Below, you'll find a complete Nonfiction Writer's guide to Lit Fest 2024. Choose intensives, seminars, and events á la carte, or sign up for one of our festival passes for the full experience. A note on class format: courses marked “Virtual” are held entirely via Zoom. All participants and the instructor will be attending virtually. Virtual courses are fully participatory. Courses marked “Livestream” will be available virtually as an option, but there will be many attendees in person, and the instructor will be lecturing in person. Participation is more limited in this format, though moderators will do their best to relay questions from the chat.
*Strike-through workshops are sold out! For up-to-date info on what classes/events still have space, check out the Lit Fest Cheat Sheet '24.
Two-Day Intensives
June 8-9th, 9:00 AM -12:00 PM MST
TWO-DAY INTENSIVE: BUILDING A MEMOIR
John Cotter
How can we build memoirs that accommodate the messiness of life—the uncertainty, guesses, and missed chances—in composed and legible shapes?
June 8-9th, 9:00 AM -12:00 PM MST
TWO-DAY INTENSIVE: FUNNY PERSONAL ESSAYS
Elissa Bassist
Why do you laugh when you read? Because you relate? Because you’re surprised? Because life is an absurd farce? In this two-day intensive, we’ll discuss the many ways to make a reader laugh and how to turn an anecdote into an essay that’s funny and publishable.
June 8-9th, 1:00 -4:00 PM MST
TWO-DAY INTENSIVE: MODULATION—YOUR VOICE AND HOW TO USE IT (V)
William Haywood Henderson
Your literary voice is like a fingerprint, individual to you alone—it has grown from what you’ve lived, what you’ve read, how you understand the world, and how you hope to shape the world on the page. In this intensive, we’ll steal from excellent examples, add layers and new tricks to your voice, and learn how to modulate your voice for pacing, mood, variety, and complexity
June 8-9th, 1:00 -4:00 PM MST
TWO-DAY INTENSIVE: ENTRYWAY INTO SPECULATIVE NONFICTION
Anna Qu
Metaphor, speculation, and imaginative play can enliven your writing, help you examine your values, fascinations, imaginings, and capture the slippery quality of the individual writer’s passage through time and the sometimes surreal quality of existence
June 8-9th, 1:00 -4:00 PM MST
TWO-DAY INTENSIVE: TWO-DAY STORY/ESSAY
Erika Krouse
Ready, set, write! In this generative intensive, we’ll write a short story or essay over two days. Using targeted exercises and a few insider tricks, we’ll work on particular elements of short stories/essays (both traditional or nontraditional) to form new characters, settings, story arcs, dialogue, action, interiority, and more!
June 10-11th, 4:00-7:00 PM MST
Two-Day Intensive: Deep Revision—Using the Revision Process to Fall in Love with Your Work Again (V)
Lauren Markham
It's easy to get stuck on a draft and not know where to go next—or even to despair that there's nowhere else to go. Revision, though, can be less of a dutiful task and more of an alchemical process of discovery that helps us bring our writing back to life and ourselves along with it.
June 12-13th, 4:00-7:00 PM MST
TWO-DAY INTENSIVE: THE UNRELIABLE NARRATOR—A RANGE OF REASONS
Sarah Elizabeth Schantz
We'll explore the benefits of drawing maps and blueprints to re-inhabit the places our creative nonfiction recaptures. We'll use this process to create prompts to generate new writing and to locate points of re-entry for revision (“renovations”).
