Popular festival brings writers, agents, editors together
DENVER – Lighthouse Writers Workshop hosts its third annual summer Literary Festival June 6-21 in Denver. Workshops, salons, receptions and more are on tap for the popular urban gathering renowned for bringing together aspiring writers, award-winning authors, agents and book publishers. Registration is open at www.lighthousewriters.org. Space is limited and many events will sell out quickly.
The Lighthouse Literary Festival makes its home at the historic Ferril House (2123 Downing Street in Denver), but also branches out to nearby hotspots such as Forest Room 5 and The Tattered Cover in LoDo. The festival is open to both beginning and advanced writers. Writers may register for individual workshops and events or sign up for the entire festival.
Past festivals have resulted in successful agent-author and editor-author pairings, plus the workshops have helped authors hone manuscripts, book proposals, query letters, essays, stories, screenplays and more. Lighthouse Writers Workshop is gaining widespread acclaim for its work with writers. Success stories abound. Sarah Ockler workshopped portions of her forthcoming Twenty Boy Summer at the 2006 Festival. The highly anticipated young adult novel will be published in 2009 by Little, Brown. Author Gary Schanbacher shopped his short story collection and acquired a publisher at the first Literary Festival. Schanbacher’s collection, Migration Patterns, was recently named a finalist for the prestigious PEN/Hemingway Award.
“I noticed that all the other PEN/Hemingway finalists have MFAs from the best, except for one unknown guy with an MFW (Masters of Fine Workshops) from the University of Lighthouse. Pretty dang cool,” Schanbacher said.
Workshops for the 2008 Festival include weekend intensives, craft workshops, literary salons and more. From novels to short stories to poetry, from fiction to memoir to essays, there is something for everyone. In addition, literary salons offer writers an opportunity to mingle and learn more about the writing life. In anticipation of the Democratic National Convention in Denver this summer, there is a special DNC 2008 salon to discuss how writing affects politics and politics affects writing. There are also agent and editor panels scheduled to discuss the business of writing and getting published. These panels and many of the receptions will feature respected agents, editors and publishers from across the nation.
Workshops are led by award-winning faculty including Nick Arvin, whose novel Articles of War was the recent choice for the One Book, One Denver citywide reading program plus an Esquire Book of the Year; Laura Pritchett, author of the WILLA Literary Award-winning Sky Bridge; William Haywood Henderson, author of numerous novels including Augusta Locke, a finalist for the Spur, Mountains & Plains, and WILLA awards; Shari Caudron, author of the Colorado Book Award-winning Who Are You People?; Karen Palmer, Pushcart Prize-winning author of Border Dogs; and many more.
Lighthouse Writers Workshop is an independent creative writing program that has been supporting Colorado writers since 1997. With the Lit Fest, Lighthouse’s mission is to bring aspiring writers together with accomplished authors and editors to advance Denver’s literary opportunities, and to build a thriving literary community of active writers, readers, and publishers. Lighthouse Writers Workshop is a Denver-based nonprofit organization. It is the recipient of the 2007 Mayor’s Award for Excellence in the Arts.
To register for the Literary Festival or for more information visit www.lighthousewriters.org, call 303-297-1185 or send an e-mail to info@lighthousewriters.org. Brochures containing full schedules are available by mail or online.
