Our Get Lit series is moving - both day and location!

Join our monthly Get Lit group to hang out with your writing community and do some sprinting!

If you’ve never done writing sprints before, there’s only one rule: get as many words on the page as you can before 20 minutes are up. We’ll run three writing sprints—one full hour.

So come to our Get Lit with your work in progress and leave with words on the page!

This event is FREE and open to all writers. No RSVP necessary.

It’s spring, it’s festin’ season, the weather is warming up, and the sun is staying out! We’re hosting a happy hour to celebrate and hang out with our fellow writers.

So join us at the Domino for drinks and good company. It’ll be low key, laid back, and a lot of fun.

This event is FREE and open to all writers. No RSVP necessary.

Over the past few months, many of our writers have expressed interest in starting or joining feedback groups.

We know how difficult it can be to find people who vibe with your writing and can give the feedback you need to make your work the best it can be.

To help you find feedback partners and critique circles, we're hosting an event just for that. So if you've been looking for beta readers, we've got you!

Every writer will get a chance to tell us what you write and what feedback you’re looking for. Should you choose, you can also read a page of your writing. From there, we'll hang out and get to know each other more.

You'll be able to have deeper conversations with people you think will be a good match, share information, and coordinate your first feedback exchange.

This event is free and open to all writers. No RSVP necessary.

Join our monthly Get Lit group at The Domino to hang out with your writing community and do some sprinting!

If you’ve never done writing sprints before, there’s only one rule: get as many words on the page as you can before 20 minutes are up. We’ll run three writing sprints—one full hour.

So come to our Get Lit with your work in progress, and we can guarantee you’ll leave with words on the page!

This event is FREE and open to all writers. No RSVP necessary.

Calling all humorists, satirists, and anyone who wants to add wit and levity to their prose!

When was the last time you laughed when reading a novel or piece of creative non-fiction? Comedy is a skill. Making readers laugh when all you have is words on a page is an art form.

In our last event of March, we’re hosting a panel of local comedians who will teach us how to translate the tenets of comedy into our prose. Comedians Mike Yoder and Andy Ledford will answer questions such as:

• Does society have trends in comedy?

• What is true of comedy across all mediums?

• What only works well in one medium versus another?

• How can writers successfully translate comedy into their prose?

This event is free and open to all writers. No RSVP necessary.

A workshop led by Marguerite Sheffer.

The submission process for publishing short fiction is daunting and often obfuscated to new writers. Marguerite Sheffer, a prolific and award-winning short fiction writer (and a Third Lantern Lit founder!), is demystifying short fiction publication for emerging and published writers alike.

In this workshop, Marguerite will cover:

• Researching publications

• The query letter

• The submission process

• Tracking responses

If you’ve ever had a question about the submission process or need a crash course in how to take your short story off your hard drive and to the public, join us on Saturday March 16th.

This event is free and open to all writers. No RSVP necessary.

About Marguerite

Marguerite (Maggie) Sheffer is a writer who lives in New Orleans. She is a Professor of Practice at Tulane University, where she teaches courses in design thinking and speculative fiction as tools for social change. Maggie is a founding member of Third Lantern Lit and the Nautilus and Wildcat Writing Groups. She received her MFA from Randolph College. She was a 2023 Veasna So Scholar in Fiction at The Adroit Journal, and was selected as a top-twenty-five finalist for Glimmer Train's Short Story Award for New Writers. Her debut short story collection, The Man in the Banana Trees, was selected for the Iowa Short Fiction Award, and will be published in Fall 2024.

Her position on semicolons (for) is noted in an Australian grammar textbook (pg 16).

Join our monthly Get Lit group at The Domino to hang out with your writing community and do some sprinting!

If you’ve never done writing sprints before, there’s only one rule: get as many words on the page as you can before 20 minutes are up. We’ll run three writing sprints—one full hour.

So come to our Get Lit with your work in progress, and we can guarantee you’ll leave with words on the page!

This event is FREE and open to all writers. No RSVP necessary.

In partnership with Twelve Mile Limit, we are hosting a FIVE HOUR writing marathon open to all local writers.

Be there at noon to spend some time with your fellow writers and grab a coffee at the bar. At 12:30, we’ll start our silent writing. We’ll have one more 30 minute break halfway through to stretch our legs and some time at the end to share our experience. For those who make it all the way through, stay and celebrate with a drink at the bar!

This is a generative writing event meant to give us busy writers a few hours of focus free of our daily obligations. We hope you’ll join us and give yourself the writing time you deserve!

This event is free and open to all local writers. No RSVP necessary.

