2025 in Review
It was a great year for
Third Lantern Lit.
With your help, TLL succeeded in its mission to lower the barrier of entry into the publishing and writing communities through the creation of free and low-cost events geared toward writers at every step of their journey.
TLL seeks to provide platforms for peer-to-peer learning, support, and resource-sharing, and we are delighted that our cowriting spaces, community programming, and collective education workshops–free and open to anyone who wishes to attend–have served to bolster and support our New Orleans literary community in 2025.
Third Lantern Lit events served over
1400 unique attendees in 2025!
TLL hosted 70 FREE events in 2025,
thanks to the generous support of local authors, organizations, and businesses.
These included:
ONE annual all-day retreat (our fourth!) in partnership with Tulane University’s A Studio in the Woods
FOUR quarterly five-hour writing marathons generously hosted by Twelve Mile Limit
TWENTY-FOUR generative writing meetups–one day and one night per month–generously hosted by Miel Brewery & Taproom and Sports Drink Cafe
THIRTY-FOUR workshops and panel sessions generously hosted by or in partnership with:
THANK YOU
to all of the incredible artists and professionals who gave their invaluable time and experience to our loyal community of writers.
We are so grateful for each of you.
TLL’s 2025 educational workshops focused on both craft and industry topics.
writing a query letter
finding your feedback group
landing an agent
learning plot through children’s books
immersive worldbuilding for science fiction and fantasy
how to outline a novel
activism through journalism
writing flash fiction
finding your voice for creative non-fiction
how to work with agents and editors
how to find local distribution to bookstores and libraries for self-published works
Additionally, TLL organized a number of special events geared towards creating a sustainable writing practice, including an in-person launch event for Jami Attenberg’s 1000 Words of Summer, as well as our online/Discord micro-fiction challenges, Lit-Tober and Rejection Party (an online celebration of submitting your work).
Page to Stage
The largest addition to TLL’s considerable educational programming in 2025 was the launch of Page to Stage, our new, quarterly, three-step workshop series consisting of a generative event, a revisions event, and a public reading workshop.
Led by TLL’s own Director of Community Outreach, Daphne Armbruster, the series focused on a different theme for each quarter in 2025—Period/ Historical fiction, Fantasy and Fairytales, Science Fiction, and Horror—and culminated in a live reading for an audience.
For many of these readers, it was their first time performing in front of a live audience and we were so glad to be able to give them this opportunity.
Thanks to our partnerships and the hard work of our volunteers and board members, the live readings were streamed on our social media accounts and featured over 28 local writers reading new, unpublished works to a growing online audience.
2025’s Page to Stage programming was generously presented by Beanlandia and Big Couch New Orleans,
and in partnership with
The Tennessee Williams & New Orleans Literary Festival.
Listen Up
To learn more about Page to Stage (and our other programming), check out TLL’s own Director of Community Outreach, Daphne Armbruster, in an interview with NPR.
Thanks to our 2025 donors
The Board of Directors is pleased to announce that Third Lantern Lit’s bank account is in the black, allowing us to continue with another year of quality programming in 2026.
Most of our funding was achieved via two major campaigns:
We launched our first GiveNOLA campaign last spring and raised $1729.32 in donations from many members of our writing community.
Thanks to each and every one of you who contributed.
And, in December 2025, TLL held its third annual benefit–Bohemian Ball–generously hosted by BK Historic House and Gardens in the French Quarter. It was our largest gala to date, featuring readings by local authors Allison Alsup, Adrian Van Young, Bryan Camp, Annell Lopez, E.M.Tran, and Maurice Carlos Ruffin. Guests enjoyed specialty craft cocktails in theme with the Bohemian Ball, a tarot reader, hearty finger foods, and an exciting raffle featuring prize packages from local vendors and artists.
The Bohemian Ball silent auction was made possible through the generosity of many local vendors and businesses including:
Take a peek inside
2025’s Bohemian Ball
Thanks, again, to our New Orleans writing community.
With your help, we were able to accomplish SO MUCH in 2025.
Here’s to continued growth and more exciting programming in 2026!
We look forward to writing with you!