Denver Writers Launch New Novel Challenge After NaNoWriMo Closure

Denver Novel Writing Month (DenNoWriMo), a new 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization, will host its inaugural November writing challenge beginning November 1, 2026. The event, which invites writers across the Denver metro area and beyond to draft 50,000 words of a novel in 30 days, is free to participate in.

DenNoWriMo grew out of the Denver region of National Novel Writing Month (NaNoWriMo), which closed in 2025. Co-founders Michelle Kellogg, Kathy Leppert, and Virginia Roper, who served as volunteer Municipal Liaisons for nearly 20 years, led the region. After NaNoWriMo's controversies began to unfold, the three kept local writers together in 2024 under the informal name "FauxNoWriMo," then used the term DenNoWriMo for the 2025 challenge before fully incorporating as DenNoWriMo in March 2026.

NaNoWriMo founder Chris Baty, who started the challenge in 1999 and has since started up NaNo 2.0 with some former Municipal Liaisons, has given DenNoWriMo his blessing and looks forward to collaborating in the future.

The month opens with a kickoff party on Saturday, October 31, in Lakewood. Guests share a potluck and meet fellow writers from 10 PM until midnight, then start writing the moment November begins. The party ends at 2 AM, just before clocks fall back for the end of daylight saving time. The event is open to the public, and teens ages 13 and older are welcome with a parent or guardian. The address and details are available at dennowrimo.org.

Throughout November, DenNoWriMo hosts in-person write-ins across the metro area and virtual write-ins online, with at least one session every day of the month, including Thanksgiving. Participants track their daily word counts through TrackBear's API directly on DenNoWriMo's website. In the spirit of the original challenge, DenNoWriMo asks participants not to use generative AI for their November projects or in DenNoWriMo-owned spaces.

At Denver Novel Writing Month (DenNoWriMo), they believe every great adventure starts with a blank page and the courage to fill it. They are in the business of sparking imaginations, building creative community, and cheering on the dreamers, storytellers, and world-weavers of the Denver metro area and beyond, because your story deserves to be told.