lITFEST IN THE DENA
May, 2026
Established in 2012, LitFest in the Dena is a free, community literary festival best known for its focus on writers, the power of the written word, and how literature manifests change in our world, our communities and ourselves. Some books do this head-on. Some explore how we handle change. Others can unsettle and challenge us by presenting a new or unfamiliar point of view.
LitFest 2026 Theme:
BOOKS THAT CHANGED THE PUBLIC NARRATIVE
How do books shift our viewpoints? Powerful literature has reimagined what has already been established, reframed narratives that we thought we understood, and introduced new ideas that challenge the status quo.
Think of The Silent Spring and its role in sparking the environmental movement; The Jungle, which exposed labor conditions in the meatpacking industry; The New Jim Crow, which examined systemic mass incarceration; On the Road, which celebrated nonconformity and new mores; Grapes of Wrath, which foretold a day of reckoning against injustice; The Second Sex, which deconstructed gender roles – all part of a trove of revered books that became part of our national conversation.
LitFest 2026 celebrates the force of literature in turning around how we see the world and our place in it.
