Aspen Literary Festival 2025
Thursday, September 26 - Saturday, September 28
The Aspen Literary Festival is a three-day celebration of books and ideas taking place in our beautiful mountain town of Aspen, Colorado. The festival features author talks and panel discussions, book signings, food trucks, parties and other attractions for book lovers. Most events are free with registration. Marquee events at the Wheeler Opera House are ticketed and require advance purchase.
Learn more about the Aspen Literary Festival.
Check out these books written by the authors who will be speaking at the Aspen Literary Festival!
Speakers at the Library
James Frey: Reinvention, Risk & the Stories We Tell Ourselves
Friday, September 26 | 12:30pm-1:30pm | Dunaway Community Meeting Room
Set in a world obsessed with image and reinvention, this provocative new novel follows the dark underbelly of a wealthy Connecticut community. This conversation explores the blurred lines between truth and fiction, the performance of identity, and what storytelling reveals about who we are and who we want to be. Learn more.
Moderated by: Alisyn Camerota
Book Signing to Follow
James Frey was called "America’s Most Notorious Author" by Time Magazine and the "Bad Boy of American Literature" by The New York Times. He has written multiple global bestsellers, including A Million Little Pieces, Bright Shiny Morning, and The Final Testament of the Holy Bible. His novel Next to Heaven is forthcoming.
Angela Flournoy: The Company We Keep
Friday, September 26 | 3:30pm-4:30pm | Dunaway Community Meeting Room
The most profound connections in a lifetime often lie in the tangled, uncertain thicket of friendship. This conversation explores how one writer navigates the ties that bind us across decades – and the unexpected paths to becoming ourselves. Learn more.
Moderated by: Gilbert Cruz
Book Signing to Follow
Angela Flournoy is the author of The Turner House, which was a finalist for the National Book Award. Her fiction has appeared in The Paris Review, and she has written for The New York Times, The New Yorker, Los Angeles Times, and elsewhere. Her new novel, The Wilderness, will be released in September. Visit her website at angelaflournoy.com.
Isabel Cañas, Patti Callahan Henry & Adriana Trigiani: The Stories We Inherit
Saturday, September 27 | 11:30am-12:30pm | Dunaway Community Meeting Room
How do we carry the stories that came before us—and what happens when we search for the ones that were buried or forgotten? In these richly researched novels, the past reaches forward, tangling with identity, creativity, and belonging. From vanished matriarchs and family secrets to ancestral homelands and haunted legacies, this conversation explores how fiction traces the invisible threads between generations—and how writing becomes its own form of excavation. Learn more.
Moderated by: Tim Ehrenberg
Book Signing to Follow
Isabel Cañas is a Mexican American speculative fiction writer. After having lived in Mexico, Scotland, Egypt, Turkey, and New York City, among other places, she has settled in the Pacific Northwest. She holds a doctorate in Near Eastern Languages and Civilizations and writes fiction inspired by her research and her heritage. More information can be found at isabelcanas.com.
Patti Callahan Henry is the award-winning and The New York Times, The Globe and Mail, and USA Today bestselling author of eighteen novels, including her newest, The Story She Left Behind. Her website is patticallahanhenry.com.
Adriana Trigiani is The New York Times bestselling author of twenty-one books of fiction and nonfiction, including The Good Left Undone, The Shoemaker's Wife and Lucia, Lucia. Listen to Adriana and the luminaries of our times discuss the books that built their souls on the You Are What You Read podcast, available everywhere.
Kristin Koval, Anika Jade Levy & Eliana Ramage: The Debut Journey
Sunday, September 28 | 11:30am-12:30pm | Dunaway Community Meeting Room
This conversation explores the challenges and triumphs of writing a debut novel. From discovering a distinctive voice to crafting a compelling narrative, our authors share their journeys from unpublished to published, and ultimately to Book of the Month selections—offering candid insights into craft, perseverance, and the moments that made it all worthwhile. Learn more.
Moderated by: Brianna Goodman
Book Signing to Follow
Kristin Koval is a former lawyer whose debut novel, Penitence, is a Barnes & Noble Discover Pick, a Book of the Month Pick, an Indie Next Pick, an Apple Books Staff Pick, an Apple Audiobooks Must Listen, a People Magazine Book of the Week, and a Goodreads Most Anticipated Pick and Hottest Debut selection. More information can be found at kristinkoval.com.
Anika Jade Levy is a writer from the Roaring Fork Valley. Her fiction and reporting has appeared in GQ, Interview Magazine, Flaunt, Nylon, and Grand. She is a founding editor of Forever Magazine and her debut novel, Flat Earth is out this fall.
Eliana Ramage holds an MFA in fiction from the Iowa Writers’ Workshop. She has received residencies and fellowships from the Kimmel Harding Nelson Center, Lambda Literary, Tin House, and Vermont Studio Center. A citizen of the Cherokee Nation, she lives in Nashville with her family. To the Moon and Back is her first novel.
In partnership with the Aspen Words.
