenes from great television pilot episodes and feature films as examples to illustrate these principles;we’ll also read a few passages of prose.

We’ll take part in at least one generative exercise per session; by the fifth day of the course, you will have a shiny new four-part outline that will help you successfully revise, or finally draft, a stuck project.

*Dean's weeklong seminar is two hours each day and does not include one-on-one meetings. The tuition is also adjusted (down) from the typical weeklong workshop.

Speakers

Dean Bakopoulos

Visiting Author

Dean Bakopoulos is the author of the novels Please Don't Come Back from the Moon (Houghton Mifflin Harcourt), My American Unhappiness (Houghton Mifflin Harcourt), Summerlong (Ecco/HarperCollins) and the forthcoming I Get Lonely in a Hurry. The winner of a Guggenheim Fellowship and... Read More →

Wednesday June 17, 2026 1:30pm - 3:30pm MDT
Lighthouse Writers Workshop

Dramatic Writing

Audience Advanced Workshop

1:30pm MDT

That's Cinema: Applying Screenwriting Techniques to Novel Writing

Wednesday June 17, 2026 1:30pm - 3:30pm MDT

Lighthouse Writers Workshop

In this beginner-intermediate course, we will look to film and television to help us outline and visualize our novels. My debut, Wanting, was published this summer by Tin House, and I wrote it utilizing techniques I use every day as a screenwriter. I come from the world of half-hour comedy, which means tight three-act structure, snappy act blows, and characters that change from start to finish. How can this be useful when structuring a novel? How can visualizing a scene cinematically help to bring our story to life? We will look at screenwriting forms, such as Dan Harmon’s Story Circles, while also discussing ways to subvert those forms.

Speakers

Claire Jia

Faculty

Claire Jia's debut novel Wanting (Tin House) was an NPR, Elle, Public Books and Chicago Sun-Times Best Book of 2025. Her work has appeared in The New York Times Modern Love column, The Rumpus, Reductress, and more. She writes for television and co-wrote the Peabody Award-winning video... Read More →

Wednesday June 17, 2026 1:30pm - 3:30pm MDT
Lighthouse Writers Workshop

Dramatic Writing, Multi-Genre

Audience Craft Seminar

1:30pm MDT

Critiquing the End

Wednesday June 17, 2026 1:30pm - 3:30pm MDT

Lighthouse Writers Workshop

Most workshops focus on the first part of a novel, but the ending is as important. In this critique session, we will specifically critique the last chapter of your work without requiring people to read an entire manuscript.

To participate, each student will submit a synopsis, the first page, the middle page (yes, the page in the exact middle of the manuscript), and the last chapter. Before the workshop, students will be required to read two other participants materials. You'll be taught how to evaluate an ending and guide the reader to opportunities to deepen the ending.

Speakers

Mary Robinette Kowal

Faculty

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... Read More →

Wednesday June 17, 2026 1:30pm - 3:30pm MDT
Lighthouse Writers Workshop

Fiction

Audience Craft Seminar

1:30pm MDT

How to Make Plot Your Friend

Wednesday June 17, 2026 1:30pm - 3:30pm MDT

Lighthouse Writers Workshop

Plot can feel like the enemy. You’ve got a compelling voice, a rich premise, real momentum—and then the story stalls. If this sounds familiar, you’re not alone. In this seminar, you’ll learn how to make your plot your friend—instead of feeling trapped by it. Through close readings of classic and contemporary works, we’ll break down the mechanics of rising action, pacing, consequence, suspense, and character decision-making. Whether you write fiction or nonfiction, this class will help you supercharge your plot.

Speakers

Steve Almond

Visiting Author

Wednesday June 17, 2026 1:30pm - 3:30pm MDT
Lighthouse Writers Workshop

Fiction

Audience Craft Seminar

1:30pm MDT

Memoir for the Anxious, Uncertain, or Scared Writer

Wednesday June 17, 2026 1:30pm - 3:30pm MDT

Lighthouse Writers Workshop

This craft seminar aims to demystify the process of writing a memoir. We'll talk about structure, perspective, ethical concerns, and more, including how to begin and how to continue. Let's deal with the anxiety together, and we’ll leave with the confidence and tools we need to write personal essays and memoirs!

