Below you'll find the complete guide to everything virtual at Lit Fest 2023, curated specifically for the online audience so you can find exactly the right fit for you. 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.
Two-Day Intensives
June 10-11
In Memoriam: Poetry and Grief (Virtual)
Toby Altman, 9:00am - 12:00pm
This course will introduce writers to one of the most important poetic genres: the elegy. We'll explore some famous, canonical examples of the genre, like John Milton's "Lycidas," to get a sense of how it has traditionally worked—and what its shortcomings are. And we'll study contemporary poets who rework the elegy: making the old form new again—and newly relevant to the griefs of the present, from the AIDS crisis to Black Lives Matter.
June 14-15
Outsider Poets (Virtual)
Elizabeth Robinson, 4:00 - 7:00pm
We’ll use outsider poets as inspiration—John Clare, Jean Toomer, Besmilr Brigham, and dg nanouk okpik—to draw inspiration from poets working outside conventional educational, cultural, or stylistic norms. Using poems by these authors, we’ll claim permission for creative rule-breaking of all sorts! All levels of experience are welcome in this generative study and writing intensive.
Craft Seminars
Friday, June 9
Morning Session (9:00 to 11:00 AM MDT)
- Rediscovering Our Forgotten Tongues (Virtual)
Oso Guardiola - The Stranger Self (Livestream)
Leslie Jamison
Afternoon Session (1:30 to 3:30 PM MDT)
- The Laundry Line (Virtual)
Natalie Hodges
Saturday, June 10
Morning Session (9:00 to 11:00 AM MDT)
- The Nonfiction Query Letter (Virtual)
Natalie Hodges - Acting for Writers (Virtual)
Raeann Giles - Making Words Flesh: How Objects Accumulate Meaning in Fiction (Virtual)
Oso Guardiola
Afternoon Session (1:30 to 3:30 PM MDT)
Early Evening Session (4:00 to 6:00 PM MDT)
- Exploring the Various Schools of Prose Poetry (Virtual)
Jose Hernandez Diaz
Sunday, June 11
Morning Session (9:00 to 11:00 AM MDT)
- Intro to Screenwriting (Virtual)
Raeann Giles
Afternoon Session (1:30 to 3:30 PM MDT)
- Sounds and Visions: How We Work Together (Virtual)
Maw Shein Win - Openings and Omens (Virtual)
Oso Guardiola
Monday, June 12
Early Evening Session (4:00 to 6:00 PM)
- Seeing It Again: The Agonizing Necessity of Revision (Livestream)
Andre Dubus III - Living in the Layers: Mindfulness and Writing (Virtual)
Caryn Mirriam-Goldberg
Tuesday, June 13
Afternoon Session (1:30 to 3:30 PM MDT)
- Persona and the Poem (Virtual)
Elizabeth Robinson
Early Evening Session (4:00 to 6:00 PM MDT)
- Exploring Surreal Prose Poetry Through Generative Prompts (Virtual)
Jose Hernandez Diaz - Poetry is For the Birds (Virtual)
Caryn Mirriam-Goldberg - The Origins of the Original (Livestream)
Rebecca Makkai
Wednesday, June 14
Afternoon Session (1:30 to 3:30 PM MDT)
- Minding the Gap: On Memory, Bias, and the Blind Spot (Virtual)
Angelique Stevens - Interiority Complex (Livestream)
Rebecca Makkai - Your Visual Poetics (Virtual)
Cindy Juyoung Ok
Early Evening Session (4:00 to 6:00 PM MDT)
- Insects and Poetic Inspiration (Virtual)
Jodie Hollander - Ask Me Anything: Sheila Heti and Rachel Kushner in Conversation (Livestream)
Sheila Heti, Rachel Kushner - Ekphrastic In Fiction (Virtual)
Chip Livingston
Thursday, June 15
Morning Session (9:00 to 11:00 AM MDT)
- Get Out Of Your Own Way (Virtual)
Alyse Knorr
Afternoon Session (1:30 to 3:30 PM MDT)
- Crash Course to Hybrid Writing (Virtual)
Alyse Knorr - Writing the Workplace (Livestream)
Katie Kitamura - Writing Place (Virtual)
Ellen Blum Barish
Early Evening Session (4:00 to 6:00 PM MDT)
- Mining Memories (Virtual)
Alyse Knorr - Writing In Response (Virtual)
Cindy Juyoung Ok - Writing About Race and Identity in Children's/YA (Virtual)
Rachel Werner
Friday, June 16
Afternoon Session (1:30 to 3:30 PM MDT)
- Significant Detail: Making Meaning (Livestream)
Claire Messud - The Essay In Ten Types (Virtual)
Ellen Blum Barish - List Poems (Virtual)
Elizabeth Robinson
