LitFest in the Dena Expands 2025 Program with Focus on Character and Wildfire Response

LitFest in the Dena 2025 will bring together approximately 150 diverse authors and thousands of attendees on Friday, May 2nd and Saturday, May 3rd at the Pasadena Presbyterian Church in Playhouse Village, 585 E. Colorado Blvd, Pasadena.

This year’s free-of-charge literary festival runs from 6-9:30 p.m. on Friday and 10 a.m.-5:30 p.m. on Saturday, exploring the theme “Books That Teach Us About Character,” examining how literary characters help readers stay true to their own values while featuring special programming focused on the recent Eaton and Palisades wildfires.

“Last year, approximately 150 diverse authors and several thousand attendees gathered to discuss books that changed the world, their communities and their lives,” said event organizers in their announcement. “This year’s festival theme Books That Teach Us About Character will look at how literary characters help us stay true to our own values.”

The expanded 2025 program welcomes actor and activist Miles McKenna to lead the panel “Odd and Othered: Queer Speculative Stories” alongside writers Ryak Aoki, Madeleine Nakamura, and John Bryant. Their discussion will explore why queer creators are drawn to speculative fiction and the challenges they face in their respective genres.

Several poetry events will address the impact of recent wildfires, including “Poetry as Memory and Collective Processing” featuring Lisa Eve Cheby, Carla Sameth, Noriko Nakada, Hazel Kight Whitham, and Romaine Washington. The Pasadena Rose Poets, including Gerda Govine Ituarte and Kate Gale, will also discuss the fires’ impact. Altadena Poets Laureate will “Celebrate the Dena,” while youth voices will be featured in “Unsinged by Flames: Dena Students Unite,” a response to the crisis by students of the Pasadena Unified School District Think Tank. In a panel and performance, Russell Mark and Mika Larson of The Nextdoors will process post-fire feelings in “Grief and Healing Through Music and Song.”

Multiple panels will explore the festival’s character theme, including “When Good People Write Bad People” with authors Diana Wagman, Janet Fitch, Gary Phillips, and David L. Ullin. Other panels include “Pasadena As a Character” with writers Daniel Olivas, Naomi Hirahara, Chip Jacobs, and Justin Chapman, and “Character Imploded: Falling From Grace” featuring Thomas Backer, Ph.D., Scott O’Connor, Aaron Philip Clark, and Victoria Patterson.

Unique experiences at this year’s festival include “Tea & Fiction,” where Eugene Cordell and Stefanie Warner of Authoress Cafe will team up with William Loving and Ellen Snortland to pair tea flavors with literature. Daryl Gussin of Razorcake will lead a special Zine Workshop where participants will create their own zine. Notes and Letters members Bill Cushing and Chuck Corbisero will perform music and poetry and then open the floor in “Take the Mic, Show Your Character.”

Additional programming includes “That Adult Crash: Poetry & Punk” featuring Daryl Gussin, Chris Terry, Priyanka Voruganti, and Spice Lioness. Comics writers Jordan Morris, Yehudi Mercado, Sara Phoebe Miller, and Elliot Kalan will discuss “Creating Comics Characters that Jump Off the Page,” while Red Hen Press will guide attendees through the publishing process in “From Manuscript to the Shelf.”

Special workshops include Brandie June’s “Twisted Fairytales,” guiding the audience to create their own fairytale retellings, and Jennifer Chen’s “YA Writing Workshop,” focusing on the YA market and writing techniques.

The event will feature food trucks, tea samples, and a pop-up bookstore. LitFest in the Dena acknowledges its partners and sponsors, including Red Hen Press, Omega Sci-Fi Project, Locavore Lit, Flintridge Books, and host site Pasadena Presbyterian Church.

For the complete schedule of events, visit www.litfestinthedena.org/schedule.