In Polarized Times, Pasadena Literary Festival Turns to Books That Build Character

As the Pasadena community navigates the aftermath of November’s divisive presidential election and recovers from recent wildfires, LitFest in the Dena returns May 2-3 with a timely theme: “Books That Teach Us About Character,” bringing together 150 authors to explore how literature shapes moral values and community resilience.

The free two-day event, held at Pasadena Presbyterian Church, represents a deliberate response to current political tensions and community challenges.

“We decided to put integrity at the forefront of our event because it’s something that is on everyone’s mind,” said Natalie Lydick, Project Development at Light Bringer Project, the nonprofit organization that presents the festival.

This year’s venue change from Mountain View Mausoleum to Pasadena Presbyterian Church was necessitated by ongoing fire recovery efforts in the region. The festival will feature special programming addressing the wildfires, including panels on “Poetry as Memory and Collective Processing” and “Unsinged by Flames: Dena Students Unite.”

“The character of our community has been tested in the last few months,” Lydick said. “People who love this event have proved to us over and over that one of the principal character traits of Dena, and Los Angeles more broadly, is strength.”

The festival’s programming spans genres and formats, with notable panels including “When Good People Write Bad People” featuring acclaimed LA writers Janet Fitch, Diana Wagman, Gary Phillips, and David L. Ulin. Other sessions include “Odd and Othered: Queer Speculative Fiction” with Miles McKenna, Ryka Aoki, Madeleine Nakamura, and John Bryant; and “Creating Comics Characters That Jump Off The Page.”

Lydick emphasized the reciprocal relationship between readers and literature that underpins the festival’s theme.

“There is this wonderful reflexive relationship between people and literature – we shape the character of the written word and then literature shapes us in kind,” she said.

LitFest in the Dena has evolved significantly since its founding in 2012 by novelist Jervey Tervalon and the late food critic Jonathan Gold. Today, it stands as Southern California’s most diverse literary festival, with events running from 6 to 9:30 p.m. on Friday, May 2, and 10 a.m. to 5:30 p.m. on Saturday, May 3.

The festival is part of Light Bringer Project’s broader mission, which includes Locavore Lit, bringing authors into classrooms, and the Omega Sci-Fi Project, offering science fiction workshops for high school students.

“When we work closely with each other and bear witness to the ways that people around us continue to do good work or even flourish in hard times, it gives us an idea of how we can all contribute to the common good,” Lydick said.

The organizers hope the festival will inspire ongoing engagement with literature as essential for collective wellbeing, particularly during politically divisive times.

“In our dream world, this event will not just inspire folks to continue reading and writing, but show them how important it is for our collective well being,” Lydick said.

For more information about LitFest in the Dena, visit http://litfestinthedena.org/.