Monday Muse: Summer Writing Workshops

If you're a writer who can use a summer workshop or two or want or need an introduction to publishing professionals, you'll find below a half-dozen possibilities.

✦ There's still time (the deadline is July 3) to register for day participation in the 19th Annual West Virginia University Writers' Workshop, which is July 16-19 in Morgantown. Workshop faculty include director and author Mark Brazaitis, novelist Paula McLain, poet Erin Murphy, and classical ballet teacher and writer Renee K. Nicholson. Sessions during the workshop cover fiction, nonfiction, and poetry. There's even a separate workshop for high school students who are interested in a writing career. The fees and a schedule, as well as other information, is available online.

WVa Writers Workshop on FaceBook

✦ The Wyly Theatre in Dallas, Texas, is the setting for the wide-ranging DFW Writer's Conference, July 24-26. The registration deadline is July 24; late registration also is possible. The DFW Writers Workshop sponsors the event, which includes a session for agent pitches. Check the Website for classes, keynote speakers, vendors, and other information.

DFW Writers Workshop on FaceBook

✦ The 44th Annual Society of Children's Book Writers and Illustrators is July 31 through August 3 in Los Angeles, California. The conference features agents, editors, art directors, established writers, and industry publishers; see the faculty bios online. Opportunities are available for one-on-one manuscript and portfolio critiques. SCBWI members receive a registration discount.

SCBWI on FaceBook

✦ You can escape the summer heat by registering for the 53rd Annual Cape Cod Writers Center Conference, to be held August 6-9 in Hyannis, Massachusetts. The conference, sponsored by Cape Cod Writers Center and titled "Inspired Storytelling by the Sea", includes writing sessions in fiction, nonfiction, poetry, and memoir, as well as screenwriting. Topics range from self-publishing, to romance writing, to writing for television and film, to promoting ebooks, to getting an agent. See the conference brochure (pdf) for information about keynote speakers (they include Marge Piercy), daily sessions, descriptions about one-, two-, and three-day courses and intensives, and faculty.

Cape Cod Writers Center on FaceBook

✦ Established and aspiring authors and screenwriters can meet or network with agents, editors, producers, writing instructors, and other writing and publishing professionals at the 46th Annual Willamette Writers Conference. Scheduled to run from August 7 through August 9 in Portland, Oregon, the conference offers more than 80 workshops, panels, and presentations. Complete conference information, including an interactive schedule, faculty bios, and registration options, is available on the conference Website.

Willamette Writers on FaceBook

✦ Fiction writers have their own annual conference, the Mid-Atlantic Fiction Writers Institute, scheduled this year for August 7 through August 9 at Hagerstown Community College in Maryland. (The conference formerly was known as the Nora Roberts Writing Institute.) The three-day writing retreat includes a special offering at the same time: Hub City Teen Writers Institute. The MAFWI offers panel discussions on such topics as social media promotion, self-publishing, and publisher-author relationships, sessions on writing dialogue, creating characters, and writing thrillers, and networking activities. Complete registration and conference information is available online.

MAFWI on FaceBook

Some other writers' conferences you might want to consider now or bookmark for next year are Berkshire Festival of Women Writers, Byron Bay Writers Festival, Image Journal's Glen Workshop, Iowa Summer Writing Festival, Jackson Hole Writers Conference, Lewisburg Literary Festival, Ocean State Summer Writing Conference, Taos Summer Writers' Conference, and Winterset in Summer Literary Festival. Also be sure to check the International Directory of Writing Workshops, Conferences & Festivals and NewPages Writing Conferences & Events page for year-round roundups.