NC Writers' Network HIts the Beach for 2009 Fall Conference

Musings for October 29

North Carolina Writers’ Network Hits the Beach for 2009 Fall Conference

More than 300 writers, editors, and literary agents will descend upon Wrightsville Beach November 20-22 for the annual North Carolina Writers’ Network Fall Conference, one of the country’s largest conferences dedicated to the art and business of writing. Those in attendance, however, won’t all be professionals in the book business. Sure, bestselling novelist Cassandra King will be there but so will high school and college students interested in writing and so will non-writing fans of Ms. King and the other writers giving workshops, readings, and seminars. In short, the conference is open to anyone.

The conference will be held at the Holiday Inn SunSpree Resort in Wrightsville Beach, and registration is now open at the Network’s website, www.ncwriters.org. In all, more than 30 writers and editors, including such notables as Anthony Abbott, Ellyn Bache, Philip Gerard, Marianne Gingher, Peter Makuck, and Mark Smith-Soto, will lead workshops, master classes, and panel discussions on topics ranging from finding the form in free verse to how to write how to books. There will also be seminars on screenwriting, food writing, using dialect, and selling one’s work to agents and editors. There will be opportunities for developing writers to work one-on-one with book professionals through the Manuscript Mart and Critique Service features of the conference. Ben George, editor of UNCW’s literary journal Ecotone will share tips on submitting to literary magazines; Emily Smith, director of The Publishing Laboratory at UNCW, will teach a workshop on designing covers for books; and Alice Osborn will show you how to use Facebook, Twitter, Myspace, Linkedin, YouTube and other social media to promote your writing.

Agents and editors at the conference will include representatives from The Steinberg Agency, John F. Blair Publishers, University of North Carolina Press, Novello Festival Press, and Press 53. Additionally, dozens of authors and presses will have their sometimes hard to find books available for purchase and signing by the authors, and a variety of literary and arts organizations will have informative exhibits about the programs they make available for the NC arts community.

And, of course, there will be the beach and the beautiful mix of old and new, tradition and innovation that is Wilmington, NC. Where better to find inspiration and motivation than in a room full of writers soaking up the perfect blend of nature and culture?