Interview With Natalie Lydick, Project Developer of LitFest In The Dena

LitFest in the Dena is a fun and free literary event running May 2nd & 3rd in Pasadena, CA. The

event includes panel, readings, workshops, and more! I’ll even be running the Twisted Fairytales: A Character Workshop (May 3rd, 1-2pm in the Penthouse). LitFest is extra special to me, as I have also been a story judge for Omega Sci-Fi Project, a short story contest designed to encourage young and aspiring writers and run by the Light Bringer Project, which is the non-profit that runs LitFest. Want the inside scoop on LitFest? I recently interviewed Natalie Lydick, Project Developer of LitFest in the Dena. She discusses how she discovered the festival, what goes into creating such an event, plus some great advice for short story writers!

I’m delighted to be part of LitFest in the Dena next month! Could you please tell my readers about this event?

LitFest has been around since 2012, initially as LitFest Pasadena, but now as LitFest in the Dena. We aim to connect 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.

Natalie Lydick, Project Developer of Light Bringer Project

As the Project Developer, what is your role in LitFest?

My role as project developer with Light Bringer Project puts me at the forefront of our free and public events, of which LitFest is just one. I also take the lead on the Pasadena Chalk Festival in June and the Pasadena Doo Dah Parade in November. My team helps me with the logistics coordination for these events, but I am the central contract for the participants. It is such a pleasure to be trusted with these important and established events in the community and to form close relationships with the people who make them what they are.

What initially drew you to be a part of LitFest?

Last spring I was looking for literary conferences and festivals in my area to attend. I found LitFest purely by happenstance and reached out to Light Bringer Project’s very own Patricia Hurley to see if they needed volunteers. They brought me on to assemble the bookseller and library panels, which really gave me a grip on the nature of the event. After two weeks, Light Bringer hired me as a project developer and I’ve been here ever since. It really is such a special organization.

This year’s theme is books that teach us about character. What does that theme mean to you and the festival?

I will not be the first or the last person to say that this country is in crisis. When we started talking about what this event would center on in December, we were still reeling from November’s election results. Current events have so much impact on literary expression and we wanted to acknowledge that. There is this wonderful reflexive relationship between people and literature– we shape the character of the written word and then literature shapes us in kind. We decided to put integrity at the forefront of our event because it’s something that is on everyone’s mind.

We had no idea how fitting this theme would prove. The character of our community has been tested in the last few months. People who love this event have proved to us over and over that one of the principal character traits of Dena, and Los Angeles more broadly, is strength.

In addition to working the festival, you are also a graduate student in English at Cal Poly Pomona with a focus in Rhetoric & Composition. How do you manage both school and the events?

Light Bringer Project, and the people who love all of our events, have been so accommodating to my schedule needs. We’re a very small organization, so people are patient when I’m not available to them 24/7. Of course, I rely on my team, Tom, Paddy, Jessica, and Valentina to deliver when I’m not in the office, and they count on me to let them know what needs doing.

I also see that you are a former slush reader for Uncharted Magazine and write speculative short fiction. Any advice for short fiction writers?

However much you think you need to be submitting stories, double, triple, quadruple it. There are so many good stories that don’t make it out of the slush pile simply because there isn’t enough space. I’ve read over 600 stories for Uncharted Magazine, and of those only 2 were accepted. As short fiction writers, we know that the market is competitive, but it bears repeating.

Find a submission manager, like the Submission Grinder, and dedicate yourself to sending your work out as broadly as possible. Don’t be disheartened by the rejections. There will be many and each one is an opportunity to submit again.

Anything else we should know about LitFest in the Dena?

Our organization doesn’t make anything from attendance or sales. The event is free, proceeds made by our vendors go directly to them, and proceeds from book sales are split between our bookseller and the authors. If you would like to support what we do, we do accept donations. We put these funds toward our programs Locavore Lit and Omega Sci-Fi Project, both of which support young writers in the greater Los Angeles area. Locavore Lit brings authors into the classroom and Omega Sci-Fi runs science fiction workshops and an annual writing contest for high school students. Our organization’s ultimate goal is to build the creative workforce of tomorrow; it starts young.

Where can we follow you and read your work?

I’m a recently reformed Twitter addict, but I’m still active on Bluesky. If you’re looking for writing updates, I keep my personal website current on publications. I’ve had work published in Worlds of Possibility, Eye to the Telescope, and Third Estate Art. Right now, I’m really excited about a zine that I put together with some friends called The Melt, a gooey collection of short fiction on the theme of ooze, sludge, gunk, goop, slop, and the like. Folks can grab a copy off of Mixam, but of course there’ll be copies at LitFest too.