A Blue Cypress Books Event

Join us Thursday, January 25th at 6 pm for a Write-Along with Jami Attenberg & Katy Simpson Smith in celebration of the release of 1000 Words: A Writer’s Guide to Staying Creative, Focused, and Productive All Year Round!

Learn from and write-along with two of our favorite authors. Bring your notebook (or laptop) and join us for this unique event.

This is a ticketed event. General admission is $10 and you will receive a $5 voucher toward any purchase made the night of the event.

Blue Cypress Books has partnered with us to give our members a discount. Use the code ThirdLanternLit at checkout for 10% off your ticket.

Join us Monday, January 22nd at 6 pm for an evening with Third Lantern Treasurer Danny Cherry Jr. to celebrate the release of his book, Pike Boys. 

This event is free and open to the public.

It’s 1920 New Orleans and Jesse Pike is slowly ascending the New Orleans upper-class social scene. He’s the owner of the most popular brothel in the entire city, and rubs shoulders with businessmen, corrupt politicians, and stage stars alike. He’s also the leader of a violent street gang that pulled off the biggest heist of liquor since the beginning of prohibition. Jesse sets up a scheme to sell the booze, and use the profits to help him start a legitimate business. However, several obstacles get in his way: Clyde, the mentally disturbed oldest Pike sibling, is released from prison and takes issue with how Jesse runs things; Jesse’s aging mentor refuses to let him leave behind crime; and an overzealous young DA decides to reopen an investigation into liquor heist to increase his chances of being elected mayor. Jesse is forced to make a decision: does he walk away from a life of crime and his family forever? Or will he continue down the road of violence that has begun to erode his psyche, much as it has Clyde’s?

“The Pike Boys” has all the thrills, plot twists, and quick pace of conventional gangster fiction, with the heart, depth, and nuance of a literary novel. In between the shootouts, violence, and debauchery, there is the overarching question of “can people actually change?” The reader will see that the answer is not so simple–especially when you live in a place like New Orleans.

By day, Danny Cherry Jr. is a Customer Service Representative and caffeine-addled office-drone with an MBA. But by night, he writes political and personal essays; novels; narrative nonfiction; and short stories. He has written for Buzzfeed News, Politico, The Daily Beast, and more; and fiction for Apex Magazine, Fiyah Lit Mag, amongst others. His story “Brief Life Story of Lila” (published originally by Fiyah Lit Mag and reprinted by Apex Magazine) was added to the Locus Magazine recommended reading list for 2022, as well as the BEST AMERICAN SCI-FI & FANTASY 2023 notable stories list.

Follow him on social media @ Twitter (X), TikTok, Instagram, and BlueSky @ DeeCherryWriter, and subscribe to his (very infrequent) newsletter @ bigeasypress.substack.com to keep up with his short-form work, as well as get updates on his books, and book promotions!

Our first Get Lit of the year is a very special event. For one event only, it will be a true competition. The winner of our writing sprints will receive a free ticket to Tennessee Williams Festival’s Writer’s Resolutions Virtual Retreat, valued at $250.

If you’ve never done writing sprints before, there’s only one rule: get as many words on the page as you can before 20 minutes are up. We’ll run three writing sprints—one full hour—and whoever has the most words written by the end of the sprints wins!

So come to our Get Lit with your work in progress, and we can guarantee you’ll leave with words on the page!

This event is FREE and open to all writers. No RSVP necessary.

Third Lantern Lit is hosting our inaugural fundraising benefit! We invite members of the New Orleans community to celebrate the growing literary community in this city.

Going into 2024 and beyond we aim to expand our programming, and the funds raised at this benefit will go a long way in achieving that goal.

Come dressed as your favorite literary character.

Where: Courtyard Brewery
When: Thursday, December 7 • 6:30PM – 9:30PM

• Door prizes

• Hors d’ourves

• Cocktail bar

• Readings from community members

• Mingling & fun

Readings by

Maurice Carlos Ruffin
Alex Jennings
Lelia Gowland
Lauren Wethers

General Ticket: $15

Star Ticket: $25

• 2 cocktail tickets

VIP Ticket: $75

• 5 cocktail tickets

• 10 door prize tickets

About us

Third Lantern Lit is a non-profit that lowers the barrier to entry into the writing and publishing industry for artists in the Greater New Orleans Area through free or at-cost community gatherings, workshops, retreats, and educational events. Our events are geared towards writers at every step of their journey, from beginners to seasoned professionals. We support and fortify our local literary community through free and low-cost peer-to-peer learning.

In partnership with Twelve Mile Limit, we are hosting a FIVE HOUR writing marathon open to all local writers.

Whether you’re participating in NANO or just want a day of focused writing, we’re getting words down. From noon to 5pm, we will be running 20-minute writing sprints with small breaks every hour.

