Lit Fest - Lighthouse Writers Workshop 2026

Stories need villains and brutes, scoundrels and jerks, creeps and lowlifes. Collectively, let’s call them assholes. They create conflict, suspense, and intrigue. They’re often the most interesting characters in a story. But writers are, generally, nice people. How do we put ourselves into the mind of the asshole? How do we give them their humanity without denying their depravity? Let’s explore how to be an asshole (on the page) by exploring their mindset and ways to write it without becoming one ourselves. This will be a discussion-based class with examples by the masters and directed exercises.

What the heck is lens? It’s merely a vital element of craft utilized on every line of every page of your writing. It helps you find meaning in detail, action, vision, and it allows space for subtext. Why is the sofa in your scene gold? If you don’t know, then it’s time to learn how lens works. In this class we’ll read great examples of lens (actually, any page of good writing can show us), and we’ll work through exercises to sharpen your own.

Drawing inspiration from maps—real and imagined—in this generative workshop we’ll explore how to unlock memories, create worlds, and discover details we may not have thought of otherwise. We’ll consider recent and ancient cartographic maps but also search for what’s revealed in the often unmapped, such as radio waves permeating the air, light cast by street lights or wind chimes in a neighborhood. We’ll discuss how authors create narratives for prose and poems on the concept of maps and write from prompts based on maps we create (no artistry needed) and those we study.