C. S. Lewis Festival

Join us this fall for an enriching cultural experience that explores the life and work of C. S. Lewis through collaborations by the arts, education, and faith communities. Festival events are held in Petoskey in beautiful Northern Michigan.

 

C.S. Lewis Festival Release Agreement & Liability Waiver

 

Cancellation Policy: The C.S. Lewis Festival operates with a no-cancellation policy for event registrations. In registrant situations with unforeseen or extenuating circumstances, the C.S. Lewis Festival may issue an 80% refund.

CS Lewis Author
Hulton/Archive by Getty Images; Used by permission.

Remember Your Fairy Tales
Finding Hope with Lewis & Tolkien

October 1 – 4, 2026

Documentary Screening: Tolkien & Lewis—Myth, Imagination & The Quest for Meaning

Lyric Theatre, Harbor Springs
Thursday, October 1 | 7PM
$5 Donation

Help us kick off the Festival weekend with a screening of Tolkien & Lewis: Myth, Imagination & The Quest for Meaning. Our weekend theme focuses on “Remember Your Fairy Tales: Finding Hope with Lewis & Tolkien,” and this documentary will set the tone! Plus, we’ll have opening remarks by documentary producer and Festival Co-founder David Crouse.

Book Signing at Beards Brewery

215 E. Lake Street, Petoskey
Friday, October 2 | 3:30–5:00PM
Free

Come enjoy a pint and have Dr. Malcolm Guite sign copies of his books at Beards Brewery in downtown Petoskey!

Bring your Malcolm Guite books or purchase a copy at the event. A limited number of books, provided by McLean & Eakin, will be for sale on-site.

Community Arts Night

Great Lakes Center for the Arts, Bay Harbor
Friday, October 2 | 6:00–8:30PM
Pay-What-You-Can Tickets*

Join us for an evening celebrating youth art!

Student artwork will be on display, with student poetry readings and monologues presented on stage, followed by musical performances by The Wildflower Collective and others accompanied by a live on-stage painting by artist Megan Genevieve, inspired by C.S. Lewis. More details to come!

Plus, the first 100 students through the door receive a copy of The Magician’s Nephew by C.S. Lewis!

*Ticketing Note: Tickets for the Community Arts Night will be processed through Great Lakes Center for the Arts. Adult tickets (19+) are Pay-What-You-Can, with a $5 minimum. Student tickets (0–18) are free, but registration is required because seats are limited.

 

Megan Genevieve is a wildlife and landscape artist who is inspired by observation and motivated by emotion. Megan uses her skills as an artist to capture life with paint and brush. “Every day I see art” defines her positive attitude toward the world around her and allows her to embrace beauty in all moments. For more information about Megan and her work, visit www.megangart.com.

The painting Megan completes on stage during the Community Arts Night will be available through a silent auction, with bidding going through the Keynote Address on Saturday, October 3, at Great Lakes Center for the Arts. Bidders will be able to place bids in the lobby during the Friday and Saturday Festival events.

 

The Wildflower Collective is a Northern Michigan ensemble of three young musicians — Grace (15) on piano and vocals, Aurora (13) on violin, and Karlie (15) on guitar — two sisters and a cousin who have spent years studying their instruments and now love sharing their music together. Their repertoire weaves through classical pieces, beloved folk tunes, worship favorites, and familiar popular songs, with something to delight every listener. With the polish of dedicated practice and the warmth and joy that only young performers can bring, an evening with The Wildflower Collective is sure to leave you smiling.

Saturday Seminar & Keynote Address with Malcolm Guite

Great Lakes Center for the Arts, Bay Harbor
Saturday, October 3
$65 (combo ticket includes seminar & keynote)
$25 Keynote Address ONLY

10:00AM – 3:30PM: The seminar’s three sessions include talks with Griffin Gooch and A.S. “Pete” Peterson, a short film screening, and a table reading involving attendees, Pete, and Keynote Speaker Malcolm Guite. Lunch, catered by Julienne Tomatoes, will be served during the Saturday Seminar.

6:00PM:

Our Keynote Address, presented by The Manthei Speaker Series, features poet, priest, and author Dr. Malcolm Guite.
 
In his keynote, Malcolm will explore this year’s theme—Remember Your Fairy Tales—while also celebrating the friendship between Lewis and Tolkien, and how it gave each writer hope and encouragement, sustaining their drive and creativity at a time when society dismissed the genre of fairy tales.
 
Ahead of their time, these authors created vital texts that laid the path for the recovery of the deep imaginative, spiritual, and narrative roots for a dislocated age. Lewis and Tolkien’s writings breathed new life into fairy tales, and Malcolm will dig deeper into this fact through Tolkien’s essay On Fairy-Stories and Lewis’s Prince Caspian.

Coffee with the Co-founder

Reycraft Room, Hotel Perry
Sunday, October 4 | 11:00AM–12:00PM
FREE

Join us for a Festival send-off event in the Reycraft Room at Hotel Perry in Downtown Petoskey!

Coffee with the Co-founder is an intimate opportunity to connect with other donors, sponsors, and admirers of C.S. Lewis’ work while hearing the C.S. Lewis Festival’s founding story from its co-founder and president, David Crouse.

This limited-capacity event includes coffee and pastries in the historically rich Reycraft Room, with C.S. Lewis Festival Board Members & staff in attendance. This is your chance to learn more about the nonprofit organization and how to get more involved with its year-round programming and the 2027 Festival!

During this event, you will have the chance to speak one-on-one with co-founder David Crouse, peruse Festival-related books for sale provided by McLean & Eakin, and get the inside scoop on the 2027 Festival theme and keynote speaker.

We hope to see you there as we bid farewell to the 24th C.S. Lewis Festival!