Thank you to everyone who attended the 2024 WIT: Words, Ideas, and Thinkers Literary Festival! We hope you enjoyed the eight thought-provoking sessions that explored this year’s theme, The Power of Words: Why Writers Matter. It was a joy to share such meaningful conversations with all of you. Be sure to check back soon for additional photos and recordings from the weekend!

If you were inspired by the Festival, please consider making a donation in support of the WIT Literary Festival and the Authors Guild Foundation’s work.

If you are interested in a partnership or sponsorship opportunity for the 2025 Festival, please contact Deborah Wilson, executive director of the Authors Guild Foundation, at dwilson@authorsguildfoundation.org or Bernard Schwartz, executive producer of literary programming, at bschwartz@authorsguildfoundation.org.

​​​​​​​The 2024 WIT Festival featured a special lineup of conversations with outstanding novelists, playwrights, journalists, translators, poets, critics, historians, and essayists including:

---

Special thanks to our partners and sponsors

Epic Sponsor

Cromwell Harbor Foundation

Novel Sponsors

Randy Grimmett & Allison Smith’s Stonover Farm — Mary Mott & Gordon Simmering — Jeryl & Steve Oristaglio — Hunter K. Runnette & Mark P. VandenBosch

Anthology Sponsor

Hawthornden Foundation 

Biography Sponsors

Joanne Leonhardt Cassullo — Roaring Brook Family Foundation

Memoir Sponsors

Marie Arana & Jonathan Yardley — Patrick Atkinson — Pier Boutin, MD — Marcia Z. Feuer — Walter & Gerry Fiederowicz — Ann & Peter Herbst — Elizabeth R. Hilpman –Valerie Ann Hyman & Allen I. Hyman, MD — Taryn & Mark Leavitt — Ann & Peter Lombard — Hans & Kate Morris — October Mountain Financial Advisors — Laura Pedersen — Amy Davidson Sorkin & David Sorkin — Wendy Strothman & John Bishop — Rachel Vail & Mitch Elkind — Louise Hartwell White

Partners

The Berkshire Eagle — Berkshire Magazine — Berkshire Mountain Bakery — BerkshireStyle — The Bookstore — Canyon Ranch — Chocolate Springs — Harper’s Magazine — Julia Kaplan Photography — Loeb’s Foodtown — Lenox Chamber of Commerce — Mahaiwe Performing Arts Center — Terry Holland Photography — The Red Lion Inn — The Town of Lenox — WJ Blueprint​​​​​​​

---

2024 WIT Literary Festival Committee

Hunter K. Runnette, Committee Chair

Marie Arana
André Bernard
Richard Thompson Ford
Taryn Leavitt
Ann Lombard
Laura Pedersen
Roxana Robinson
Allison Smith
Wendy Strothman