Queer Creatives Guide to Lit Fest 2024
To celebrate diverse voices at Lit Fest this year, our Community Engagement team has compiled Writing in Color, and Queer Creatives guides to Lit Fest. Our goal with these guides is to both spotlight Lit Fest workshops and events led by faculty that identify as BIPOC+ and/or part of the LGBTQIA+ community and to encourage Lit Fest attendees who share these identities to feel comfortable in a workshop, especially if it's their first time attending Lit Fest or a Lighthouse event.
Below you'll find the complete Queer Creatives guide to Lit Fest 2024, including workshops and readings from LGBTQIA+ writers like William Haywood Henderson, Alyse Knorr, and Poupeh Missaghi. Choose intensives, seminars, and events á la carte or sign up for one of our festival passes for the full experience.
TWO-DAY INTENSIVES
JUNE 8-9
- The Unreliable Narrator—A Range of Reasons
Sarah Elizabeth Schantz, 9:00 AM to 12:00 PM MST
- Modulation—Your Voice and How to Use It (V)
William Haywood Henderson, 1:00 to 4:00 PM
JUNE 12-13
- The Memory Palace—The Atlas and Architecture of Creative Nonfiction
Sarah Elizabeth Schantz, 4:00 to 7:00 PM
CRAFT SEMINARS
FRIDAY, JUNE 7
MORNING SESSION (9:00 TO 11:00 AM MDT)
- To Meander, Spiral, Explode
Sarah Elizabeth Schantz
- Narrative Strategy in Fiction and Memoir
William Haywood Henderson
AFTERNOON SESSION (1:30 TO 3:30 PM MDT)
- The Exquisite is in the Details
Sarah Elizabeth Schantz
SATURDAY, JUNE 8
MORNING SESSION (9:00 TO 11:00 AM MDT)
- Borrowing from the Greats: What Can Writers Learn from Other Artists?
Dino Enrique Piacentini
AFTERNOON SESSION (1:30 TO 3:30 PM MDT)
- Desire and Power
Dino Enrique Piacentini
SUNDAY, JUNE 9
AFTERNOON SESSION (1:30 TO 3:30 PM MDT)
- Milieu: The World of Your Story
Dino Enrique Piacentini
MONDAY, JUNE 10
EARLY EVENING SESSION (4:00 TO 6:00 PM MDT)
- The Art of Description, in person and livestreamed
Mark Doty
TUESDAY, JUNE 11
AFTERNOON SESSION (1:30 TO 3:30 PM MDT)
- Everything But Plot: Building Suspense on the Line Level, in person and livestreamed
T Kira Māhealani Madden
WEDNESDAY, JUNE 12
AFTERNOON SESSION (1:30 TO 3:30 PM MDT)
- Get Out of Your Own Way (V)
Alyse Knorr
EARLY EVENING SESSION (4:00 TO 6:00 PM MDT)
- Psychoanalysis and Literature
Poupeh Missaghi
THURSDAY, JUNE 13
AFTERNOON SESSION (1:30 TO 3:30 PM MDT)
- Writing Desire and Sexuality
Poupeh Missaghi
- The Art of the Line Break (V)
Alyse Knorr
EARLY EVENING SESSION (4:00 TO 6:00 PM MDT)
- The "I" Club: How to Write Using a Thrilling First Person (V)
Javier Sinay
- Experimental Prose
Poupeh Missaghi
FRIDAY, JUNE 14
AFTERNOON SESSION (1:30 TO 3:30 PM MDT)
- Collaborative Writing
Poupeh Missaghi
- Mining Memories (V)
Alyse Knorr
BUSINESS PANELS (12:00 to 1:00 PM)
TUESDAY, JUNE 11
Literary Journals—The Inside Scoop, in person and livestreamed
EVENTS
SATURDAY, JUNE 8
Queer Creatives Brunch, 10:00 to 11:30 AM
TUESDAY, JUNE 11
Visiting Authors Reading with T Kira Māhealani Madden, Claire Messud, and Rowan Ricardo Phillips, in person and livestreamed, 7:00 to 8:15 PM
WEDNESDAY, JUNE 12
Visiting Authors Reading with Dean Bakopoulos, Mark Doty, Maurice Carlos Ruffin, Amitava Kumar, in person and livestreamed, 7:00 to 8:15 PM
*This list may or may not be comprehensive as each writer approaches identity—and whether or not to share that publicly—on an individual basis. Please feel free to contact us with changes or would like to be added to the list!
