Bent Lit LGBTQ+ Literary Festival 2026

Bent Lit, Asheville's yearly LGBTQ+ literary festival, brings queer writers, poets, and readers together. You'll find readings, panels, book signings, and conversations. It’s an unusual event for the American South.

Asheville’s always been an arts town, and an LGBTQ+ magnet. That mix—the city’s creative types, its independent bookstores, its standing as the most culturally switched-on city in the Southern Appalachians—makes a literary festival like this possible. There’s nothing else quite like it around here.

Bent Lit pulls in big-name queer authors, but also new local and regional voices. Asheville’s been open to LGBTQ+ people for decades. That history gives the festival a comfortable, confident vibe you won’t get at more cautious literary gatherings in less friendly places.