Speakers

Beth Nguyen

Visiting Author

Wednesday June 17, 2026 1:30pm - 3:30pm MDT
Lighthouse Writers Workshop

Nonfiction/Memoir

Audience Craft Seminar

1:30pm MDT

Memoir Structure: Scene by Scene

Wednesday June 17, 2026 1:30pm - 3:30pm MDT

Lighthouse Writers Workshop

Contemporary memoirs are organized in many ways, from experimental to traditional three-act. But when it comes to structure on a page-by-page and sentence-by-sentence basis, there are some tenets most published memoirs follow. Come learn to discern the difference between sharing memories and creating a story, how to structure your memoir using scenes and transitions, how to work with causality, how and when to skip big chunks of time in a memoir, and more. We’ll look at examples from memoirs by Carmen Maria Machado, Anthony Bourdain, Daisy Hernández and more.

Speakers

Jenny Shank

Faculty

Jenny Shank's short story collection, Mixed Company, won the George Garrett Fiction Prize and the Colorado Book Award and her novel, The Ringer, won the High Plains Book Award in fiction.

Jenny's stories, essays, satire, and reviews have appeared in The Atlantic, The Washington Post, The Los Angeles Times, Prairie Schooner, Alaska Quarterly Review, Missouri Review, McSweeney's, McSweeney's Internet Tendency, Poets & Writers, Bust Magazine, The Guardian, Santa Monica... Read More →

Wednesday June 17, 2026 1:30pm - 3:30pm MDT
Lighthouse Writers Workshop

Nonfiction/Memoir

Audience Craft Seminar

1:30pm MDT

On/Off the Record: Hybrid Writing with Documents (V)

Wednesday June 17, 2026 1:30pm - 3:30pm MDT

Virtual

Hybrid writing often emerges from and recontextualizes documentary material, such as personal archives, news reports, legal documents, and scientific papers. In this seminar, we’ll explore how such sources can be transformed—and become transformative—in cross-genre writing. Through short readings and discussion, we’ll consider when and how writers can use documents to question the authority, perspectives, and legacies of received narratives. Reflective exercises will help participants identify potential topics for research, outline source materials, and imagine hybrid projects that blur the boundaries between fact, history, memory, and speculation.

Speakers

Kanika Agrawal

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 →

Wednesday June 17, 2026 1:30pm - 3:30pm MDT
Virtual

Nonfiction/Memoir, Multi-Genre

Audience Craft Seminar

1:30pm MDT

Real People, Real Problems

Wednesday June 17, 2026 1:30pm - 3:30pm MDT

Lighthouse Writers Workshop

If you write about real people, sometimes they get mad at you. Your memoir, novel, short story, essay, or poem may cause problems ranging from family tiffs to actual lawsuits. All of us wonder if it’s okay to write certain stories, and further, what to consider when publishing them. What’s off limits, and who gets to decide? What types of things should you worry about? If you write fiction, are you immune? (Short answer: no.) How can you tweak your text to safeguard your work? You’ll leave this class with practical, concrete tools to protect your writing without compromising your vision.

Speakers

Erika Krouse

Faculty

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 17, 2026 1:30pm - 3:30pm MDT
Lighthouse Writers Workshop

Nonfiction/Memoir, Publishing/Career

Audience Craft Seminar

1:30pm MDT

Making Conversation: Inviting New Voices into The Poem

Wednesday June 17, 2026 1:30pm - 3:30pm MDT

Lighthouse Writers Workshop

“The Sun woke me this morning loud
and clear, saying "Hey! I've been
trying to wake you up for fifteen
minutes.”