And once we’re done, stay a while and grab yourself a hard-earned drink from the bar.

This event is free and open to all local writers. No RSVP necessary.

Come to the Domino with your work in progress or just your notebook and leave with words on the page. We have prompts available for those who want to be surprised. We’ll hang out, run some sprints, and if you stick around after the event you can catch some local music on the Domino’s stage.

This event is FREE and open to all writers. No RSVP necessary.

A roundtable led by Danny Cherry Jr.

Narrative nonfiction is an artform that combines rigorous research and exploration of a real life event with fiction writing techniques. It’s an artform that relies on the writer having the ability to take what could be a bland headline and cull forth the fantastical elements of it in a way that is relevant, riveting, and revelatory.

In this roundtable, Danny Cherry, Jr. will talk writers through his process by breaking down one of his narrative nonfiction stories, Mark Essex: The fires we ignore. We encourage you to read the essay ahead of the roundtable to best participate.

He’ll answer questions about researching, outlining, finding ideas, or whatever else participants have for him. There will also be free flowing conversation about the topic.

About Danny

Danny writes political and personal essays; op-eds; novels; narrative nonfiction; and short stories. His debut novel, Pike Boys, is releasing January 22, 2024 and available for pre-order now.

His short story, Brief Life Story of Lila (published originally by Fiyah Lit Mag) was added to the Locus Magazine recommended reading list for 2023, as well as the BEST AMERICAN SCI-FI & FANTASY 2023 notable stories list.

Non-fiction publications: Buzzfeed News, Politico, The Daily Beast, Truly*Adventurous, Transformation Magazine, Ploughshares, & Antigravity Magazine.

Fiction: X- ray Lit Mag, Fiyah Lit Mag, Apex Magazine, and Hexagon Magazine.

Come to the Domino with your work in progress or just your notebook and leave with words on the page. We have prompts available for those who want to be surprised. We’ll hang out, run some sprints, and if you stick around after the event you can catch some local music on the Domino’s stage.

This event is FREE and open to all writers. No RSVP necessary.

A generative food writing workshop for fiction and nonfiction writers.

Great food writing utilizes sensory details to convey touch/smell/sensation/ambience, as well as personal emotion while avoiding cliche. Fiction and food writer Sophie Nau will lead our workshop and teach us how to use food to the fullest in our stories.

Fiction and nonfiction writers can use this workshop for whatever project they might be working on: maybe to expand a scene, to think about details like taste and touch, or to dive into place or culture.

This is a generative workshop, so you will leave with pieces of writing to expand on or use in your projects.

• We will start with reading excerpts from writers who use vivid food imagery in their work such as MFK Fischer, Jonathan Gold, and Anya von Bremzen.

• Then, we will dive into the craft.

• Finally, Sophie will guide us through prompts that draw from your personal food memory that you can construct into scenes or vignettes, paying particular attention to the details, emotions, and experiences surrounding food.

Blue Cypress Books is generously hosting us and will provide refreshments on a pay-what-you-can model. This event is FREE and open to all writers.

About Sophie

Sophie Nau is a fiction and food writer from Los Angeles. She is a contributing writer for Country Roads and Edible Los Angeles, and her essay “I Carry My Weight in Groceries” was nominated for a Pushcart Prize in 2021. Her time spent baking pastries and pouring wine in restaurants in L.A., New York, and New Orleans continues to influence her writing and fascination with food culture and women at work. She’s a graduate from NYU and the University of New Orleans. 

How you frame your story impacts every part of it. A story idea may be uninspiring in one frame and come alive in another.

So what is a story frame? What decisions go into making your frame? What tools can you use in your own writing to determine and make best use of your frame?

In our salon led by Daphne Armbruster, we’ll discuss the theory of the craft and practical applications of it. We’ll answer questions risen during the salon and look to apply our knowledge to our own work. This salon is a roundtable discussion, so everyone is encouraged to come with thoughts, theories, and questions and join the conversation.

The Garden District Book Shop on Prytania is generously hosting our salon this month on Tuesday, September 19th at 6:00 PM. This event is FREE and open to all writers. No RSVP necessary. We’ll see you there!

Get Lit has a permanent home! This series will now be hosted every first Thursday of the month at the Domino.

This is a generative writing series, so show up with a work in progress or just your notebook and leave with words on the page. We have prompts available for those who want to be surprised. We’ll hang out, run some sprints, and if you stick around after the event you can catch some local music on the Domino’s stage.

This event is FREE and open to all writers. No RSVP necessary.

Join us at the Domino for our monthly generative writing event. We’ll grab some drinks, hang out with our fellow writers, and do some sprints to get words on the page. Come with a plan or just your notebook. We have prompts available for those who’d like them.

