Fest Almanac was created by author Johnny Compton in late 2026, after he’d sat on the idea for a while, and asked different writer friends, “Do you think a searchable directory of literary festivals is a good idea?”

Not quite in those exact words, but more or less.

And each of those writer friends responded, “It’s a great idea, you should tell somebody smart about it so they can make it.” In those exact words. Every single time. It was bizarre, but did get a little less hurtful after the thirtieth time or so.

I created this site because while I had come across a few sites that listed a solid amount of festivals, I hadn’t encountered any that let you filter or search using criteria that I think would matter to authors, based on my personal experiences and those I had observed and discussed among my peers. Thus, Fest Almanac, aka Festival Alamanc, aka FestivAlmanac was born.