Monday, September 26, 2022

40 Outstanding Writing Conferences and Workshops in October 2022

This October there are more than three dozen writing conferences. Many conferences and workshops will be held online, but some will be held in person or use a hybrid format.

These writing events offer everything a writer might want: intensive workshops, pitch sessions with agents, to how to market yourself and your books, discussions - there is something for everyone.

For a full list of conferences held throughout the year see Writing Conferences. If you miss an application deadline, put it on your calendar for next year. Quite a few conferences offer scholarships, so apply early. Plan ahead!

Be sure to check out Highlights list of workshops. They offer many throughout the year.

(Image: Martha's Vineyard, Flickr)

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Travel & Words: Northwest Travel Writers Conference. October 2 - 4, 2022: North Bend, OR. Workshops, panels, networking and Writer Matchmaking: Writers attending Travel & Words are looking for story ideas and possibly press trips. These “speed dating” sessions connect destination marketers with freelance writers and bloggers on the “Experienced” track. 

Writing on the Door: "The Poet's Toolkit," with Monica Yuon, October 3-7, 2022: Fish Creek, WI. "In this course, students will hone and sharpen their poetic craft through an intensive focus on the materials and techniques of their art form. Starting from the smallest increment of the poem – the individual word or sound, students will engage in a series of exercises that are designed to deepen their appreciation of structure, craft, and form. We will devote special attention to the ways in which poetry can participate in the characteristic techniques of other art forms and genres. Reading assignments will include the work of contemporary and canonical poets and other artists whose works serve as exemplars for certain formal strategies." Application deadline: June 1.

Bookgardan: A Year's Sustenance for Women Writers. Low Residency Program: October 2022 to October 2023. In-Person Residency Dates: October 3-10, 2022 & October 2-9, 2023. "Bring your book project and your literary practice to full fruition in Bookgardan, a year-long program of sustained, one-on-one mentorship and advanced craft curriculum created by an acclaimed writer, seasoned editor, and devoted & inspiring literary mentor, shared with an intimate cohort of like-minded literary artists. Hone your work-in-progress, develop your technical expertise, and refine your inimitable artistic process over twelve months bookended by two full retreat weeks as fall writers-in-residence at Craigardan, an interdisciplinary mountainside residency program for artists in the majestic Adirondacks of upstate New York. Now enrolling its fifth cohort, Bookgardan is unlike any other writing program, book incubator, or literary mentorship. Designed for women writers with book-length, literary fiction and creative nonfiction projects, created in partnership with a residential artists’ program that fosters collaboration and cross-fertilization among artists, and intentional in its goal of building a lasting, mutually supportive community of women writers, at Bookgardan’s heart is Kate Moses’ passionate dedication to helping other women writers realize their vision for their work, made manifest in the unstinting one-on-one mentorships she forges with each writer and their book." Applications will be accepted until the cohort is filled, or until September 25, 2022. 

New York Comicon. October 6 - 9, 2022: NY, NY. "New York Comic Con is your event. Where you can feel unafraid to geek out. Where you’re accepted and embraced for being yourself. Where you can experience the best in pop culture because no matter what fandom you’re passionate about, we have it waiting here for you. Be inspired by award-winning comic artists and Japanese anime creators. Get star struck over your favorite TV and film idols. Treat yourself to exclusive fandom gear and unique artwork. But most importantly, create all of those memories with the people you care about the most. Because this event is for you. To embrace your inner hero or root for the villain. To geek out as a family. To celebrate a weekend together you’ll never forget."

Minnesota Writers Workshop. October 7-8, 2022: St. Paul, MN. This writing event is a wonderful opportunity to get intense instruction over the course of one day, pitch a literary agent or editor (optional), get your questions answered, and more. Note that there are limited online “seats” at the event (200 total). Will be held online.

Write on the Sound Writers' Conference and Pre-Conference. Oct 7 - 9, 2022: Edmonds, WA. Founded in 1985, Write on the Sound writers’ conference (WOTS) is a small, affordable conference focused on the craft of writing. A variety of sessions, workshops and panel discussions are available for all levels and interests, including valuable information regarding today’s writing and publishing industry. 