Craft Seminars, Business Panels, and Evening Events
Friday, June 7
Morning Session (9:00-11:00 AM MST)
-
CULTURALLY EXPANSIVE APPROACHES TO PLOT AND STORY STRUCTURE with Angie Chuang
- NARRATIVE STRATEGY IN FICTION AND MEMOIR with Willian Haywood Henderson
- TAPPING INTO YOUR WEIRDNESS (V) with Alexander Lumans
- FICTION FOR NONFICTION WRITERS with Andrew Hernandez
- TO MEANDER, SPIRAL, EXPLODE with Sarah Elizabeth Schantz
- HEY, I CAN BE FUN! REAPPROACHING THE NONFICTION BOOK PROPOSAL with Megan Nix
- RESEARCH AS WRITERLY PRACTICE: NONFICTION WRITING FROM INQUIRY AND FACT (V) with Lauren Markham
Lunchtime Session (12:00-1:00 PM MST)
- LUNCHTIME BUSINESS PANEL: AGENTS 101 with Paige Terlip, Mira Landry, Rebecca Shaevitz, Renée Jarvis, Shana Kelly
- LUNCHTIME BUSINESS PANEL: AGENTS 101 (Livestream) with Paige Terlip, Mira Landry, Rebecca Shaevitz, Renée Jarvis, Shana Kelly
Afternoon Session (1:30-3:30 PM MST)
- THE EXQUISITE IS IN THE DETAILS with Sarah Elizabeth Schantz
Early Evening Session (4:00-6:00 PM MST)
- STEALING FROM SUSPENSE with Tiffany Quay Tyson
- HOPEFUL MONSTERSwith Alexandra Kleeman
- HOPEFUL MONSTERS(LIVE STREAM)with Alexandra Kleeman
- INSIDE OUT: TURNING LIFE INTO COMPELLING NONFICTION with Sloane Crosley
- THE ART OF SPECULATION with Teow Lim Goh
Saturday, June 8
Morning Session (9:00-11:00 AM MST)
- CLOCKING IN: HOW TO WRITE ABOUT JOBS (V) with Alexander Lumans
- WRITING THE MINORITIZED EXPERIENCE (V) with Natalie Hodges
Lunchtime Session (12:00-1:00 PM MST)
- LUNCHTIME BUSINESS PANEL: DEBUTS with Elizabeth DeMeo, Joel H. Morris, Gina DeMillo Wagner, Minda Honey, Christine Lai
- LUNCHTIME BUSINESS PANEL: DEBUTS (LIVESTREAM) with Elizabeth DeMeo, Joel H. Morris, Gina DeMillo Wagner, Minda Honey, Christine Lai
Afternoon Session (1:30-3:30 PM MST)
- SHARPENING YOUR SENTENCES with John Cotter
Early Evening Session (4:00-6:00 PM MST)
- SWITCHING GEARS, JUMPING GENRES with Nazli Koca
- HYSTERICAL: A VOICE FINDING SEMINAR with Elissa Bassist
Evening Session (7:00-8:00 PM MST)
- VISITING AUTHORS READING WITH JANE HIRSHFIELD, VANESSA HUA, ALEXANDRA KLEEMAN, AND SLOANE CROSLEY
- VISITING AUTHORS READING WITH JANE HIRSHFIELD, VANESSA HUA, ALEXANDRA KLEEMAN, AND SLOANE CROSLEY (LIVESTREAM)
Sunday, June 9
Morning Session (9:00 AM-11:00 PM MST)
- HOMING IN: UNCOVERING THE ARC YOUR MEMOIR (V) with Karen Auvinen
Lunchtime Session (12:00-1:00 PM MST)
- LUNCHTIME BUSINESS PANEL: CONTESTS, RESIDENCIES, AND MORE—WAYS TO GET OUT THERE with Angie Chuang, Jenny Shank, Radha Marcum, Jenee Skinner
- LUNCHTIME BUSINESS PANEL: CONTESTS, RESIDENCIES, AND MORE—WAYS TO GET OUT THERE (LIVESTREAM)) with Angie Chuang, Jenny Shank, Radha Marcum, Jenee Skinner
Afternoon Session(1:30-3:30 MST)
- MILIEU: THE WORLD OF YOUR STORY with Dino Enrique Piacentini
- BIRTH OF STYLE with John Cotter
- THE LAUNDRY LINE (V) with Natalie Hodges
Monday, June 10
Lunchtime Session (12:00-1:00 PM MST)
- LUNCHTIME BUSINESS PANEL: SELLING YOUR BOOK—THE QUERY LETTER, ELEVATOR PITCH, AND MORE with Marin Takikawa, Abby Walters, Elissa Bassist, Anna Qu, Sarah Gerard, Jan Thomas
