2026 Salem Literary Festival Registration

The 2026 Salem Lit Fest is November 12-15.

Sign up for as many sessions as you like!

Thursday, November 12—at Trade House, 156 Derby Street
7:00 p.m. Enduring Hawthorne

Friday, November 13—at Salem Athenaeum, 337 Essex Street
7:00 p.m. Local Lit, author readings 

Saturday, November 14—In person
Children’s Lit Fest*—Community Life Center, 401 Bridge Street, 10:00 a.m. – noon
    Sensory Friendly Story Time 9:00–9:30 a.m.—CLC, Room 201 (2nd floor)
    Story Time 10:00 – 11:00 a.m.; Crafts, snacks & book signings 11:00–noon—CLC 
       Great Room
      *Self-guided Story Walk of Mac Wears a Hat will be at Salem Public Library, 370 Essex Street from November 3–16.

General Sessions— 11:00 a.m. – 7:00 p.m. at Tabernacle Congregational Church, 50 Washington Street

11:00 AM: Salem in the Popular Imagination (Sanctuary)
12:00 PM: New England Poetry Club Reading (Emerson Hall)
1:00 PM: Reclaimed Voices: Rewriting History through Fiction (Sanctuary)
2:00 PM: Parental Problems (Emerson Hall)
3:00 PM Book Buzz: Reviews and Recommendations (Sanctuary)
4:00 PM: YA — Magic in the Mind: Neurodiversity Through Magical Realism (Emerson Hall)
5:00 PM: Women Writing Horror: Bugs, Bodies, & Things That Go Bump (Sanctuary)
7:00 PM: Christy Scott Cashman in conversation with Brunonia Barry (Sanctuary)

Sunday, November 15—Virtual
12:00 PM: Drawing Memory: Graphic Novels and the Stories History Should not Forget

Sunday, November 15—In person at Old Town Hall, 32 Derby Square
2:30 PM: Hot Topics in Science & Tech with Tom Levenson
4:00 PM: One Book, One Salem—Pieces of Salem: An Anthology of Salem Voices