Gold Rush Writers Conference. October 7 - 9, 2022, Mokelumne Hill, CA. "Writing professionals will guide you to a publishing bonanza through a series of panels, specialty talks, workshops and celebrity lectures. Go one-on-one with successful poets, novelists, biographers, memoirists and short story writers." Writing workshops in Autobiography/Memoir, Children's, Fiction, Marketing, Non-fiction, Poetry, Publishing, Romance, Travel, Young Adult. Individual sessions available. 

James River Writers Conference. October 7 - 9, 2022: Richmond, Virginia. The 20th annual James River Writers Conference will be held online and in person from October 7 to October 9. The conference will start with online master classes on October 7, followed by in-person events on October 8 and 9 at the Greater Richmond Convention Center in Virginia, including pitch sessions with agents; personal consultations for query letters, synopses, first pages, and author website audits; the Agent Dating Game; and panel discussions. The keynote address will be given by nonfiction writer Beth Macy. Speakers and instructors include poets Zetta Elliott and Nick George the Poet; fiction writers TJ Klune and Kyle Lucia Wu; and literary agents Jessica Felleman (Jennifer Lyons Agency), Dawn Michelle Hardy (Literary Lobbyist), Saritza Hernandez (Andrea Brown Literary), Soumeya Bendimerad Roberts (HG Literary), and Will Roberts (Gernert Company). The cost of the in-person conference, which includes breakfast, lunch, and a one-on-one meeting with an agent, is $319 for James River Writers members and $389 for nonmembers. Single-day tickets are also available starting at $175 for members and $194 for nonmembers. The cost of a master class is $50 for members and $75 for nonmembers. The cost of a personal consultation is $25. The deadline for registration is October 3.

Picture Book Summit. Oct 8, 2022, Online. A one day live event for picture book writers including author keynotes, interviews, workshops and agent & editor panels. Recordings provided for attendees for four months post-conference.

DFW Writers Conference. October 8 - 9, 2022: Fort Worth TX. Featuring pitch sessions with literary agents, advanced classes, engaging panels, interactive workshops.

Kentucky State Poetry Society. October 8 - 9, 2022: Bowling Green, KY. Readings, workshops, panels, and keynote. "The Kentucky State Poetry Society seeks to inspire, encourage, and develop Kentucky’s poets through a wide variety of workshops, lectures, and publishing opportunities. The Kentucky State Poetry Society publishes the biannual literary journal Pegasus, offers a student and adult poetry contest, and hosts an annual poetry conference." Note: Membership not limited to Kentucky residents. Registration: $15. Will be conducted in person and via Zoom.

7th Annual Broadleaf Writers Conference. October 8 - 9, 2022: Dunwoody, Georgia. "With one of the strongest list of authors you will ever find at a conference, we’ve added even more agents, editors and publisher representatives than ever before! Combined with educational sessions and workshops, the 7th Annual Broadleaf Writers Conference will offer you all that you need to refine and improve your craft." Will be held online and in person.

Orion Poetry WorkshopOctober 12 - November 25, 2022. Six consecutive Wednesday evenings from 6-9pm EDT. Instructor: Diana Marie Delgado. The course: You, Who the Earth Was For. Jean Valentine, the great symbolist poet, left us an eternal reminder: “you / who the earth was for.” As a time-sensitive traveler of this earth, a journey that demands adaptation and acceptance of sometimes brutal truths, how do we connect the wisdom of our individual experience to the natural world around us? Our class will explore book-length approaches to writing the self in the natural world, including selections from the work of Harryette Mullen, Derek Jarman, and Luis Alberto Urrea. These readings will explore how your personal viewpoint or relationship to your immediate environment can enlarge a place, and through a speaker’s revelations, mirror the turbulence and peace of the natural world. This is a hybrid-text class; poetic forms such as haibun and tanka will be considered alongside the journal/diary as a literary gesture capable of intensity and velocity on the page. This class is also rooted in the belief that writing about place and nature can adopt numerous forms, from succinct to grandiose; and we will try as many as we can. The class will consist of discussions around assigned text and generative writing prompts. Participants will be asked to make observations in peer work, and exchange feedback in communal and supportive ways. Homework will consist of spending time in the natural world and documenting observations that connect to craft topics on our reading list. Application period: September 10-25.

