Event
CT Lit Fest 2025
Mark your calendar for Saturday, October 18, for the next Connecticut Literary Festival!
CT Lit Fest is a fall book festival co-presented by Real Art Ways. A literary hub under one roof, at the center of Connecticut. A day for writers, poets, teachers, students, and readers to discover and connect with new voices. Events run throughout the day. Admission is free.
The Fest takes over our five galleries for readings, talks, performances, and an interactive typewriter installation. There will be a book fair to showcase publishers, journals, writing programs, and other arts organizations. Full program, appearances, and updates are announced here.
Organizations interested in exhibiting at the book fair can follow these instructions. Space will be limited. Sponsorships are also available.
Food trucks that will be onsite are: East West Grille & Salt & Pepper Catering Food Truck
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Full Schedule
RAW CAFE
11:00-Noon: Bach Cello Suites with Zach Sears
12:00-1:00: DJ Gil Gigliotti
1:30-2:20: Reading (Monica Ong, Jacinda Townsend, Scott Frey)
2:30-3:30: DJ Gil Gigliotti
3:30-4:20: Reading (Kristin Bair, Lara Ehrlich, Sasha Hom)
4:30-5:20: Reading (Ciaran Berry, Luisa Caycedo-Kimura, Margot Schilpp)
THEATER TALKS
12:00-12:50: CT Anthology Launch Party
1:00-1:50: CT Poet Laureate Reading
2:00-2:50: Amy Bloom (conversation facilitated by Will K. Wilkins, Real Art Ways Executive Director)
4:00-4:50: Robert Dowling (conversation to be recorded live with WNPR’s Catherine Shen)
PANEL GALLERY
12:00-12:50: Enter the Zine Zone (Moderated by Rhonda Kauffman; Panelists Olivia Montoya, Alice Prael, Tyasha/Ty)
1:00-1:50: Poetic Justice (Moderated by Aimee Pozorski; Panelists Maggie Dietz, Colin D Halloran, David Sterling Brown)
3:00-3:50: The Immigrant Experience: The Struggle to Become American (Hosted by Sergio Troncoso; Guests Hirsh Sawhney, Christina Chui)
4:00-4:50: Arts Today (City of Hartford Arts, Culture, and Entertainment Director Taneisha Duggan, Hartford Stage Artistic Director, Melia Bensussen, Deborah Goffe, RAW ED Will Wilkins)
TINY READING GALLERY
12:00: Patricia Motolla
12:05: Steve Straight
12:10: Victoria Nordlund
12:15: Carol Dowd
12:20: Patrice Mcdermott
12:25: Joseph Reynolds
12:30: Nadab Rana
12:35: Aimee Pozorski
12:40: Steven Ostrowski
12:45: Makenzie Ozycz
1:00-1:50: CT High School Students (Kendyl Brooks, Maleah Hubbard, Mateo Figueroa, Alex O’Loughlin, Mikaela Thorington, Shelley Stoehr-McCarthy, Veronica DaSilva, Ellie Middlebrook, Mateo Melende)
2:00-2:50: CT Poet Laureates Showcase (Allyson McKenna, Elaine Nadal, Versatile Poetiq, Bailey Quinn, James Scrimgeour, Steve Veilleux, Sandra Yannone)
3:00: Jeff Mock
3:05: Elizabeth Gibbs
3:10: Barb Jennes
3:15: Stephanie Nash
3:20: Hannah Dang
3:25: Kiara Koten
3:30: Aram Adler-Smith
3:35: Ryan Krishna
3:40: Silas Mullins
4:00: Kathryn Fitzpatrick
4:05: Violet Scherer
4:10: Lisa Acerbo
4:15: Grace Quilliam
4:20: Callista White
4:25: Jack Reynolds
4:30: Scott Aaron
4:35: Giovanni Mason-Brookes
4:40: Luna Love
4:45: Jason Sabetta
5:00-6:00: Open mic (Sign up with the gallery curator. 5 min slots until 6pm)
TYPEWRITER GALLERY
A link between the past and present through an interactive installation. This is your chance to pick a table and write-poetry, prose, or grocery lists. When you’re done, hang it on the wall. If you’re stuck, the “Prompt Pond” is available with ideas to get you started.
BOOKFAIR
Black Lawrence Press, The Yale Review, Grayson Books, Long River Review, CT Council of Poet Laureates, Woodhall Press, WCSU (MFA in Creative & Professional Writing), Willimantic Records, Authors Against Book Bans, Mary Collins, Story Exchange, The Vernacular, The Helix, ECSU (Creative Writing Club)
ZINE ZONE
With the help of Zinesters, create your very own zine!
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This event is made possible with generosity and support from: CT Humanities’ CT Center for the Book, Yale Writers’ Workshop, and Central Connecticut State University, Friends and Enemies of Wallace Stevens.
River Bend Bookshop will be onsite selling books by all confirmed authors.
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Donations
To readers, writers, artists, and literary enthusiasts of Connecticut and beyond: We invite you to support the CT Lit Fest and to grow our state’s literary community. Your generous donation will not only help us to provide the best possible showcase for our state’s writers, thinkers, and presses, but it will also allow us to keep the festival accessible to all with free admission.
Your donation is essential to our success. If you choose to make your tax-deductible donation anonymously, your name and giving amount will be kept private. Thank you.
Donate to the CT Lit Fest
