24 Awesome Writing Conferences in August 2021

Summer writing conferences are going ahead as planned via online formats. You can still attend workshops, presentations, readings, discussions, lectures, and critiques via Zoom. Some are also offering workshops in person. 

Conferences are not only the best way to meet agents, get tips from other writers, and learn about the publishing industry, they make you feel like a writer.

Plan ahead! Conferences often offer scholarships, but these have deadlines. If one of these conferences interests you, put the scholarship deadline date on your calendar for next year, or for whenever the conference rolls around again.

For a full list of conferences, organized by month, see Writing Conferences. While nearly all of these are in the United States, you can find links on that page that will take you to world-wide conference lists.

(Image by kandhal keshvala from Pixabay )

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Fine Arts Work Center Summer Workshops (poetry, fiction, art, and creative nonfiction). June 7 - August 27, 2021: Provincetown, Massachusetts. Last year's faculty included David Baker, Samiya Bashir, Jill Bialosky, Sophie Cabot Black, Gabrielle Calvocoressi, Martha Collins, Kate Daniels, Nick Flynn, Vievee Francis, Gabriel Fried, Jorie Graham, Marie Howe, Major Jackson, Fred Marchant, Gail Mazur, Jane Mead, John Murillo, Eileen Myles, Matthew Olzmann, Gregory Pardlo, Carl Phillips, Rowan Ricardo Phillips, Victoria Redel, Martha Rhodes, Brenda Shaughnessy, Nicole Sealey, Alan Shapiro, Carmen Giménez Smith, Craig Morgan Teicher and many more. See individual workshops for dates.

Community of Writers Workshops in Nonfiction and Memoir. August 1 - 6, 2021. These workshops assist serious writers by exploring the art and craft as well as the business of writing. The week offers daily morning workshops, craft lectures, panel discussions on editing and publishing, staff readings, and brief individual conferences. The morning workshops are led by staff writer-teachers, editors, or agents. In addition to their workshop manuscripts, participants may have a second manuscript read by a staff member who meets with them in individual conferences. Nonfiction or memoir submissions should be in a narrative form. Travel, self-help, how-to, or scholarly works will not be considered. Featured Writers Include: Frances Dinkselspiel, Alex Espinoza, Glen David Gold, Debra Gwartney, Sands Hall, Lauren Markham, Greg Pardlo, Julia Flynn Siler, Grace Talusan. Tuition: $850. Will be held online.

Napa Valley Writers’ Conference. August 1 - 6, 2021, St. Helena, California. The faculty includes Victoria Chang, Brenda Hillman, Brian Teare, Gillian Conoley, Charles Baxter, Lan Samantha Chang, Daniel Orozco, Joan Silber, Robert Hass The cost of the conference is $1,100. Will be held online. Waitlisted.  

Speculative Fiction NIP Bookcamp & Writing Retreat Work Week. August 1 - 7, 2021: West Bend, Wisconsin. Six days of personal writing time with opportunities to discuss writing issues with the Retreat Mentor (an award-winning novelist and editor), opportunities to attend certain Bookcamp presentations, all social activities, critiques, and chat with fellow writers and publishing professionals in a relaxed environment.

Green Mountain Writers Conference. August 2 - 6, 2021: Chittenden, Vermont. The program features workshops in poetry, fiction, and creative nonfiction, as well as discussions, one-on-one consultations, and readings. The faculty includes poets Justen Ahren, Joan Aleshire, and Verandah Porche; fiction writers Jensen Beach, Elizabeth Inness-Brown, and Stephen P. Kiernan; creative nonfiction writer Chuck Clarino; and poet and nonfiction writer Yvonne Daley. Tuition is $600 before May 1, $650 until June 1, and $700 thereafter. Registration is first come, first served; attendance will be capped at 25 participants to ensure social distancing. 

Revision Retreat. August 3 - September 30, 2021: Honesdale, Pennsylvania. Sponsored by Highlights Foundation. Join editors Eileen Robinson and Harold Underdown to learn revision strategies to help you identify problems in your picture book, chapter book, novel, or narrative nonfiction manuscript. The Revision Retreat is set up to meet you wherever you are in the process of revising a manuscript, whether you are at the beginning, mid-draft, or near the end, and to help you move along in the process while learning tools and techniques that can be used in the future. It’s designed to provide extended support to you as you begin, develop, or complete a revision and/or generate new material. Will be held online and in person.

