A City, A Festival
Duma LitFest began in 2024 as a leap of faith. A first edition held together by a small circle of writers, organizers, and friends who believed Dumaguete needed a space for literature beyond the usual rooms. It felt uncertain, a little impossible. And then it happened. People showed up. Conversations stretched past the sessions. The city responded.
It was a natural extension of what Dumaguete has long been: a place where writing has always mattered. Generations of writers have passed through the city, shaped by its classrooms, its streets, and its literary traditions, including the oldest creative writing workshop in Asia. Duma LitFest grew out of that history, not as a tribute, but as something happening alongside it.
In 2025, the festival returned, no longer just a one-time attempt but something beginning to take shape. With more partners, more voices, and a growing audience, it settled into Dumaguete’s cultural calendar. Still evolving, still figuring itself out, but clearly here to stay.
In 2026, the festival enters a new chapter as Dumaguete steps forward as a UNESCO City of Literature. It marks the festival’s first year under that recognition. With it comes a renewed sense of purpose: to deepen the city’s connection to its literary life, and to open that energy outward.
Duma LitFest is still becoming. Growing the way Dumaguete does. Through people, through conversation, through the quiet decision to keep going.
Our Visual History
Artwork that defined our festival through the years
Our Mission
Duma LitFest brings literature into the everyday life of the city—through readings, panels, workshops, and publishing conversations that feel less like formal events and more like extensions of the way Dumaguete already talks, thinks, and argues about stories.
It’s about making sure writers are heard, readers are part of the exchange, and conversations don’t stop at the stage.
It’s also about showing that literature has weight here—that it shapes culture, draws people in, and deserves the same support as any other part of the city’s creative life.
Our Vision
A festival that lasts because people keep showing up for it.
One that supports writers across generations—from those just starting out to those who’ve shaped the city’s literary life—and gives them a place to meet in the same space.
One that grows through community: through the people who say yes, who offer help, who make things happen behind the scenes. Because no festival is built alone, and Dumaguete has never worked that way.
A festival that stays grounded in the city, even as it reaches outward—carrying Dumaguete’s voice into the region, the country, and beyond.