In Frank O’Hara’s “A True Account of Talking to the Sun at Fire Island,” the dialogue creates character, humor, tension, and meaning. How might we invite other voices into our poems as a way to open new opportunities? In this generative workshop we will read and discuss poems that make use of quotations and dialogue as counterpoints to the voice of the speaker, exploring what extra voices make possible, and using these techniques as springboards for our own work.

Speakers

Emily Perez

Faculty

Emily Pérez is the author of What Flies Want, winner of the Iowa Prize; House of Sugar, House of Stone; and two chapbooks. She is co-editor of the anthology The Long Devotion: Poets Writing Motherhood. A CantoMundo fellow and Ledbury Critic, she’s received support from Hedgebrook... Read More →

Wednesday June 17, 2026 1:30pm - 3:30pm MDT
Lighthouse Writers Workshop

Poetry

Audience Craft Seminar

1:30pm MDT

The Supple Sonnet

Wednesday June 17, 2026 1:30pm - 3:30pm MDT

Lighthouse Writers Workshop

Whether your reference point is Shakespeare or Diane Seuss, Gwendolyn Brooks or Claude
McKay, Natasha Trethewey or Tyehimba Jess or Gerard Manley Hopkins, you have heard of this poetic form. There’s a reason the sonnet has persisted and permutated over hundreds of years— it’s versatile and malleable enough to handle whatever you want to throw at it. In this craft seminar, we’ll look at sonnets old and new, rhymed and unrhymed, experimental, contrapuntal, broken, ghostly, and more, and we’ll try our hands at making one ourselves.

Speakers

Melissa Range

Visiting Author

Melissa Range is the author of Printer’s Fist, winner of the 2025 Vanderbilt Literary Prize (Vanderbilt University Press, 2026), as well as Scriptorium (Beacon Press, 2016) and Horse and Rider (Texas Tech University Press, 2010). Range is the recipient of awards and fellowships... Read More →

Wednesday June 17, 2026 1:30pm - 3:30pm MDT
Lighthouse Writers Workshop

Poetry

Audience Craft Seminar

1:30pm MDT

Designing Your Author Website with Style and Know-How (V)

Wednesday June 17, 2026 1:30pm - 3:30pm MDT

Virtual

Need an author website but don’t know where to start? This planning workshop covers everything you need to know to imagine and create an engaging, user-friendly author website. Learn how to design a polished, professional site that reflects your unique voice and supports your books, projects, research, and long-term creative presence online. You’ll also leave with key handouts to continue thinking through all the possibilities around your website as well as a 100-point checklist to make sure you’re covering all your logistical needs. Perfect for authors at any stage of their journey who want a polished and professional digital home.

Speakers

HR Hegnauer

Faculty

HR Hegnauer is a designer, writer, and creative professional specializing in book and web design for authors, independent publishers, and artists. As the owner of a design studio, HR has designed over 350 books, creating award-winning covers and interiors for both print and ebook... Read More →

Wednesday June 17, 2026 1:30pm - 3:30pm MDT
Virtual

Publishing/Career

Audience Craft Seminar

4:00pm MDT

Ticking Clocks: Managing Time in Fiction

Wednesday June 17, 2026 4:00pm - 6:00pm MDT

Lighthouse Writers Workshop

In this craft seminar, we will consider how writers use time, with particular attention to the ways writers deliberately call attention to time: interruptions, flashbacks, glimpses of the future, passages quickly carrying the reader through a stretch of many years. In the first hour of the class, we will hold a seminar style discussion of examples from published work. In the second hour, we will complete generative exercises modeled after some of the work discussed.