- LUNCHTIME BUSINESS PANEL: SELLING YOUR BOOK—THE QUERY LETTER, ELEVATOR PITCH, AND MORE (LIVESTREAM) with Marin Takikawa, Abby Walters, Elissa Bassist, Anna Qu, Sarah Gerard, Jan Thomas
Afternoon Session (1:30-3:30 PM MST)
- FUNNY IS THE NEW DEEP: HOW TO HARNESS YOUR COMIC IMPULSE with Steve Almond
- SUBVERTING EXPECTATIONS with Paula Younger
- GETTING THE KIDS IN with Daniel Levine
- BAD TO THE BONE: WRITING VILLAINS AND NEFARIOUS CHARACTERS with Erika Krouse
- SYMBOLISM AND METAPHOR: THEY AREN'T JUST FOR FICTION (V) with Angelique Stevens
Early Evening Session (4:00-6:00 PM MST)
- FAULT LINES with Paula Younger
- TIME TRAVEL: WRITING FLASHBACK AND BACKSTORY with Erika Krouse
- TACKLING THE “S” WORD: WRITING YOUR BOOK’S SYNOPSIS with Cynthia Swanson
- LIT FEST FELLOWS READING
Tuesday, June 11
Morning Session (9:00-11:00 AM MST)
- WHAT A MOMENT HOLDS: ESSAYS THAT CAPTURE A SPARK (V) with Ellen Blum Barish
Lunch Time (12:00-1:00 PM MST)
- LUNCHTIME BUSINESS PANEL: LITERARY JOURNALS—THE INSIDE SCOOP—The Inside Scoop with Angela Flores, Allison Wright, Alexander Lumans, Jenny Wortman, Dino Enrique Piacentini, Harrison Fletcher
- LUNCHTIME BUSINESS PANEL: LITERARY JOURNALS—THE INSIDE SCOOP (LIVESTREAM) with Angela Flores, Allison Wright, Alexander Lumans, Jenny Wortman, Dino Enrique Piacentini, Harrison Fletcher
Afternoon Session (1:30-3:30 PM MST)
- EVERYTHING BUT PLOT: BUILDING SUSPENSE ON THE LINE LEVEL with T Kira Māhealani Madden
- EVERYTHING BUT PLOT: BUILDING SUSPENSE ON THE LINE LEVEL (LIVESTREAM) with T Kira Māhealani Madden
- THE MESSY MIDDLE with Erika Krouse
- NATURE WRITING with Amitava Kumar
- LONG NIGHT'S JOURNEY INTO DAY: WRITING ABOUT SERIOUS ILLNESS (V) with Caryn Mirriam-Goldberg
- HOW TO WRITE A BOOK PROPOSAL with Steve Knopper
Early Evening Session (4:00-6:00 PM MST)
- IN THESE FLEETING MOMENTS: BUILDING DRAMATIC TENSION with R. Alan Brooks
- IN OTHER WORDS: NARRATIVE STYLES with Erika Krouse
- GETTING TO THE FINISH LINE with Cynthia Swanson
- MEMOIR FOR THE ANXIOUS, UNCERTAIN, OR SCARED WRITER with Beth Nguyen
- ROMANCE YOUR LIFE (V) with Minda Honey
Evening Session (7:00-8:15 PM MST)
- VISITING AUTHORS READING WITH T KIRA MĀHEALANI MADDEN, CLAIRE MESSUD, AND ROWAN RICARDO PHILLIPS
- VISITING AUTHORS READING WITH T KIRA MĀHEALANI MADDEN, CLAIRE MESSUD, AND ROWAN RICARDO PHILLIPS (LIVESTREAM)
Wednesday, June 12
Morning Session (9:00-11:00 AM MST)
- HAIKU AS MINDFULNESS PRACTICE (V) with Ladane Nasseri
Lunchtime Session (12:00-1:00 PM MST)
- LUNCHTIME BUSINESS PANEL: STATE OF THE INDUSTRY with Raluca Albu • Kayla Lightner, Amy Bishop-Wycisk, Danielle Bukowski, Dean Bakopoulos, Shana Kelly
- LUNCHTIME BUSINESS PANEL: STATE OF THE INDUSTRY (LIVESTREAM) with Raluca Albu, Kayla Lightner, Amy Bishop-Wycisk, Danielle Bukowski, Dean Bakopoulos, Shana Kelly
Afternoon Session (1:30-3:30 PM MST)
- DEATH AND LIFE with Andrew Hernandez
- HOW TO MAKE PLOT YOUR FRIEND with Steve Almond
- HIGH BEFORE THE LOW with Paula Younger
