AWN November Meeting
2025-11-20 18:30 - 20:30 (America/Denver)
November 20 – Lucinda Halpern will be conducting a talk on: Get Signed: Find an Agent, Land a Book Deal, and Become a Published Author.
Lucinda Halpern is a literary agent and the founder of Lucinda Literary, based in New York. She has worked with all major publishers, including Penguin Random House, Simon & Schuster, Macmillan, Hachette, and Scholastic, and currently represents New York Times and internationally best-selling authors in the categories of business, personal growth, popular science, narrative nonfiction, memoir, and upmarket fiction.
Her classes and coaching programs have been taught to hundreds of writers worldwide, and became the inspiration for her new book Get Signed: Find an Agent, Land a Book Deal, and Become a Published Author (Hay House; February 6th, 2024).
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Launching the Line Up and Tickets for the Winter Words Speaker Series 2026
2025-12-02 10:00 - 19:00
On December 2, Aspen Words will release the official Winter Words 2026 lineup and tickets for the Winter Words Speaker Series. Tickets will be available to purchase online starting December 2.
Join us in person at the Red Brick on December 4 from 5–7 p.m. to purchase tickets.
Save the Dates!

Wednesday, January 28 | Paepcke Auditorium | 6–7 p.m.

Wednesday, February 4 | Paepcke Auditorium | 6–7 p.m.

Wednesday, February 11 | TACAW | 6–7 p.m.

The Winter Words 2026 speaker series brings celebrated writers to Aspen for moderated discussions about their work, creative process, and the stories that shape our world.
Aspen Words looks forward to sharing this memorable literary experience with you!

Winter Words Speaker Series Tickets for Sale In-Person
2025-12-04 17:00 - 19:00
On December 4, Aspen Words will be selling tickets for the Winter Words Speaker Series in person at the Red Brick Center for the Arts from 5–7 p.m.
Red Brick Center for the Arts110 E Hallam StreetAspen, CO 81611Tickets will be available at the Aspen Words office, Suite #109.
Tickets will also be available to purchase online starting December 2.
Save the Dates!

Wednesday, January 28 | Paepcke Auditorium | 6–7 p.m.

Wednesday, February 4 | Paepcke Auditorium | 6–7 p.m.

Wednesday, February 11 | TACAW | 6–7 p.m.

The Winter Words 2026 speaker series brings celebrated writers to Aspen for moderated discussions about their work, creative process, and the stories that shape our world.
Aspen Words looks forward to sharing this memorable literary experience with you!

AWN Holiday Party
2025-12-18 18:30 - 20:30
December 18 – Holiday party and book exchange
Join us for a festive and fun gathering! Choose a beloved book from your shelf to share with other members, or support a local business by visiting Alpenglow Books in Glenwood Springs (a new store!), White River Books in Carbondale, or Explore Booksellers in Aspen to purchase one. Dedicate the book with your most valuable piece of writing advice, and wrap it up to share at the exchange. Attendees will also have the opportunity to share quotes or sayings that inspired and encouraged them on their writer’s journey.
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Winter Words with Susan Orlean
2026-01-28 18:00 - 19:00 | Paepcke Auditorium, 1000 N 3rd St., Aspen, CO, 81611, United States
Bestselling author and beloved New Yorker writer Susan Orlean will discuss “Joyride,” a magic carpet ride through her life and career. The book is also a time machine to a bygone era of journalism, from Orlean’s bright start in the golden age of alt-weeklies to her career-making days working alongside icons such as Tina Brown, David Remnick, Anna Wintour and other forces who shaped the media industry as we know it today. “Joyride” is a must-read for anyone who hungers to start, build and sustain a creative life. Orlean inspires us to seek out daily inspiration and rediscover the marvels that surround us.
Moderated by Christine Benedetti
About the Author

Susan Orlean is the New York Times bestselling author of “Joyride,” “The Library Book,” “Rin Tin Tin,” “Saturday Night,” “The Orchid Thief,” which was made into the Academy Award–winning film “Adaptation,” and other books. She has been called “a national treasure” by TheWashington Post and “a latter-day Tocqueville” by The New York Times. Her deeply moving explorations of American stories both familiar and obscure have earned her a reputation as one of America’s most distinctive journalistic voices. A staff writer for The New Yorker for over 30 years and a former contributing editor at Rolling Stone and Vogue, she has been praised as “an exceptional essayist” (Publishers Weekly) and a writerwho “approaches her subjects with intense curiosity and fairness” (Bookmarks).

