2026 Deep Water Literary Festival

FRIDAY JUNE 19

The Past on Trial (talk)
Justine van der Leun
5pm, Krause Recital Hall, DVAA, 37 Main St. Free
They killed to survive. The state called it murder anyway.

Time Above, Time Below (panel)
Robert Moor, Jeffrey Marlow
6pm, Krause Recital Hall, DVAA, 37 Main St. Free/$15
Trees that remember centuries. Oceans where life barely moves.

When Time Breaks: From Virginia Woolf to Psycho (keynote)
Jad Abumrad
7:30pm, Tusten Theatre, 210 Bridge St. $15
Radiolab’s Abumrad live: from Virginia Woolf’s voice to Hitchcock’s shower.

Opening Night Party
9:30pm, Big Eddy Brewing Co., 93 Main St. Free

SATURDAY JUNE 20

Everyone In This Book Is You: Memoir Writing Workshop (workshop)
Melisse Gelula
9:30am, Western Sullivan Public Library, 198 Bridge St. $20
Adult writing workshop on dual-narrator memoir techniques. Ages 18+.

Deep Water Independent Book Fair (fair)
Curated by Ahu Terzi, Hound Books
10am–6pm, The Shops at Narrowsburg, 90 Main St. Free
Third annual fair of America’s most exciting independent presses.

Stories Against Time (panel)
Rebecca Lehmann, Francine Prose, Nghi Vo
11:30am, Tusten Theatre, 210 Bridge St. $15
Fiction writers queering, haunting, and rerouting history’s fixed narratives.

Scattered Seeds of Troy (performance)
Farm Arts Collective
12:30pm, Narrowsburg Union, 7 Erie Ave. Free
Euripides’ Trojan Women reimagined through migration, displacement, and seeds.

American Futures (panel)
George Packer, Ben Fountain, Amal El-Mohtar
1:30pm, Tusten Theatre, 210 Bridge St. $15
Three writers whose darkest visions are becoming the evening news.

New York: When the Future Broke Open (panel)
Marlon James, Fab 5 Freddy
3pm, Tusten Theatre, 210 Bridge St. $15
NYC’s 1970s–80s cultural explosion born of bankruptcy and collapse.

After the Fact (panel)
Jamie Hood, Alexandra Auder; moderated by Melisse Gelula
4pm, Krause Recital Hall, DVAA, 37 Main St. Free/$15
Two writers who refused to tell the story they were supposed to.

The Outrage: A Queer Writers’ Reading (performance)
Jessica Charles, AZ Espinoza, Mark-Eugene Garcia, C. Julian Jiménez,
Francesca Pazniokas, reid tang, Garrett Zuercher
5pm, Tusten Theatre, 210 Bridge St. Free
NACL queer writers’ residency presents new work.

Muskism: Who Builds the Future? (panel)
Quinn Slobodian, Ben Tarnoff
5:15pm, Krause Recital Hall, DVAA, 37 Main St. Free/$15
Tech ideology and Silicon Valley’s power over tomorrow’s world.

20F (Curiosity) (performance)
Raphaele Shirley, Algis Kizys
7pm & 8:30pm (two performances), Narrowsburg Union, 7 Erie Ave. Free/$15
Immersive light, sound, and parabolic mirrors transform space and perception.

Festival Fling (party)
DJ Anton of No Ordinary Monkey, Flirty Riot
8:30pm, Narrowsburg Union, 7 Erie Ave. $15
Dance party at the festival’s midpoint. Bar by Pollinator Spirits.

SUNDAY JUNE 21

Joyce Carol Oates (talk)
Joyce Carol Oates, in conversation with A.M. Homes
11am, Tusten Theatre, 210 Bridge St. $15
America’s greatest living writer discusses her new story collection.

A Wrinkle in Unicorn Time (kids and family)
Ama Unicorn
11:30am, Chi Hive Gym + Wellness, 22 Main St. Free/$15
Magical family event inspired by Madeleine L’Engle’s time-bending universe.

The Secret History of French Cooking: A Literary Brunch (brunch)
Luke Barr
12:30pm, La Cigogne, 90 Main St. $35 (brunch included)
The 1970s French culinary revolution: big egos, bigger appetites.

Writing a Life: Nicholas Boggs on James Baldwin |
Siri Hustvedt on Paul Auster (panel)
Nicholas Boggs, Siri Hustvedt; moderated by Hafizah Augustus Geter
1pm, Tusten Theatre, 210 Bridge St. $15
Biographers tackle archive, memory, and lives refracted across time.

No Future in Plastic (panel)
Judith Enck, Andrea Bernstein
1:30pm, Krause Recital Hall, DVAA, 37 Main St. Free/$15
Plastic as policy, politics, and a manufactured environmental crisis.

Queer Time, New York Time (panel)
Natalie Adler, Hugh Ryan; moderated by Brian Montopoli
2:30pm, Krause Recital Hall, DVAA, 37 Main St. Free/$15
From AIDS crisis to the queer nineties: freedoms and fractures.

Yarnslingers: Killing Time (storytelling)
Greg Triggs, Bizzy Coy, Mark Dunau, Bill Fellenberg, Alexander Gardener, Ramona Jan, Janice Meyerson, Teresa Tulipano
4pm, St Paul’s Lutheran Church, 31 Erie Ave. Free
Storytellers present true personal tales on the theme “Killing Time.”

ALL WEEKEND

This Story is a Bag: An Installation at Maison Bergogne (installation)
Tilda Swinton (audio), Elizabeth Lepro, Connor Simon, Juliette Hermant
Jun 19–21. Opening Reception Fri Jun 19, 6:30–7:15pm, Maison Bergogne, 226 Bridge St. Free
Tilda Swinton reads Le Guin; artists respond with immersive installation.

Memory Method (film installation)
Amy Yoes
Jun 20–21, all day, the 108, 108 Main Street. Free
Stop-motion animation loops all weekend in an art-filled drop-in space.

Bibliophantics (installation)
Asti Hustvedt
Jun 19–21, Mildred Complex(ity), 37B Main Street. Free
Books rearranged and reimagined in a living literary encounter.

Elizabeth Ennis at Madame Fortuna (film)
Elizabeth Ennis
Jun 20–21, Madame Fortuna, 15 Main St. Free
New moving-image work on memory, duration, and disappearance loops continuously.

One Minute Portrait Project (photography)
Kaitlyn Danielson
Jun 20–21, EVER, 101 Main St. Free
Nineteenth-century tintype portraits: one full minute of still exposure.

Present Faces (interactive)
Lia Strasser, Bizzy Coy
Jun 20–21, 1pm–2pm each day, Project Weekend, 22 Main St. Free
New Yorker cartoonists sketch portraits with time-themed conversation prompts.

Where Wild Things Grow (exhibition)
Dan Ladd, Joseph Noderer
Jun 20, 5–8pm (opening reception); Jun 21, 11am–5pm, Ruffed Grouse Gallery, 144 Main St. Free
Sculpture and painting on organic growth, transformation, and time.