Storymakers & Indie Author Hub Writing Conference. October 13 - 15, 2022: 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." 

Ozark Creative Writers Conference. Oct 13 - 15, 2022: Eureka Springs, Arkansas. Workshops by published authors, editors and agents; Publishers Row, independent publishers available to hear about your next project.

TLA Power of Words Conference: Hope Is a Discipline. October 13 - 16, 2022: Online. "Our 2022 conference Power of Words: Hope is a Discipline, will feature three keynote presentations, more than 30 workshops, panel discussions, performances, constituency groups, celebrations, and more. The conference brings together writers, poets, artists, storytellers, performers, songwriters, community leaders, activists, healers, therapists, educators, health professionals, facilitators, and more, as we turn our collective energies to cultivating the Power of Words in all people, with the goal of transforming our world for the better." Online.

Orion Online Poetry Workshop. October 13 - November 17, 2022. Online. "This class meets once a week over six consecutive Thursdays from 1-4 ET. "This course will serve as a deep investigation of a single natural landscape of significance to you. This can be the woods near your home where you walk each day, a long-ago lake or coastal place where you haven’t dipped a toe in the water since you were a child, or somewhere you’ve never been but are fascinated by because of its profound or precarious ecological position. By the end of our six weeks together, you will have composed a suite of poems meditating on this place and digging into why its colors, textures, and scents deserve our close observation and consideration. This is your opportunity to peel back the layers—of personal observation, embodied memory, and the acquired knowledge of wildly varied (and sometimes imperiled) flora and fauna—that make our hearts wild for wild places." The Instructor: Keetje Kuipers is the author of three books of poems.

Nimrod Conference for Readers and Writers. October 13 - December 1, 2022: University of Tulsa, Oklahoma. "For over 40 years, Nimrod has hosted an in-person, all-day writing conference in conjunction with the publication of our fall issue. While we will not be hosting this year’s in-person events due to the continuing effects of the pandemic, we’re thrilled to host an extended period of virtual creative writing programming this fall. This year’s programming will feature several months of craft talks, Q&As, readings, and more. We will add more offerings to this schedule as they become available, so keep checking back."

Writing On The Door: Children's Literature Conference. October 14 - 16, 2022: In Person, Sturgeon Bay, WI. "This conference is for adults who want to write for children. Tracks will be offered in writing picture books, middle grade books, and young adult literature. The conference will present a diverse line-up of writers and subject matters, including immigrant/refugee issues, self-esteem and bullying, social justice, and more. The conference will consist of several panel discussions, breakout sessions, and talks by professionals in the field of children’s literature." 

Gotham Writers Conference. October 14 - 16, 2022: NY, NY. A writing conference built by agents, for writers, with a faculty of some of the top agents in New York City. Receive focused attention within your genre from some of the best in the business. Will be held on Zoom.

Annual Rochester Writers’ Conference. October 15, 2022: Rochester, Michigan. Lectures, Workshops and Panel Discussions in fiction, non-fiction and business of writing presentations. Open to new, working and published writers of all genres. Attendees select four presentations from a dozen to tailor fit their needs.

Annual Maryland Writer’s Conference. October 15 - 16, 2022: Baltimore, MD. The Brain to Bookshelf Annual Conference offers over 20 workshops and agent panels. Agent pitches and critiques are available, but agent slots are limited, so register early. New York Times Best Selling Author and Educator Maria V. Snyder will begin with keynote craft workshops each day. Day 1: Emotion is NOT a Dirty Word and Day 2: Writing: The Basics and Not so Basics.

Viable Paradise Science Fiction Writers' Workshop. Oct 16 - 21, 2022: Martha’s Vineyard, MA. Viable Paradise is a unique one-week residential workshop in writing and selling commercial science fiction and fantasy. The workshop is intimate, intense, and features extensive time spent with best-selling and award-winning authors and professional editors currently working in the field. VP concentrates on the art of writing fiction people want to read, and this concentration is reflected in post-workshop professional sales by our alumni. Application Period: from February 2 - June 1, 2022.

