2026 Letters Fest spreads literary love to multiple venues, helps writers find writers

Creative writing nonprofit Lostintheletters’ 13th annual Letters Festival returns November 9 to November 14, featuring live readings, interactive writing workshops, screenings and discussions with authors from around Atlanta and the world. 

But this year, there’s a twist: Each reading will be hosted at a different venue around town.

That means that Festival organizers are highlighting local authors as well as communities and businesses with readings, workshops and writing sessions. Venues include Lucille’s erotic boutique, Gigi’s Italian Kitchen and The Marianna event space at Wrecking Bar Brewpub — as well as Lostintheletters’ headquarters. According to Lostintheletters Executive Director and Co-founder Scott Daughtridge DeMer, the goal for this year’s Festival is to expand on the kinds of literary events available in Atlanta. “We are pushing the boundaries in really fun ways for Atlanta writers and readers,” he says.

The expanded Letters Festival will bring food-focused writers such as Atlanta culinary journalist Sarra Sedghi to Gigi’s Italian Kitchen on November 11 and translating poets to The Marianna on November 14. On November 14, a “walk and write” event will lead participants through writing exercises at three different locations in Little 5 Points, teaching them to use their sensory experiences in their writing. 

The unique format of this year’s Festival also provides local businesses with an opportunity to deepen their connection to the local arts community. “I am thrilled to have a literary event here,” says Kristen Eber, owner of Lucille’s. “That just speaks to me of old literary salons, and I love it.” 

Eber met DeMer when she was in the process of building out her store, which is located just a few doors away from Lostintheletters’ bookstore and writing studio. “We talked immediately about potential collaborations that could happen in the future,” she says. 

A few months later, DeMer approached her about hosting a reading for the Letters Festival. “He knew that I wanted to do events. He brainstormed and said, ‘I think this is going to be the perfect thing,’ and I agreed,” Eber recounts, adding that DeMer chose writers who would fit in with the store’s focus on sensual pleasure and ethos of inclusivity. 

That careful planning will culminate on November 12 with readings by Danielle Pafunda (Spite, The Operating System), Genevieve Plunkett (In the Lobby of the Dream Hotel, Catapult) and locals Jay Morris and Nicole Hernandez, along with a short film.

Eber describes the partnership with Lostintheletters as mutually focused on community, explaining that Lucille’s regularly hosts workshops, discussion groups and other community-focused events. 

“We love what Lostintheletters is doing,” she says. “We love their writers, and we want to have a really holistic engagement here on the block to all support one another. So it just made sense.” 

DeMer’s enthusiasm about the writers participating in this year’s Festival mirrors Eber’s. “This lineup of writers and artists is one of the best we have presented,” he says, predicting that they will inspire attendees to write and read long after the Festival ends. 

That well-rounded lineup is the direct result of the kind of careful decision-making Eber experienced in the lead-up to the Festival. Organizers worked hard “to bring together authors who are well-established and widely celebrated with up-and-coming writers with a lot of talent and passion,” DeMer explains. 

That means writers from across the United States and abroad — such as Guggenheim Fellow and bestselling author Maurice Carlos Ruffin (The American Daughters, One World) and O. Henry Award winner Genevieve Plunkett (The Lonely Girl Vegetable Patch, The Feminist Press) — will appear alongside local heavy-hitters such as bestselling author Jessamine Chan (The School for Good Mothers, 37 Ink), PEN Open Book Award winner Justin Haynes (Ibis, The Overlook Press) and National Endowment for the Arts Fellow Ra’Niqua Lee (For What Ails You, ELJ Editions). 

More importantly, organizers might argue, those authors will be rubbing elbows with festival attendees — writers no one has heard of yet, who are just starting out or who have been scribbling away for decades. Writers, in other words, in search of other writers. 

Where and When

Letters Fest takes place November 9 to November 14 at locations around Atlanta. All events are ticketed. Schedules, tickets and event details can be found on the LostintheLetters website. 

::

Rachel Wright has a Ph.D. from Georgia State University and an MA from the University College Dublin, both in creative writing. Her work has appeared in The Stinging Fly and elsewhere. She is currently at work on a novel.