Speakers

Danielle Evans

Visiting Author

Wednesday June 17, 2026 4:00pm - 6:00pm MDT
Lighthouse Writers Workshop

Fiction

Audience Craft Seminar

4:00pm MDT

Writing Thrillers

Wednesday June 17, 2026 4:00pm - 6:00pm MDT

Lighthouse Writers Workshop

Learn to craft thrillers that grip readers from the first page, and develop the mindset to keep writing when you don’t feel like it. In this two-hour class, we’ll survey the psychology behind suspense: how to build pressure, raise stakes, and deliver unforgettable endings. You’ll explore emotional tension, consistent writing habits, and editing strategies that sharpen every scene. Whether you’re a debut writer or a seasoned pro, you’ll leave with practical tools to make your stories darker, tighter, and more intense.

Speakers

Carter Wilson

Faculty

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 →

Wednesday June 17, 2026 4:00pm - 6:00pm MDT
Lighthouse Writers Workshop

Fiction

Audience Craft Seminar

4:00pm MDT

Perhapsing: What To Do When We Don’t Know

Wednesday June 17, 2026 4:00pm - 6:00pm MDT

Lighthouse Writers Workshop

In the craft book Tell It Slant, Brenda Miller and Suzanne Paola ponder the question memoirists face again and again: Does nonfiction mean “no fiction”? What do we do when we don’t remember or know all the details? How do we handle the fact we are all inherently unreliable narrators? “Perhapsing” is a term coined by Lisa Knopp to describe one technique a memoirist can employ to signal to the reader that they are now speculating. We will experiment with this strategy (and others) while focusing on how to simultaneously establish and maintain intimacy and trust with the audience.

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 →

Wednesday June 17, 2026 4:00pm - 6:00pm MDT
Lighthouse Writers Workshop

Nonfiction/Memoir

Audience Craft Seminar

4:00pm MDT

Just 2 Poems (V)

Wednesday June 17, 2026 4:00pm - 6:00pm MDT

Virtual

In this class, we’ll experience the power of deep reading. Before class, you’ll be given two poems that serve as jumping off points to explore and be inspired by master poets of exceptional craft. Previous years have featured long poems by BH Fairchild, Larry Levis and Brigit Pegeen Kelly. We’ll explore both the measured unfolding of a longer poem and the lyric compression of another. Exercises, experiments, and your own poems will follow.

Speakers

Lynn Wagner

Faculty

Lynn Wagner is the author of No Blues This Raucous Song, which won the Slapering Hol Chapbook competition. She received an MFA from the University of Pittsburgh, where she won the Academy of American Poets prize. She has earned fellowships to the Virginia Center of the Creative Arts... Read More →

Wednesday June 17, 2026 4:00pm - 6:00pm MDT
Virtual

Poetry

Audience Craft Seminar

4:00pm MDT

Scaffolds and Skeletons: Crafting Strong Foundations in Poetry and Fiction

Wednesday June 17, 2026 4:00pm - 6:00pm MDT

Lighthouse Writers Workshop

Structure should never be an afterthought for poets and writers—in poetry it often is the whole point, and in story it is the spine that lets a story stand upright—in this generative seminar we will work to create the frame and foundation for your own great poems and stories (and essays). We will begin with some core architectural strategies and choices that help shape compelling work across genres: tension arcs, complications and crisis turns, scene and image sequencing, and the purposeful use of propulsive detail. Seth is an award-winning poet and fiction writer and has taught both genres for decades. This seminar will help participants build pieces that move with intention and hold their weight. Through (very) short readings, craft discussions, and hands‑on exercises, writers will experiment with scaffolds that invite discovery and revision strategies that bring clarity to the page. Suitable for all levels.

