Lit Fest is a multi-day celebration of writers and readers, bringing people from all over the world to Denver every June for this literary conference. If you are seeking financial assistance to participate in Lit Fest, there are three types of fellowships available: the Lit Fest Fellowship for Emerging Writers, the Veterans Writing Award, and the LARRK Fellowship for writers with physical disabilities.
What’s Included?
All fellowships cover the full cost of tuition for an advanced weeklong or weekend workshop for the winners.
Eligibility
- Lit Fest Fellowship for Emerging Writers: This opportunity is available to advanced writers of fiction, poetry, and creative nonfiction who haven’t yet published a book-length work and who wouldn’t otherwise be able to afford a weeklong or weekend workshop. Three fellowships will be awarded; runners-up and finalists also receive partial awards.
- Veterans Writing Award: This opportunity is available to a combat veteran, thanks to funds donated by Prevent & Prevail. Two fellowships will be awarded.
- LARRK Fellowship for writers with physical disabilities: While we recognize that disability can be defined in many ways, for this fellowship, and the funder’s requirements, we refer to the Americans with Disabilities Act, which defines a physical (visible or invisible) disability as a physical impairment that substantially limits one or more major life activities, having a history or record of such an impairment, or being perceived by others as having such an impairment.
- Lighthouse staff, faculty, and board members are not eligible to apply.
Timeline
Applications for all fellowships will open in January and close in March.
Judges
Applications will be scored by multiple panelists and finalists, runners up, and winners will be selected by a rotating panel of respected authors. Meet the judges for 2026 and some of our previous years.
Past Fellows
Lit Fest fellowships have been around for over ten years. Meet some of the writers who received the fellowships this year.
Apply
You will be asked to answer a few questions via Submittable as part of your Lit Fest advanced workshop application.