LitFest in the Dena 2026

Basic Event Info:
May 1st, Friday, 6:00 - 9:00pm
May 2nd, Saturday, 10:00am - 5:30pm
Pasadena Presbyterian Church
585 E. Colorado Blvd. Pasadena, CA 91101
Always Free!
https://www.litfestinthedena.org/

The Festival:
Founded in 2012, LitFest in the Dena connects the Pasadena, Altadena, and greater Los Angeles communities with literature and local authors through this free, community literary festival for lovers of the written word. LitFest events include panel discussions, readings, author guest talks, workshops, and literary performances that engage, challenge, and inspire. Southern California’s most diverse literary festival, LitFest in the Dena is writer-driven and deeply representative of Los Angeles County’s communities, celebrating our diversity, and featuring programming for all literary interests. LitFest in the Dena is presented by the nonprofit organization Light Bringer Project and the literary journal Locavore Lit LA.

2026 Theme: Books That Changed the 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.

Also check out other Arts events in Pasadena, Literary Art events in Pasadena, Festivals in Pasadena.