Online Creative Nonfiction Workshop. October 17 - December 5, 2022. Online. Instructor: Michael Kleber-Diggs. Duration: This class meets over eight consecutive Mondays from 7-9 pm, ET. The course: The Self in Nature. "In this class, we’ll spend time examining different approaches to nature writing. We’ll look at how we see nature in ourselves and how we can see ourselves in nature. The class will be oriented toward creative nonfiction but will include consideration of poetry, and largely focus on generative work." Application period: September 10-25.

Orion Online Nonfiction/Fiction Workshop. October 18 - November 23, 2022. Online. Instructor: Amy Irvine. "The course: What If This Ends Well? Rewriting Stories of Dystopia and Apocalypse in Time to Change the Narrative. Cormac MacCarthy’s Road. Atwood’s Handmaid’s Tale. Mad Max, The Walking Dead. Books, film, and television pump out end-of-the-world narratives and they top the charts, grab headlines, win prizes. The same story has been told a thousand times, a thousand ways. The plot we know like our own biographies, it’s that engrained: Civilization falls, and the natural world is ravaged beyond repair. We turn on one another, fighting feral in order for a few individuals to survive (barely, and only then with lots of guns) while everyone and everything else goes down in flames. Not that things aren’t brutal, and won’t get more brutal still. But what if this time we’re in is a yet unimagined beginning? In this six-week course, participants will examine texts and film and explore assumptions made in dystopian and apocalyptic narratives that have thwarted our capacity to imagine new ways out of the mess we are in. Writing exercises will focus on the creation of stories–fiction and nonfiction alike–from which possibilities for different outcomes emerge electric and in the nick of time."

All Write, Columbia – Creative Nonfiction Writers Conference. October 19 - 23, 2022: Spencertown NY. A five day intensive writing conference focused on both the craft and the business of writing essays, biography, memoir, and narrative nonfiction. The conference is open to all levels of nonfiction writers, from beginners who are just starting to write memoir or essay to more advanced writers with a manuscript or publications. Open to writers who are at least 18 years old. Just 20 writers will be accepted.

Women Writing the West 2022 Conference. October 20 – 22, 2022: Oklahoma City, Oklahoma. "This will be Women Writing the West’s first-ever conference in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma. Oklahoma comes from two Choctaw words: okla, meaning people; humma, meaning red. The land of the red people. This year’s conference is entitled Red Earth Voices: We All Have a Story to Tell. We will focus on the connective power of storying. To uplift. To empower." To inspire. Will be held in person.

Youngstown Fall Literary Festival. October 20 - 22, 2022: Youngstown, Ohio. The in-person, 6th annual Fall Literary Festival will be centered around the theme “The Places That Make Us,” a conversation about writing, publishing, teaching, community outreach, and inclusion. The conference aims to sustain and enhance discussion on real and imagined literary places that shape our memory, experience and identity. This year's featured presenters are film scholar & screenwriter Laura Beadling, fiction writer Kelly Fordon, filmmaker Karla Murthy, children’s author Candace Fleming & poet Joy Priest.

Georgia Romance Writers: Moonlight and Magnolias. October 20 – 23, 2022: Atlanta, Georgia. Includes keynote speakers, workshops, editor/agent appointments, autographing & bookfair, awards banquet.

Writer's Digest Novel Writing Conference. October 20 - 23, 2022: Pasadena, CA. Experienced authors, editors, agents and publishing experts will be on hand, ready to help you develop your own craft and position yourself for success.

Six Bridges Book Festival. October 20 - 30, 2022: Little Rock, Arkansas. "Prestigious award-winners, screenwriters, comedians, an expert witness, artists, and a Pulitzer Prize-winning poet are among the diverse roster of presenters who will be providing sessions." Free. 

