Lesbian Literary Festival at Smith College 2026

The annual Lesbian Literary Festival at Smith College brings queer female writers, poets, and readers to Northampton for a weekend of readings, panels, book signings, and conversations. The festival reflects both the scholarly tradition of Smith College — one of the oldest and most distinguished women's colleges in the United States — and the particular literary culture of Northampton's LGBTQ+ community. The combination of an academic setting, a town with one of the highest concentrations of queer women in the country, and a programme that takes lesbian and queer female writing seriously as literary and intellectual practice gives the festival a character that more commercially oriented literary events cannot replicate. Writers of national and international profile have appeared at the festival alongside emerging voices from the Pioneer Valley and New England.