Our second writing retreat is happening Saturday, August 12!

After the success of last year’s retreat, we teamed up with A Studio in the Woods again to bring you another retreat. This is a FREE, 12-hour retreat hosted at A Studio in the Woods. We’ll spend the morning free-writing and have breakout sessions in the afternoon/evening.

RSVP for this event is CLOSED. We are overwhelmed by the response we got for our retreat. Our attendance slots and our wait list are full now. Thank you to everyone who signed up! And if you missed this retreat, we have more to come.

Escape the July heat with an iced coffee and some writing sprints! We’ll be meeting at Uptown Coffee on Thursday the 27th for this month’s Get Lit. We’ll see you there!

Large parking lot available.

This month’s Writers’ Room will be led by Elyse Hauser. She’ll be leading a conversation on environmental journalism—what it is, how to get into the field, and what the field is looking for. If you’ve ever been interested in environmental journalism, don’t miss this roundtable!

This event will be hosted at Uptown Coffee, located behind the New Orleans Hamburger on St. Charles. There is parking available in the back.

About Elyse
Elyse Hauser is a writer from the Pacific Northwest who lives in Louisiana, where she studied creative nonfiction at the University of New Orleans. As an emerging environmental essayist and journalist, she focuses on aquatic ecosystems, especially the deep sea and protecting the unknown. She’s previously written about society, culture, and products for publications including Electric Literature and Racked. Now, she writes about deep sea mining at notesfromthedeep.substack.com.

Four more days, 4,000 more words! Let’s get to the finish line together with, you guessed it, more sprints.

We’ll be at Uptown Coffee this time, located at the back of New Orleans Hamburger and Seafood on St. Charles.

How are you doing? Are you ahead? Have you fallen behind? Are you right on track? Whatever it is, we’ve got you. We’ll be sprinting all evening to hit those 1,000 words (or maybe more) at Mojo on Freret Street. Drop by, tell us what you’re working on, and let’s get some words down!

1000 Words of Summer is here! Every June, New Orleans’ own Jami Attenberg challenges writers to pen 1,000 words a day for two weeks.

This year, Third Lantern is kicking off the challenge the New Orleans way—with a party. Join us upstairs at Anna’s where we’ll do an hour of sprints to get our 1,000 words down and spend the rest of our time socializing and celebrating a summer of writing.

Local author Alex Jennings will be joining us for our Writers’ Room! From writing craft to the publishing world, he’s ready to talk about it all. This is a roundtable, not a lecture, so your questions will guide the discussion. So come down for a coffee and let’s chat.

ABOUT ALEX

Alex Jennings is a writer/editor/teacher/poet living in New Orleans. He was born in Wiesbaden (Germany) and raised in Gaborone (Botswana), Tunis (Tunisia), Paramaribo (Surinam) and the United States. He constantly devours pop culture and writes mostly jokes on Twitter (@magicknegro). He loves music, film, comix, and even some TV.

His writing has appeared in Fantastic Stories of the Imagination, Electric Velocipede, Uncanny Magazine, Fantasy Magazine, New Suns, and Current Affairs, among other venues. His debut novel, The Ballad of Perilous Graves is available wherever books are sold. You can find him goofing around on Instagram: (@magicknegro) He is also an instructor of fiction and popular fiction at The University of Southern Maine’s Stonecoast MFA program .

Let’s take advantage of this beautiful spring weather before the season turns again we’re battling 90% humidity and mosquitoes. We’ll be hosting this month’s Get Lit on the patio of Miel Brewery so we can enjoy some local beer and a beautiful sunset as we sprint our way through the evening.

If you’ve never been to a Get Lit before, it’s a generative writing event where we partake in writing sprints with chat breaks in between. We can’t wait to see you!

Join us for a new event — our salon! At this event, we will discuss an aspect of craft. We’ll read a short story before the event to guide our conversation and enjoy an evening dissecting and analyzing the story and craft behind it.

For our inaugural salon, we’ll be discussing the intrinsic nature of plot and character—how satisfying stories are made when you cannot separate one from the other.

To kick off our discussion, we ask that you read The Merry Spinster by Daniel M. Lavery (PDF linked below). This short story is a spin on the fairy tale of Beauty and the Beast that we’re all accustomed to. But what happens when you change some key aspects of character’s personality and flaws? How much will the story change? From there, we’ll discuss our own theories about the craft and offer each other advice on how to implement it into your own work.

Topic: On the string that threads plot and character.
Story: The Merry Spinster by Daniel M. Lavery
Facilitated by: Daphne Armbruster & Rachel Dunphy