Mendocino Coast Writers Conference. August 5 -  August 7, 2021: Mendocino, California. The conference features workshops in poetry, fiction, and creative nonfiction, as well as craft talks, readings, manuscript consultations, open mics, and pitch sessions with agents and editors. The faculty includes poet Victoria Chang; fiction writers Ingrid Rojas Contreras, Charlotte Gullick, Mitali Perkins, Shobha Rao, and Scott Sigler; and nonfiction writers Myriam Gurba, Ismail Muhammad, and Jeannie Vanasco. Participating publishing professionals include agents Sarah Bowlin (Aevitas) and Rayhané Sanders (Massie & McQuilkin) and editors Andrew Karre (Dutton Books) and Philip Marino (Little, Brown). An optional post-conference daylong Publishing Boot Camp taught by Marino will be held on August 4. The registration fee, which includes most meals, is $575. One-on-one manuscript consultations are available for an additional $60. The Publishing Boot Camp is $150.  Will be held online.

Cape Cod Writers Center Conference. August 5 - 7, 2021: Hyannis, Massachusetts. Supporting published and aspiring writers. Featuring distinguished authors, editors and agents in workshops on fiction, nonfiction, screenwriting, poetry, mysteries and thrillers, social media, promotion and more! Will be held virtually.

The 2021 Writers' Police Academy: Mudercon. August 6 – 7, 2021: Raleigh, NC. "MurderCon is a rare opportunity for writers to participate in hands-on “for law enforcement eyes only” training, using modern testing and evidence collection tools and equipment, in workshops taught by some of the world’s leading homicide investigation experts. This incredibly detailed, cutting-edge instruction has never before been available to writers, anywhere."

Colrain Classic. August 6 - 9, 2021. "A select group of poets will work with nationally known poets, You will work with poet-editors Peter Covino, Joan Houlihan, Martha Rhodes and Ellen Dore Watson. All poets with an in-progress book-length or chapbook-length manuscript are welcome to apply. Will be conducted online.

The Greater Los Angeles Writers Conference, August 6 - 14, 2021: West Coast Writers Conferences presents a full weekend of panels, workshops and presentations by educators, noted speakers, and industry professionals focused on the craft and business of writing.

Tennessee Writing Day Workshop. August 7, 2021. Online. This “How to Get Published” writing event is a wonderful opportunity to get intense instruction over the course of one day, pitch a literary agent or editor (optional), get yor questions answered, and more. Note that there are limited online “seats” at the event (200 total). Will be conducted online.

The All-Genre Novel-In-Progress Bookcamp & Writing Retreat. August 8 - 14, 2021: West Bend, Wisconsin. The Bookcamp offers morning instruction, an afternoon editing clinic, group critique sessions, discussions on the current publishing industry, one-on-one consultations with our staff, pitch sessions with literary agents and acquisition editors, and presentations on writing or publishing topics.

Bread Loaf Writers' Conference. August 8 - 21, 2021: Ripton, VT. Workshops in fiction, poetry, and nonfiction are at the core of the conference. Each faculty member conducts a workshop that meets for five two-hour sessions over the course of the 10 days. Groups are kept small to facilitate discussion, and all participants meet individually with their faculty leaders to elaborate on workshop comments. Faculty members also offer lectures on issues around literary writing and one-hour classes on specific aspects of the craft. Readings by the faculty, conference participants, and guests take place throughout the day and into the night. Participants meet with visiting editors, literary agents, and publishers who provide information and answer questions, individually or in small groups. 

FROM OUTSIDE IN: A Memoir Intensive with Patricia Weaver Francisco. August 9, 2021: Fish Creek, WI. "We’ll gather in this spacious and gorgeous natural setting to let what’s available “outside” lead us in, to a day of surprising ourselves. Our aim is to discover new paths toward our oldest stories, re-purpose personal and familial mythologies, and let the call of bird, tree, rock, and flower open our senses, memories and imagination. This is a day to write happily and freely and fiercely, using the intensity of the day, the company of one another, and the spur of the unexpected to generate new work. We’ll work with liberating forms and structures in memoir, play with the narrative strategies of dialogue and storytelling, and pursue the wild original detail in honor of capturing readers. We’ll have lunch together, private time to wander and to write, and listen to one another throughout the day."

