Friday, September 2, Denver will play host to its first ever Lit Crawl. Monique Lewis, founder of At The Inkwell and a Colorado native who recently returned from New York, was inspired by the NYC Lit Crawls and wanted to bring a similar experience to Denver. Nicole Sullivan of BookBar helped Lewis and fellow organizers to line up venues along Tennyson Street where prose and poetry writers of both fiction and non-fiction will gather to delight Denver’s literary senses.

The Lit Crawl will take place along Tennyson Street between West 42nd and 46th Avenues at various venues beginning at 6 p.m. Check out the complete lineup of events here. Crawlers will enjoy more than 30 Denver-area writers at various venues curated by At The Inkwell, BookBar, Colorado Humanities, FBomb, Lighthouse Writers Workshop, Tethered by Letters and Regis University’s Mile-High MFA.

At 9 p.m. adult crawlers will have the opportunity to attend an after-party, the 2nd Annual Fu*%ing Fabulous Fiction Fest, which is presented by BookBar and High Fiction at The Oriental Theater. For a mere $12 admission at the door, the after-party’s revelries will include a performance by High Fiction band, an adult drinking spelling bee, burlesque and circus acts, authors doing strange things, and of course, books for sale.

Meet a Few of the Authors Featured at the Crawl

Author Jonathan Waldman. All photos courtesy of Lit Crawl Denver.

Author Jonathan Waldman. All photos courtesy of Lit Crawl Denver.

Who: Jonathan Waldman

Where: Mermaid Fine Books, 4220 Tennyson St, Denver

When: 6 p.m.

The Lowdown: Join Jonathan Waldman, a creative science, culture and politics writer who hails from Washington, D.C., but got his environmental journalism chops as a Ted Scripps Fellow at the University of Colorado. Waldman has written for Outside, The Washington Post, McSweeney’s and many other fine publications.

Khadijah Queen.

Khadijah Queen.

Who: Khadijah Queen

Where: BookBar, 4280 Tennyson St, Denver

When: 6 p.m.

The Lowdown: Khadijah Queen is an accomplished author, having written and published four books, the most recent being Fearful Beloved. Queen is also a poet and a playwright. Her play, Non-Sequitur was staged in NYC by The Relationship Theater Company as part of the Leslie Scalapino Award for Innovative Women Performance Writers and published by Litmus Press.

Manuel Ramos.

Manuel Ramos.

Who: Manuel Ramos

Where: Tea for Ewe, 4234 Tennyson St, Denver

When: 7 p.m.

The Lowdown: A retired lawyer who has written and published eight novels and a short story collection, Manuel Ramos will bring his multi-award winning talents out to Denver.  Ramos’ mystery, Desperado: A Mile High Noir (2013) was the winner of the Colorado Book Award in the Fiction category and will be followed up by My Bad in 2016.

Suzi Q. Smith.

Suzi Q. Smith.

Who: Suzi Q. Smith

Where: Berkeley Untapped, 4267 Tennyson St, Denver

When: 7 p.m.

The Lowdown: Performance poet Suzi Q. Smith performs across the United States and is one of the best-known poets in the country. She is extremely active in the Denver poetry scene serving as the Executive Director of Poetry Slam, Inc., a Partner Artist with Youth on Record and Advisor to Denver’s youth poetry slam, Minor Disturbance (No bedtime!).

Steven Dunn.

Steven Dunn.

Who: Steven Dunn

Where: Local 46, 4586 Tennyson St, Denver

When: 8 p.m.

The Lowdown: Steven Dunn spent 10 years in the Navy and then earned his B.A. in Creative Writing at the University of Denver. Now, Dunn is the Reviews and Interviews editor for Horse Less Press and author of Potted Meat.

BK Loren. All photos courtesy of Lit Crawl Denver.

BK Loren. All photos courtesy of Lit Crawl Denver.

Who: BK Loren

Where: Call to Arms Brewing Company, 4526 Tennyson St, Denver

When: 8 p.m.

The Lowdown: Winner of the Mountain and Plains Independent Booksellers Award for her novel, Theft, BK Loren has published her short stories and essays in a wide variety of publications.

Join Denver’s literary wordsmiths on an epic crawl along Tennyson Street filling your head with a myriad of creative voices and original poetry and prose this Friday during what is the first of many Denver Lit Crawls.