As a nonfiction writer, you like to stick to the facts. Here’s a fun one: Lit Fest has a lot to offer memoirists, journalists, and everything in between.
Check out a few of the classes and events we’ve selected below, including intensives and craft seminars with visiting authors like Emily Rapp Black, Charles D’Ambrosio, and Rachel Cusk.
Want to do more than just nonfiction? We’ve got you covered there too. Browse our guides for poets, fiction writers, screenwriters, and YA/MG writers. (And you can see all of our Lit Fest offerings here.)
Two-Weekend Intensives
(June 2-3 and June 9-10)
- Plot Structure Clinic: The Hero or Antihero’s Journey with Erika Krouse
- Your Voice and Vision with William Haywood Henderson
- The Big Edit with Eleanor Brown
One-Weekend Intensives
- Order to the Madness with Kali Fajardo-Anstine (June 2-3)
- Reading as a Writer: Pale Fire with David J. Rothman (June 2-3)
- Three-Act Structure for Prose Writers with Ben Loory (June 9-10)
- Scrivener 3.0 with Mark Springer (June 9-10)
Suggested Craft Seminars
To browse all of our Lit Fest craft seminars, click here.
June 2
- Rage is a Red Lesson: How to Turn Anger into Charged Prose with Steve Almond
June 3
- How to Write Riveting Scenes with Steve Almond
June 4
- How to Create a Charismatic Narrator with Lydia Millet
June 5
- How to Pay Attention with Jenny Offill
- How to Write a Compelling First Paragraph with Jessica Thummel
June 6
- Explanation vs. Reflection with Emily Rapp Black
- Fuel Your Writing Practice with Wendy Fox
June 7
- What Does Philosophy Have to Do With It? with Emily Rapp Black
- Fault Lines with Paula Younger
June 9
- Experimental Fiction, The Internet, and You with Charles Bock
- The Spoken Role with Charles Bock
June 10
- Jumpstart Your Memoir with Shari Caudron
- Transcending the Maze: On Writing Endings with Ben Loory
June 11
- Writing with Intent with Lisa Donovan
- How Poetry Can Energize Your Writing Life with Benjamin Alire Sáenz
June 12
- Power Play: Subjectivity and the Writing Process with Rachel Cusk
- Hybrid Writing: Between Borders with Diana Khoi Nguyen
- Off the Beaten Track: Generating New Ideas for Creative Nonfiction with Vicki Lindner
June 13
- On Persona: Never to be Yourself and Yet Always with Charles D’Ambrosio
- Plot Workout with Victoria Hanley
- On Keeping a Notebook with Brandi Homan
June 14
- Writing a Great Nonfiction Book Proposal with Buzzy Jackson
- Playing with Story Shapes with Paula Younger
- Demons and Angels: Why We Don’t Write—And Why We Do with Mario Acevedo
June 15
- Difficult Personas with Teow Lim Goh
- Historical Nonfiction 101 with Joel Warner
- Let Me Tell You: Exposition and Backstory with Mario Acevedo
Brown-Bag Business Panels
You can register for brown-bag business panels individually, or a Business Panel Pass will get you into all of them.
- Book to Film: What Authors Need to Know—June 2
- Needle in the Hay: Finding a Literary Agent—June 4
- The Case for Indie Publishing—June 5
- How to Debut—June 6
- Editors Tell All—June 7
- Writers Who Hustle—June 8
- Social Media Survival for Writers—June 11
- Quit Your Day Job—June 12
- Query Letter Clinic—June 13
- Future Trends in Publishing—June 14
- Launching a Literary Career: Lessons from the Book Project—June 15
Salons
Every salon includes drinks and a catered dinner.
- Good Art, Bad People—June 2
- Writing in a Ruptured World—June 4
- The Other Half of the Story—June 5
- It Takes Two: The Art of Literary Partnership—June 7
- I Married a Writer—June 9
- Conventional vs. Unconventional Smackdown—June 11
- Genre Jumpers: A Path to Literary Breakthrough—June 12
- Just Add Aliens: How to Learn from Bad Advice—June 14
VISITING AUTHOR READINGS
Our two visiting author readings are free and open to the public. We'll have drinks available, and food trucks will be on site.
- Week 1: Featuring Min Jin Lee, Emily Rapp Black, Jenny Offill, Lydia Millet, CAConrad, and Halley Feiffer
- Week 2: Featuring Rachel Cusk, Terrance Hayes, Maggie Shipstead, Robin Black, Charles D'Ambrosio, and Benjamin Alire Sáenz.
