Registration now closed

The 39th Annual Western Reserve Writers' Conference

A day of writing information and inspiration!

Bonus for "early bird" registrants:

If you register in February for the conference, you can enter your name in the drawing for a free 15-minute editing session with editors Amy Dragga or Eryka Parker. If your name is chosen, you will be contacted in early March.

AGENDA

9:00-9:30 AM / CHECK-IN, LIGHT BREAKFAST, COFFEE & TEA
Writers' Center

For anyone interested in having their work read anonymously at the First Page Critique Panel at 1:45 PM: Drop off FOUR COPIES of the first page of your work-in-progress (prose only, fiction or nonfiction) at the check-in table before noon. Your work must be double-spaced, in 12-point Times New Roman font, with Title and Genre written at the top of the page. Do NOT include your name anywhere on the page. We'll randomly select first pages and read them aloud starting at 1:45 p.m. Each panelist will raise a hand at the point where they would stop reading and then comment on what stopped them. First Page Critique writers will remain anonymous.

9:30 AM / WELCOME & CONFERENCE OVERVIEW
Meeting Room A/B/C

Deanna R. Adams, Conference Coordinator
Laurie Kincer, William N. Skirball Writers' Center 

9:40-10:20 AM / KEYNOTE SPEAKER
Meeting Room A/B/C

What’s Best for Your Writing Right Now / Writer in Residence, Brandi Larsen

Brandi Larsen, the 2024 Cuyahoga County Public Library Writer in Residence, will keynote with a talk sharing how to weave in the threads of community, craft, and commerce to bring more joy and inspiration into your writing (and encourage you to approach the writing desk with confidence).

Note: Sessions with an asterisk (*) include a writing exercise.

10:30-11:30 AM / BREAKOUT SESSIONS

1. How to Write Memoir Without Alienating Your Entire Family: A Primer / Meg Thompson. Meeting Room A/B/C. Have you ever stopped yourself from writing something personal because you were worried about how the audience would receive it? You are not alone. When it comes to personal writing, there is always a way to tell the story. Writing is such a powerful tool, and while it does have the ability to hurt, it also has the ability to heal. In this session, writers can explore techniques for writing the difficult stories of our lives that need to be told.

2. Self-Editing Tips for Writers of All Kinds / Rebecca Ferlotti. Writers’ Center Meeting Room. Hiring an editor is always a helpful decision when you're preparing your book, blog, or poetry chapbook for publication. Unfortunately, many writers don't always have extra funds at the ready, so Rebecca will give you great tips on how to edit your own work.

*3. Making a Long Story Short / Shelley Costa. Student Success Center. In this short story workshop, we will consider the elements of good storytelling: What makes a good story? How do you transform your story idea into an actual plot? How far can you develop character in a short story? What are the elements of a story arc? Who tells the tale? How do you build a scene? When do you use dialogue? When do you use description/exposition? What do we mean by “voice,” and how do we find our own? Bring your paper or device for writing your response to a writing prompt we will then – if you’re willing-- share and discuss.

11:30-11:45 AM / BREAK & PREARRANGED EDITING SESSIONS

Individual, prearranged editing sessions with editors Amy Dragga or Eryka Parker. (These sessions will be scheduled before the day of the conference. If you register in February, you can enter your name in the drawing for a free 15-minute editing session.) 

11:45 AM-12:45 PM / BREAKOUT SESSIONS

*1. Introduction to the Story Workshop Method / Brandi Larsen. Meeting Room A/B/C. Brandi will introduce the Story Workshop Method as a generative technique to give writers confidence and trust in the writing process. Leaning into voice, imagination, and oral storytelling, she’ll share the why behind this method and lead an exercise that can be incorporated into daily writing practices. Please come prepared to write.

2. Writing Your First Book: What You Need to Know / Deanna Adams. Writers’ Center Meeting Room. Whether you decide to go the traditional route or self-publish your book, you need to know the ins and outs of the publishing world. Deanna will give you the dos and don’ts of the industry and share tips on achieving your 2024 writing goals! Come with questions as Deanna will conduct a Q&A where she will address all of your concerns to help you navigate your own personal writing journey.   

