Note: Annalise Grueter is a member of the Aspen Writers Network and participated in an Aspen Summer Words juried workshop this past June.
Literature came alive in Aspen the last weekend of September. Tents full of books, artwork, readers and writers decorated the lawn of the Red Brick Center for the Arts. The main tent featured a coffee bar; chandeliers of letters, books and stars; a lounge area for reading and conversation; and a meet-and-greet area where famous authors were signing books and answering questions. Attendees could purchase totes, hats and more emblazoned with cheeky phrases like “Get Lit in Aspen” and “Reading high.”
This autumn fair was a small piece of the inaugural Aspen Literature Festival, hosted by Aspen Words and the Book of the Month Club. The three and a half days of the gathering brought around 40 authors, multiple artists, podcasters and even book-world influencers to the Valley for 30 free events around Aspen and five marquee talks at the Wheeler Opera House. It attracted over 1,500 registered attendees.
As an avid reader and aspiring writer, I was cautiously optimistic when the festival was announced in March. This year has seen a surge of new arts and culture events in the Roaring Fork Valley to complement long-standing features like Aspen Ideas Festival and Carbondale Mountain Fair. I wondered just how big this literature event would be. By mid-September, Aspen Lit Fest was shaping up to be a big deal, luring home Aspen-raised novelist Maria Semple (“Where’d You Go, Bernadette?”) among other best-selling names.
I wasn’t able to attend as many of the events as I would have liked. Sept. 26 to 28 had talks and festivities scheduled from 9am into evening, but two of my day jobs took precedence Friday and Saturday. I got to catch several hours of the fair on Friday afternoon. It was cheering to watch attendees exploring quieter parts of Aspen on foot, witness other local authors sell copies of their work at the Aspen Writers Network table and see avid readers meet their favorite authors or discover new-to-them books.
Even more striking was the festival’s closing event on Sunday afternoon, a talk with writers Tayari Jones and Nathan Hill titled “Love and Marriage in Contemporary America.” Moderated by podcaster Tim Ehrenberg (Tim Talks Books) of Nantucket, Massachusetts, the conversation went beyond relationships in writing, exploring notions of perspective, worldview, regional culture and writing practice.
Jones and Hill shared different preferences for central conflict in writing relationships. Jones told Ehrenberg and the audience that she is especially interested in love stories with characters from “different sides of the tracks;” she finds the cultural clashes amidst attraction and affection dynamic and captivating. For Hill, his favorite romantic tension has less to do with external context and more with characters’ ideas of love. One of his favorite books, he shared, is Virginia Woolf’s “Clarissa Dalloway” because the characters have entirely different notions of what love looks like.
Both authors detailed their interest in bringing back more regional literature. “I’m very committed to writing about my hometown,” Jones said. “Atlanta for Black people is considered a kind of promised land in the South where people can do anything.” In “An American Marriage,” she explored how characters’ perceptions of Atlanta shift through experiences.
Hill shared a similar notion about his 2023 novel, “Wellness.”
“It’s such a Wicker Park, Chicago story. Wicker Park is a cauldron of change.” Hill detailed his love for the neighborhood and the layers of time and culture it holds. He referenced ancient Greek chronos and kairos concepts of time, with kairos being dimensional and qualitative rather than linear. “Walking through Wicker Park is an experience of kairos time and so many layers.”
Toward the end of the conversation, both authors shared advice on writing. Hill cautioned the audience to write from the heart, not for ambition. “Don’t write because you want to be able to call yourself a writer or because you’re chasing accolades or trying to impress anyone,” he said, noting that he only started finding success when he stopped taking that approach and instead embraced his personal style. Jones discussed how she prefers teaching and coaching adults to young writers, because adults usually have more lived experience for inspiration. She also set the theater laughing with her vivid description of how to make progress on work. “You write the same way you gain weight. People gain weight one cupcake at a time.”
Jones has a new novel, “Kin,” slated for release in March. Hill is just starting a new project, a novel set in Florida, which he said offers considerable inspiration. After moderator Ehrenberg asked the audience whether there’s a designated Aspen novel, I’m just one of many who are continuing to work on projects that may eventually fit that description. And I’m looking forward to seeing what’s to come in Aspen Literary Festival’s second chapter next year.