Now that 5280, The Jet Hotel, and the good folks at Unbridled Books, Ghost Road Press, Fulcrum Publishing, Writers House, and Frederick Hill/Bonnie Nadell are all signed on for our urban lit fest, we're thinking it's the real deal.
Visiting agent Elise Proulx gets props for her client Gary Amdahl in the current Poets & Writers. Her agency, if you don't know, is completely unafraid of things literary or commercial, boasting clients like David Foster Wallace and Richard North Patterson in the same breath. Another visiting agent, Daniel Lazar of Writers House, gives this nice interview on a romance web site (don't worry non-romance writers: He takes on everything from literary fiction to humorous nonfiction). He'll be leading 10-12 lucky souls through a critique of their query letter and first ten pages, which constitute the writer's only chance to bewitch an agent (or editor, or finicky reader, which yours truly tends to be on a bad day).
Leading up to the agent and editor extravaganza will be the important (read: less attended) workshops on craft. Some of Denver's heavy hitting authors, like Nick Arvin, Shari Caudron, Kathryn Winograd, and William Haywood Henderson (whose book, Augusta Locke, just hit the local bestseller list!), will be coaching writers of all levels through starting new novels or screenplays, new nonfiction projects, and finishing stories or poems.Throughout the week we'll feature entertaining and thought-inducing (watch out!) craft talks and salons, such as "Art and Violence" (Or, "Is That a Gun in Your Pocket or Just Your Bic?" ©) with Denver Poet Laureate Chris Ransick and renegade filmmaker Alexandre Philippe, each of whom have differing perspectives on, for example, Quentin Tarrantino. Just for example.
Also, we partner with the people in the know, such as the vaunted DPL librarian Joe Cahn, who will lead writers through the vortex of the old-school library system (as well as new online resources) and challenge everyone to "Stump the librarian," followed up with a workshop by Henderson, who will help writers discover their uncharted finesse in slipping said research into beautifully crafted creative works.So block out July 14-29 on your blackberry, and collect all doctor's notes in advance so that you can fully immerse yourself in the urban literary cyclone that is our first annual lit fest.
--AD