3.  Writing Children's Picture Books / Dr. Raquel M. Ortiz. Student Success Center. Join picture book author, Dr. Raquel M. Ortiz, as she discusses the step-by-step process of making a bilingual picture book, the drafting and writing phase, submission process, revisions and edits, sale and production. She will also share her own bilingual picture books that depict culturally specific aspects of her heritage.

12:45-1:45 PM / LUNCH BREAK, BOOK SALE & AUTHOR SIGNINGS
You may bring lunch and eat it in the Writers' Center. You may also picnic outdoors or in your car. Local restaurant map available at check-in table.

1:30-1:45 PM / PREARRANGED EDITING SESSIONS

Individual, prearranged editing sessions with editors Amy Dragga or Eryka Parker.

1:45-2:45 PM / FIRST PAGE CRITIQUE PANEL 
Panelists Brandi Larsen, Deanna Adams, and Anastasia Hastings.

We'll randomly select anonymous first pages of work-in-progress and read them aloud. Each panelist will raise a hand at the point where they would stop reading and then comment on what stopped them. First Page Critique writers will remain anonymous.

For anyone interested in having their work read anonymously at the First Page Critique Panel at 1:45 PM: Drop off FOUR COPIES of the first page of your work-in-progress (prose only, fiction or nonfiction) at the check-in table before noon. Your work must be double-spaced, in 12-point Times New Roman font, with Title and Genre written at the top of the page. Do NOT include your name anywhere on the page. 

2:45-3:00 PM / BREAK & PREARRANGED EDITING SESSIONS  

Individual, prearranged editing sessions with editors Amy Dragga or Eryka Parker.

3:00-4:00 PM / BREAKOUT SESSIONS

1. Revision Reality for Novelists / Laura Walter. Meeting Room A/B/C. What does it really take to revise a novel in preparation for submission to agents or editors? This workshop offers an honest view of today’s publishing landscape while covering practical tips and best practices for the novel-revision process.

*2. Creating Credible Characters / Anastasia Hastings. Writers Center Meeting Room. Plot drives your story, but characters drive your plot. Anastasia will discuss what makes characters come alive on the page and share how you can create story people that your readers will care about.  

*3. Breaking and Rearranging Linear Language Connections / Quartez Harris. Student Success Center. Not every piece of writing needs to make sense or reveal its meaning clearly. You can create gaps in language and that can make it playful. In this workshop, we will explore exercises to break the constraints of straightforward description and conventional meaning. This workshop can benefit writers in multiple genres, including fiction, poetry, and nonfiction. 

4:00-4:15 PM / PREARRANGED EDITING SESSIONS

Individual, prearranged editing sessions with editors Amy Dragga or Eryka Parker.

4:00-4:30 PM / DOOR PRIZES, BOOK SALE & AUTHOR SIGNINGS

TODAY’S PRESENTERS

Deanna Adams is a writer, speaker, and author of eight books, both fiction and nonfiction. She is the longtime coordinator of this conference, the “Book Whisperer” for Cuyahoga County Public Library, and teaches online writing courses for the Pennwriters organization. Her book, The Writer’s GPS: A Guide to Writing & Selling Your Book, instructs aspiring writers on how to get their book written from beginning to end. She’s available for personal critiques on queries and book proposals at her website.

Shelley Costa’s work has been nominated for both the Edgar and Agatha Awards and has received an Honorable Mention for The Pushcart Prize. She is the author of several amateur sleuth novels and many crime stories. Her latest mystery novel, No Mistaking Death (Level Best Books, July 2023), marks the debut of her new soft-boiled private eye series. Shelley holds a PhD in English from Case Western Reserve University, where she teaches topics in American literature and Literary Modernism through their Siegal Lifelong Learning program.

Amy Dragga is an experienced local editor who specializes in the Chicago Manual of Style. She helps aspiring and experienced authors polish their manuscript into one that they can be confident is ready for submission, with strong bones and free of style, grammar, and formatting gaffes. She holds an editing certificate from the University of Chicago and is a member of both ACES: The Society for Editing and the Editorial Freelancers Association. Through her company, Blue Hyphen Creative, LLC, she helps nonfiction and fiction authors polish their manuscript to get it ready for submission. 