Speakers

Seth Brady Tucker

Faculty

Seth Brady Tucker is a poet and fiction writer originally from Lander, Wyoming. His first book won the 2011 Elixir Press Editor’s Poetry Prize (Mormon Boy), and was a finalist for the Colorado Book Award. His second book won the Gival Press Poetry Award (We Deserve the Gods We Ask... Read More →

Wednesday June 17, 2026 4:00pm - 6:00pm MDT
Lighthouse Writers Workshop

Poetry, Fiction

Audience Craft Seminar

4:00pm MDT

Perseverance Training: Surviving the Long Haul of Writing

Wednesday June 17, 2026 4:00pm - 6:00pm MDT

Lighthouse Writers Workshop

The novel that takes twenty years, the memoir that won’t cohere, the one hundredth agent who says no thanks, or worse, just ignores you — disappointment, doubt and fear are part of the process. Of course, so is gloriousness. In this two-hour workshop, we’ll air it all out: the anxieties, the self-sabotage, the night terrors. Together we’ll examine how other writers have pushed through fear and flagging confidence, and we’ll discuss practical strategies for surviving. Bring your doubts and worries; you’ll leave with a sturdier sense of what it takes to keep going until the work is done.

Speakers

Rachel Weaver

Faculty

Rachel Weaver is the author of the novel Point of Direction, which Oprah Magazine named a Top Ten Book to Pick Up Now and which won the 2015 Willa Cather Award for Fiction. She is on the faculty at Wilkes University’s low-residency MFA program in addition to teaching Lighthouse... Read More →

Wednesday June 17, 2026 4:00pm - 6:00pm MDT
Lighthouse Writers Workshop

Publishing/Career, Multi-Genre

Audience Craft Seminar

4:00pm MDT

Build Your Portfolio: On Longevity and Writing

Wednesday June 17, 2026 4:00pm - 6:00pm MDT

Lighthouse Writers Workshop

Some writers have been at this for decades — through life, through rejection, through the moments when the work almost didn't survive. Come hear from a panel of poets, novelists, short story writers, and memoirists about how they built a practice that lasted. What does persistence actually look like? How do you keep going when life gets loud or the business gets discouraging? Grab a drink, bring your questions, and pull up a chair.

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 →

Dino Enrique Piacentini

Faculty

Dino Enrique Piacentini grew up in Los Angeles, lived in San Francisco for twenty years, and has also, at various times, set down stakes in Houston, Oaxaca, Champaign, and Prague. His debut novel, Invasion of the Daffodils, about a Mexican-American family living on an island off the... Read More →

Amanda Rea

Faculty

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 →

Suzi Q Smith

Faculty

Suzi Q. Smith is an award-winning artist, organizer, and educator who lives in Denver, Colorado. She has created, curated, coached, and taught in Denver for over 20 years, managing the largest poetry festivals that Denver has seen to date. A TEDx speaker multiple times, Suzi has performed... Read More →

Erika Krouse

Faculty

Natalie Hodges

Faculty

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 →

Jenny Shank

Faculty

Wednesday June 17, 2026 4:00pm - 6:00pm MDT
Lighthouse Writers Workshop

Writing Process, Multi-Genre

Audience Craft Seminar

4:00pm MDT

Build Your Portfolio: On Longevity and Writing (Livestream)

Wednesday June 17, 2026 4:00pm - 6:00pm MDT

Virtual

Speakers

Natalie Hodges

Faculty

William Haywood Henderson

Faculty

Erika Krouse

Faculty

Dino Enrique Piacentini

Faculty

Amanda Rea

Faculty

Jenny Shank

Faculty

Suzi Q Smith

Faculty

Wednesday June 17, 2026 4:00pm - 6:00pm MDT
Virtual

Writing Process, Multi-Genre

Audience Craft Seminar

4:00pm MDT

Two-Day Intensive: Bridges to Elsewhere—Writing Significance in the Everyday, Working-Class Moment

Wednesday June 17, 2026 4:00pm - 7:00pm MDT

Lighthouse Writers Workshop

Analyzing moments from the films of Andrea Arnold, comics by Katrina Vogl, poems by Marie Howe and prose by Denis Johnson, Jo-Ann Beard and Lucia Berlin, as well as others, we will examine what might make the seemingly quotidian significant through a series of targeted craft exercises.

