Conference Handouts

Friday, 22 February

9:00 - 10:00: Craft Classes

• Fiction: Reeder: “Cheever’s ‘Five-Forty-Eight’: Suspense Up-Close”
  • John Cheever: The Five-Forty-Eight
• Young Adult: Konigsberg: “Dialogue and Voice in the YA Novel”
  • THE SEVEN DEADLY SINS OF Y.A. DIALOGUE

10:15 - 11:45: Extended Craft Class

• Poetry: Merrin: “Write Now”
  • “Write Now” handout
• Mixed Genre: Duarte: “Writing Through Revelations, Visions and Dreams”
  • “Writing Through Revelations, Visions, and Dreams”
  • “Symbols of My Soul”
  • “Ingredients of a Good Short Story”
  • “Imagery Work: How to Process the Invisible”
• Youth: Bessesen: “Ask the Write Questions: Effectively Critiquing Your Middle Grade Manuscript”
  • Ask the Write Questions: Effectively Critiquing Your Middle Grade Manuscript
• Creative Nonfiction: Gutkind: “You Can’t Make this Stuff Up: The Art and Challenge of Creative Nonfiction”
  • Difficult Decisions, by Lee Gutkind
  • Fixing Nemo, by Rebecca Skloot
  • Three Spheres

2:30 - 3:30: Publishing, Trends & Craft Classes

• Young Adult/Youth: Moore: “Inside the Trenches: Launching a Career in Children’s Book Publishing, from Picture Books to YA”
  • Children’s Book References
  • List of Attributes that Make a Good Children’s Book (in Our Option)
• Fiction: Webb: “How I know Your Manuscript Isn’t Ready Without Reading a Single Word”
  • Caro Clark: “I AM YOUR EDITOR”
  • BETTY WEBB’S FIRST AGENT QUERY LETTER
  • RED FLAGS IN YOUR MANUSCRIPT? HOW TO SURVIVE THE FIRST PAGE READ-THROUGH

Saturday, 23 February

9:00 - 10:00: Craft Classes

• Creative Nonfiction/Fiction: Backhaus: “Memoir or Fiction? Finding the Real Story You Want to Tell”
  • Bret Anthony Johnston: “Don’t Write What You Know,” from The Atlantic
  • James Baldwin: “Notes of a Native Son”
  • Salman Rushdie: “THE DISAPPEARED: How the fatwa changed a writer’s life,” from The New Yorker
• Romance: Quinn: “The Business of Writing: Steps to Success”
  • “Ridiculously Simple Way to Plot Worksheet”

10:15 - 11:45: Extended Craft Class

• Romance: Quinn: “Practice What You Pitch”
  • “Practice What You Pitch”
• Creative Nonfiction: Gutkind: “You Can’t Make this Stuff Up: The Art and Challenge of Creative Nonfiction”
  • Difficult Decisions, by Lee Gutkind
  • Fixing Nemo, by Rebecca Skloot
  • Three Spheres
• Mystery: Peters: “Finding Your Voice”
  • Finding Your Voice handout
• Children: Bessesen: “Crafting Contemporary Picture Books: Character, Structure and Voice in Under 200 Words”
  • Crafting Contemporary Picture Books: Character, Structure and Voice in Under 200 Words

2:30 - 3:30: Trends & Craft Classes

• Mystery: Webb: “Toil and Trouble: How To Improve Your Dialogue”
  • Toil and Trouble: Dialogue Hints & Warnings
  • DIALOGUE TAGS, from Lisa See’s “Dragon Bones”
• Fiction/Nonfiction: Stabenow: “Connecting Authors & Readers: Promotion Through Social Networking”
  • Connecting Authors & Readers: Promotion Through Social Networking

Sunday, 24 February

9:00 - 10:00: Craft Classes

• Children: Bessesen: “You Must Find the Story: Crafting Narrative Nonfiction for Children”
  • You Must Find the Story: Crafting Narrative Nonfiction for Children
• SciFi/Fantasy: Zahn: “Writing the Short Story”
  • There will be a handout given in class for piece-by-piece analysis
• Fiction: Duarte: “Villians and Vixens: Writing the Dark Side”
  • “Villains and Vixens: Writing the Dark Side”
  • “Ingredients of a Good Short Story”
  • “Who is Your Protagonist?”
  • “The Antagonist Within”

10:15 - 11:15: Craft Classes

• Fiction/Nonfiction: MacDonald: “The Art of Editing Your Work”
  • “The Art of Editing”

11:30 - 12:30: Craft Classes

• Fiction/Nonfiction: MacDonald and Backhaus: “Writing About Family”
  • “Writing about Family”
  • Aleksandar Hemon: “THE AQUARIUM:A child’s isolating illness,” from The New Yorker
  • Lorrie Moore: “PEOPLE LIKE THAT ARE THE ONLY PEOPLE HERE,” from The New Yorker
  • Peter Orner: “Writing About What Haunts Us,” from The New York Times
• Poetry: Bosch: “Gravity, Levity, Brevity”
  • “Epitaphia”