Vermont College of Fine Arts Postgraduate Writers’ Conference. August 9 - 14, 2021: Montpelier, Vermont. The conference is designed for writers with graduate degrees or equivalent experience. Workshops in poetry, fiction, and creative nonfiction, as well as readings, craft classes, and individual consultations with faculty members. "At the heart of the Postgraduate Writers' Conference's unique model is the small workshop size, with groups led by acclaimed faculty limited to five or six writers. The intimate format allows for an extraordinarily in-depth, far-reaching discussion of participants’ work. Beyond the daily group sessions, each member has an individual consultation with the workshop instructor. The schedule also features a rich menu of readings by faculty and participants, craft talks, generative writing sessions and social events that galvanize our vibrant, inclusive community." Will be held online.

A Poetry Intensive with Debora Keenan. August 10, 2021: Fish Creek, WI. "During this day-long plus intensive, we will read a wide range of poetry, consider our lyric and narrative voices, think about how we want to use white space, and various structures for our work. We will think about the poems we must write, the poems we want to write, and the reasons we create. Seven hours of handouts, poems to ponder, enjoy, puzzzle over, and write from. We’ll do some quick, intense first draft work (bring your work notebooks!) and take brief breaks throughout the day in honor of the beautiful natural world around us. We’ll have visual art to challenge and inspire or image-making, share lunch together, and have moments of solitude in which to think and write. We’ll end the day with brief readings of our drafts and have a conversation about present and future goals for your poetry."

HippoCamp Creative Nonfiction Conference. August 13 - 15, 2021: Lancaster, Pennsylvania. This three-day creative writing conference in PA features 50+ notable speakers, engaging sessions in four tracks, interactive panels, readings, social activities, networking opps and optional, intimate pre-conference workshops. 

Elk River Writers Workshop. August 15 - 20, 2021: Chico Hot Springs, MT. The Elk River Writers Workshop embodies the idea that deep, communal experiences with the wild open the door to creativity. We bring together some of the most celebrated nature writers in the United States with students who are serious about fostering a connection with the environment in their writing. It all happens at Chico Hot Springs, a historic retreat just north of Yellowstone National Park. Faculty members: Rick Bass, Beth Piatote, J. Drew Lanham, William Pitt Root, and Pamela Uschuk.

Killer Nashville Writers’ Conference. August 19 - 22, 2021: Nashville, TN. The Killer Nashville International Writers’ Conference was created in 2006 by author/filmmaker Clay Stafford in an effort to bring together forensic experts, writers, and fans of crime and thriller literature. "At the conference, we try diligently to ensure that the weekend has something for every writer and lover of literature, and our sessions are structured to assist writers on multiple career levels. Our learning tracks tackle the craft of writing, business of writing, marketing, and forensics. Killer Nashville features nine breakout sessions for intense smaller group interaction, an authors’ bar (free for hotel guests), a moonshine and wine tasting, free agent/editor roundtable pitch sessions, a mock crime scene designed by special agents and other law enforcement professionals, cocktail receptions, the Guest of Honor Dinner and Awards Banquet, film previews, live music performances and—of course—all the great activities one can enjoy in downtown Nashville."

The Alabama Writers' Conclave. August 20 - 22, 2021: Orange Beach, Alabama. The Alabama Writers' Cooperative presents this year's conference as a virtual opportunity on Zoom; it is free to all humans who register to participate. The Conclave is today one of the oldest continuing writers' organization in the United States. Writers, aspiring writers and supporters of the writing arts may join. Sharing information, developing ideas, honing skills, and receiving practical advice are hallmarks of the annual meeting. Will be held online.

The Whole Novel Workshop. August 21 - 27, 2021: Honesdale, PA. "This is a seven-day online workshop that features a full manuscript critique, evening “live” lectures and discussions, daily writing prompts, one-to-one mentorship, faculty Q&A, optional open mic readings and more! Online Workshop Participant Cap: 20 students. Join Us To: Have the entire draft of your novel read and critiqued." Application Deadline: June 1, 2021. Will be held online and in person.

Writing on the Door: Fiction Master Class with Jane Hamilton. August 23 - 27, 2021. Application Deadline: May 10, 2021. Full.

Storymakers & Indie Author Hub Writing Conference. Aug 26 - 28, 2021: Blue Springs, MO. "The SMIAH Writers Conference is a writing event sponsored by both the Storymakers Author Guild and Indie Author Hub Guild. This conference is on it's tenth year of inspiring authors from across the country and around the world, giving them the tools they need to take their writing to the next level. The 2021 will continue to bring a unique spin to the traditional writers conference, offering both in-person and virtual attendance options. With a distinctly Indie flavor and all the traditional building blocks, this is the conference you need to step out of the ruts and see your writing and career clearly." Will be held online and in person.