Winter Words with Lily King
2026-02-04 18:00 - 19:00 | Paepcke Auditorium, 1000 N 3rd St., Aspen, CO, 81611, United States
Join acclaimed author Lily King (“Writers & Lovers,” “Euphoria”) as she discusses her latest novel, “Heart the Lover,” an instant New York Times bestseller. Written with the superb wit and emotional sensitivity fans of King have come to adore, “Heart the Lover” is a deeply moving story that celebrates love, friendship and the transformative nature of forgiveness. The novel is King at her very best, affirming her as an astute chronicler of the human experience and one of the finest novelists at work today.
Moderated by Mitzi Rapkin
About the Author

Lily King is the award-winning author of six novels, including most recently, “Heart the Lover.” She has also published a collection of short stories, “Five Tuesdays in Winter.” Her 2020 novel, “Writers & Lovers,” won the New England Society Book Awards and was a New York Times Notable Book and chosen as a top-10 best book of 2020 by The Washington Post, NPR, People Magazine and The Los Angeles Times. Her 2014 novel, “Euphoria,” won the Kirkus Award, the New England Book Award and was a finalist for the National Book Critics Award. “Euphoria” was named one of the 10 Best Books of 2014 by The New York Times Book Review. It was included in TIME’s Top 10 Fiction Books of 2014, as well as on Amazon, NPR, Entertainment Weekly, Publishers Weekly and Salon’s Best Books of 2014.

Winter Words with Tara Roberts
2026-02-11 18:00 - 19:00 | TACAW, 400 Robinson St., Basalt, CO, 81621
Adventurer and storyteller Tara Roberts will discuss her searing memoir, “Written in the Waters,” which recounts her epic journey to trace the global slave trade across the Atlantic Ocean. Roberts, a National Geographic Explorer in Residence, spent years diving with and telling stories about a group of Black scuba divers searching for slave shipwrecks around the world. For fans of Cheryl Strayed’s “Wild” and Jesmyn Ward’s “Men We Reaped,” Roberts’ memoir is a powerful blend of personal and cultural history.

About the Author

Tara Roberts follows, dives with and tells stories about Black scuba divers as they search for and help document slave shipwrecks around the world. Her journey was turned into an award-winning National Geographic-produced podcast called “Into the Depths.” Tara became the first Black female explorer ever to be featured on the cover of the magazine and was named the Rolex National Geographic Explorer of the Year. Currently, Tara is an Explorer in Residence at Nat Geo. She is the author of “Written in the Waters: A Memoir of History, Home and Belonging.” Tara is also a former magazine editor and indie publisher, a nonprofit communications director and editor of several nonfiction books for girls. She calls Atlanta home but loves to hit the road. Her motto is: have suitcase, will travel.

Aspen Words Literary Prize Shortlist Announced November 13
2026-03-04 10:00 - 17:00
Aspen Words will announce the shortlist for the Aspen Words Literary Prize on March 4.
The Aspen Words Literary Prize is a $35,000 annual award for an influential work of fiction that illuminates a vital contemporary issue and demonstrates the transformative power of literature on thought and culture.
Annually, open to authors of any nationality, the award is one of the largest literary prizes in the United States, and one of the few focused exclusively on fiction with a social impact. Past winners include Mohsin Hamid (2018 for “Exit West”), Tayari Jones (2019 for “An American Marriage”), Christy Lefteri (2020 for “The Beekeeper of Aleppo”), Louise Erdrich (2021 for “The Night Watchman”), Dawnie Walton (2022 for “The Final Revival of Opal & Nev”), Jamil Jan Kochai (2023 for “The Haunting of Hajji Hotak”), Isabella Hammad (2024 for “Enter Ghost”) and Tommy Orange (2025 for “Wandering Stars”). Eligible works include novels or short story collections that address questions of violence, inequality, gender, the environment, immigration, religion, race or other social issues.
Learn more about the prize