Speakers

Evanthia Bromiley

Faculty

Evanthia Bromiley is a graduate of the Warren Wilson MFA Program for Writers and the recipient of scholarships from the Aspen Institute, a Lighthouse Fellowship, a Lisel Mueller scholarship, and Elizabeth George and Carol Houck-Smith awards. She is the 2025 Grace Paley Fellow for... Read More →

Wednesday June 17, 2026 4:00pm - 7:00pm MDT
Lighthouse Writers Workshop

Fiction, Nonfiction/Memoir

Audience Two-Day Intensive

4:00pm MDT

Two-Day Intensive: Being a Romantic Poet in the 21st Century

Wednesday June 17, 2026 4:00pm - 7:00pm MDT

Virtual

How might Romanticism translate to our time? In this workshop, we'll carry its core precepts—spontaneity, accessible language, the connection between nature and human creativity, the power of individual imagination—into contemporary poetry. Drawing on Keats, Wordsworth, and Blake, we'll make our own departures into visionary lyricism.

Speakers

Elizabeth Robinson

Faculty

Elizabeth Robinson is the author of over a dozen volumes of poetry. Her most recent books are Three Novels (Omnidawn), Counterpart (Ahsahta), and Blue Heron (Center for Literary Publishing). Robinson’s mixed genre meditation, On Ghosts (Solid Objects), was a finalist for the Los... Read More →

Wednesday June 17, 2026 4:00pm - 7:00pm MDT
Virtual

Poetry

Audience Two-Day Intensive

6:00pm MDT

Portfolio Year Celebration

Wednesday June 17, 2026 6:00pm - 7:30pm MDT

TBA

Come and celebrate the hard work of the Portfolio Year graduates, hear some of their final work, and learn more about the year-long program. Location pending!

Wednesday June 17, 2026 6:00pm - 7:30pm MDT
TBA 3844 York Street, Denver, CO 80305

All Genres

Audience Event

7:00pm MDT

Writing in Color Trivia with Black People Know Things presented by Kundiman - Mountain West

Wednesday June 17, 2026 7:00pm - Thursday June 18, 2026 9:00pm MDT

Lighthouse Writers Workshop

Love trivia? Looking for new writer friends? Join Lighthouse's Writing in Color program and Kundiman - Mountain West during this year’s Lit Fest for a night of BIPOC+-centered literary trivia hosted by Black People Know Things! Open to writers of all backgrounds and identities, this event is a great opportunity for all writers to learn more about BIPOC+ culture, stories, and authors.

So don’t be shy! Bring your trivia skills and excitement to learn! Participants are welcome to bring their own team or form one the night of with newfound Lit Fest friends. We’ll have three rounds of trivia and the winning team(s) will receive prizes, including Lighthouse swag and books written by some of Lighthouse’s faculty of color.

This event is open to all with the aim of highlighting BIPOC+* culture, stories, and authors while also providing writers of color an opportunity to connect.

Writing in Color programming celebrates writers and creatives of all genres and levels, focusing on the traditions, history, triumphs, and challenges of those who identify as Black, Indigenous, or People of Color (BIPOC+). The goal of these programs is to support BIPOC+ individuals as they focus on their writing practice by creating a supportive and encouraging community. We ask that all participants be mindful of this intention; anyone who is disruptive may be asked to leave.

*BIPOC+ includes but is not limited to African, Indigenous, Native, Latinx, Asian, Pacific Islander, Arab, and Multiracial heritage.

We will have a Sober Space available on the second floor during this event. This is a welcoming, inclusive gathering place for people in all forms of recovery or anyone who wants to have a space to connect without alcohol during Lit Fest 2026. There will be snacks, NA beverages, writing prompts, and conversation starters available during this time.

For more resources and recovery meetings close to Lighthouse, you can visit: https://www.yorkstreetclub.com/Schedule

Speakers

Black People Know Things

Wednesday June 17, 2026 7:00pm - Thursday June 18, 2026 9:00pm MDT
Lighthouse Writers Workshop

All Genres

Audience Event

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