Lit Fest - Lighthouse Writers Workshop 2026: Full Schedule

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1:30pm MDT

That's Cinema: Applying Screenwriting Techniques to Novel Writing

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

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

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 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

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 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

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 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 →