Craft of Writing Conference. October 22, 2022: Glenpool, Oklahoma. The Craft of Writing Conference is focused on learning the skills needed to be an excellent writer. This includes topics such as plot & story structure, character development, conflict & motivation, point of view, editing—facets of the craft. Keynote Speaker; Dacia Cunningham. The conference is free to the public, and everyone is welcome to attend.

Orion Online Nonfiction/Fiction Workshop. October 20 - December 15, 2022. Duration: This class meets from October 20 – December 15 over eight Thursday evenings from 6-8 pm ET. (Except November 24) Instructor: Robin MacArthur. The Course: Rewilding Prose. "The natural world has often been reduced in writing workshops and craft books to “setting”—a static stage backdrop behind which the human drama, or plot, or “real story” unfolds. In this workshop we will subvert that flat definition and talk about the ethos of foregrounding landscape, the possibility of “rewilding” our narratives, the inseparable interconnection between human and non-human worlds, and what biophilia might look like on the page. We will also examine how we might decenter the human in our work, write with a worldview of kinship, reciprocity, and interconnectedness, and explore new uses of animism, myth, and fairytale as ways of reintegrating the human and natural worlds in our prose. Each participant will submit 5-15 pages of either fiction or creative nonfiction that integrate these concepts in some way. We will also read fiction and nonfiction by others that incorporates rewilded prose in provocative and rich ways and explore a variety of short theoretical texts to help us generate a collective language around these ideas. If time allows, we will also craft new, short, ecologically rich pieces in class." CLOSED

Emerald City Writers' Conference. Oct 21 - 23, 2022, Bellevue, WA. Local Romance Writers of America conference, featuring film and television scouts, who will be taking pitches along with editors and agents, keynote speakers, workshops, and a master class. Will be held online.

State Writing Conference & Convention, sponsored by The Kansas Authors Club, Oct 21 - 23, 2022: Wichita, Kansas. Theme: The Write Way to the Future. Writing workshops, panels, and presentations by Julie Sellers, Renee La Viness and more. Registration deadline September 20, 2022.

Writing By Writers Workshop Tomales Bay. October 26 - 30, 2022: Tomales Bay, California. Manuscript and poetry workshops are limited to 12 participants and generative workshops are limited to 15 to ensure an intimate setting. 

Mayborn Literary Nonfiction Conference. October 28 - 29 2022: Dallas, Texas. The Mayborn Literary Nonfiction Conference is a forum for journalists, writers, readers, students, educators and the general public to listen to, be inspired by and practice their craft at the highest possible level. Every year, the Mayborn Conference gathers some of the most talented storytellers in the country to share their stories, life-changing experiences and expertise with aspiring writers through three days of lectures, panels, one-on-one sessions, and student classes. In addition, the conference includes a variety of writing contests for anyone from high school students to Pulitzer prize winning professionals, who receive hand-made trophies, more than $26,000 in cash awards and have their work published in Mayborn's journal, Ten Spurs, or anthology, Best American Newspaper Narratives.

Other Words Literary Conference. Oct 28 -29, 2022: Lakeland, Florida. Workshops in poetry, fiction, and creative nonfiction, as well as panels and readings. Their goal is "to bring together writers, editors, agents, publishers, book sellers, grant administrators, directors of writers' colonies and retreats, and other interested folk in one place. We'll be talking about the how to of the literary arts: how to write it, make it, sell it, fund it, and nurture it."

Annual Florida Writers Conference. October 28 - 30, 2022: Altamonte Springs, Florida. Over 75 workshops, major speakers, agent interviews, professional manuscript critiques, lively social events, and much more.

Colrain Classic. October 28 - 31, 2022: Arlington, Vermont. "The Colrain Manuscript Classic is a highly focused, 3.5 day conference designed for poets with manuscripts in progress. The Classic features in-depth pre-conference work and candid, realistic evaluation and feedback from nationally-known poets, editors and publishers. In preparation, participants work at home on pre-conference assignments and then, in the workshop, review, arrange, and winnow their work based on the pre-conference work. In addition to the manuscript preparation workshop and editor sessions, there will be an editorial Q&A, and an after-conference strategy session." Will be conducted online.

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