- ON DEFAMILIARIZATION: A LESSON IN 10 SENTENCES with Jenny Offill
- ON DEFAMILIARIZATION: A LESSON IN 10 SENTENCES (LIVESTREAM) with Jenny Offill
- I'LL FOLLOW YOU INTO THE DARK: LETTING THE UNKNOWN DRIVE YOUR PERSONAL NARRATIVE with Gina DeMillo Wagner
- WHEN LIFE DOESN'T LIVE UP TO THE HYPE: WRINGING ESSAYS FROM DISAPPOINTMENT (V) with Minda Honey
- MEMORY FOG: GETTING LOST IN ORDER TO WRITE AND REMEMBER with Juan J. Morales
Early Evening Session (4:00-6:00 MST)
- DEEPER CHARACTER DESCRIPTIONS with Paula Younger
- PSYCHOANALYSIS AND LITERATURE with Poupeh Missaghi
- ABCS AND 123S: MAKING THE PERSONAL MATTER (LIVESTREAM) with Emily Rapp Black
- ABCS AND 123S: MAKING THE PERSONAL MATTER (LIVESTREAM)with Emily Rapp Black
- THE CRAFT OF INTERVIEWING with Steve Knopper
- TRUTH OR DARE: WRITING FAMILY STORIES (V) with Karen Auvinen
- MUSICAL STORY HOUR
Evening Session (7:00-8:15 PM MST)
- VISITING AUTHORS READING WITH DEAN BAKOPOULOS, MARK DOTY, MAURICE CARLOS RUFFIN, AMITAVA KUMAR
- VISITING AUTHORS READING WITH DEAN BAKOPOULOS, MARK DOTY, MAURICE CARLOS RUFFIN, AMITAVA KUMAR
Thursday, June 13
Morning Session (9:00-11:00 AM MST)
- ART OF CREATIVE RESEARCH (V) with Ladane Nasseri
Lunchtime Session (12:00-1:00 PM MST)
- LUNCHTIME BUSINESS PANEL: ONLINE LANDSCAPE FOR WRITERS with Simone Stolzoff. Mitzi Rapkin, Robbie Crouch, Courtney Maum, Erika Wurth, R. Alan Brooks
- LUNCHTIME BUSINESS PANEL: ONLINE LANDSCAPE FOR WRITERS (LIVESTREAM) with Simone Stolzoff, Mitzi Rapkin, Robbie Crouch, Courtney Maum, Erika Wurth, R. Alan Brooks
Afternoon Session (1:30-3:30 PM MST)
- CHARACTERIZATION THROUGH CONTRAST with Danielle Evans
- CHARACTERIZATION THROUGH CONTRAST (LIVESTREAM) with Danielle Evans
- HOW TO SURVIVE WRITER'S BLOCK with Steve Almond
- REVISING FOR SOCIAL CHANGE (V) with Angelique Stevens
- COLLAGING THE DRAFT with Nazli Koca
- WRITING DESIRE AND SEXUALITY with Poupeh Missaghi
Early Evening Session (4:00-6:00 PM MST)
- THE DEVIL MADE ME DO IT: USING FOLKTALE FORMS TO STRUCTURE YOUR WRITING with Jenny Shank
- EXPERIMENTAL PROSE with Poupeh Missaghi
- THE "I" CLUB: HOW TO WRITE USING A THRILLING FIRST PERSON (V) with Javier Sinay
Evening Session (7:00-8:15 PM MST)
- VISITING AUTHORS READING WITH STEVE ALMOND, EMILY RAPP BLACK, DANIELLE EVANS, AND BETH NGUYEN
- VISITING AUTHORS READING WITH STEVE ALMOND, EMILY RAPP BLACK, DANIELLE EVANS, AND BETH NGUYEN (LIVESTREAM)
Friday, June 14
Morning Session (9:00-11:00 AM MST)
-
LETTERS TO A STRANGER (V) with Alexander Lumans
Lunch Time (12:00-1:00 PM MST)
- LUNCHTIME BUSINESS PANEL: PERFECT PAIRING with Sandra Bond, Shelley Read, Sarah Bowlin, Wendy Chen, Shana Kelly
- LUNCHTIME BUSINESS PANEL: PERFECT PAIRING (LIVESTREAM) with Sandra Bond, Shelley Read, Sarah Bowlin, Wendy Chen, Shana Kelly
Afternoon Session (1:30-3:30 PM MST)
- COLLABORATIVE WRITING with Poupeh Missaghi
- EVOKING OUR HAUNTS: ON PERSONS, PLACES, AND FINDING VOICE with Hillary Leftwich
- MINING MEMORIES (V)) with Alyse Knorr
- YOUR FIRST PAGE: AUTHENTICITY, VULNERABILITY, AND VOICE with Kase Johnstun