Rebecca Ferlotti is an editor specializing in developmental editing and copy editing for non-fiction books. Her poetry has been published in a handful of literary magazines; and she has presented her work at conferences, coffee shops, and libraries around the U.S. Rebecca also runs The Content Cornerstone, an empathy-driven content marketing collective. When she’s not at her home office, she’s traveling the world, which she uses as fuel for her personal and professional writing.

Quartez Harris, the Ohio Poetry Association's 2021 Poet of the Year, is the author of two books of poetry, Nothing, But Skin and the much celebrated We Made It to School Alive. He was the first recipient of the Barbara Smith Writer-In-Residence at Twelve Literary Arts and a 2020 Baldwin House Fellow. He is represented by McKinnon Literary Agency and has been featured in the Plain Dealer, IdeaStream, and a talk for the City Club of Cleveland. His works in progress are a picture book biography and middle grade children's novel. Learn more at quartezharris.com. 

Anastasia Hastings has published more than 70 novels, under different pen names. Her newest, Of Hoaxes and Homicide, is the second in the Dear Miss Hermione historical mystery series. The first book in that series, Of Manners and Murder, was praised by The Wall Street Journal as evoking "...the shocking revelations of Wilkie Collins, the social acuity of Jane Austen and the comic melodrama of Oscar Wilde." As Kylie Logan, she has written the Jazz Ramsey mysteries and, as Casey Daniels, the Pepper Martin mysteries. Both those series are set in Cleveland. You can find all her pen names and book titles at www.mystery-book-series.com.

Brandi Larsen, Cuyahoga County Public Library’s 2024 Writer in Residence, is a writer, speaker, and coach building a more inclusive publishing landscape. Her work at Penguin Random House helped create New York Times bestsellers and her journalism pieces earned Emmy nominations. Her talks about publishing, leadership, and purpose inspire audiences from Zoom to Harvard. She serves as President Emeritus for Literary Cleveland and writes books and essays. Brandi is the co-writer of NYT-recommended Uncultured: A Memoir, from St. Martin's Press. 

Dr. Raquel M. Ortiz is an Emmy-nominated award-winning writer, anthropologist, storyteller, educator, lyricist, and children’s book author. Ortiz is the 2023 Cleveland Public Library Artist-in-Residence. Ortiz wrote a song and the script for Cucarachita Martina’s Musical Adventure, which was nominated for a 2021 Emmy. Her first picture book, Sofi and the Magic, Musical Mural (Arte Público Press, 2015), was named to the 2016 Tejas Star Reading List. When Julia Danced Bomba (Arte Público Press, 2019), is a Junior Library Guild Golden Selection.  

Eryka Parker edits both nonfiction and fiction. Her category preferences are self-help, women’s fiction, romance, and thriller. As a book coach and award-winning developmental editor, Eryka Parker helps prepare polished, professional stories for publication. She simplifies the publishing process by helping authors create detailed business plans and marketing strategies to maximize impact and book sales. Eryka’s literary agency, Legacy Book Coaching & Consulting, also offers publishing consults and writing workshops. 

Meg Thompson's most recent book of poems, Eruption Sequence (Another New Calligraphy, 2023), is a memoir in verse. She spent over a decade teaching English, living in places such as Oklahoma and South Korea. Her work has appeared in Best of the Net, McSweeney's, and The Sun. She now resides in Wellington with her husband and two children.

Laura Maylene Walter is the author of the novel, Body of Stars (Dutton, 2021), an Ohioana Book Awards Finalist and a UK Booksellers Association Fiction Book of the Month selection. Her work has appeared in The Sun, Ninth Letter, Slate, Literary Hub, The Masters Review, and others. She has received grants, fellowships, or residencies from Yaddo, Sewanee, Tin House, the Ohio Arts Council, the Barbara Deming Memorial Fund, the Chautauqua Institution, the Ohioana Library Association, and Art Omi: Writers. She is currently the Ohio Center for the Book Fellow at Cleveland Public Library, where she hosts Page Count, a literary podcast.