Booksellers wield a lot of power in the marketplace. They can revive a backlist book and find new audiences, affect sales of new titles, and host events that increase book visibility. Most importantly, they spend their days talking about books with readers.

New to submitting your work? This is the panel for you. This panel of editors will discuss what they are looking for, best practices for submissions, and what happens after you submit (and after your work is accepted).

How to write and publish your memoir (without going to AWP) with Bernardine 'Dine' Watson, author of TRANSPLANT: A Memoir, and Megan Doney, author of UNARMED: An American Educator's Memoir. These award-winning memoirs, published in 2023 and 2024, respectively, by the Washington Writers' Publishing House, broke new ground for this DC-based small press and have broken through with readers nationwide. Learn about these first-time authors' writing processes and their journeys to publication.

How do poems serve as containers for grief while expanding our capacity for hope? How do certain poems carry us across a turbulent patch like a lantern in our hand? In this workshop, we'll closely read and discuss such a poem (or two) together before we turn to generating our own creative work inspired by what such reading illuminates. Above all, how can we find or strengthen our creative resilience in the face of so much uncertainty? How can we hold together the light and the dark? 

Join us for this nonfiction craft talk about the intersection of sports writing, journalism, historical writing, and feminism. Three writers will discuss their new books that break ground in the world of writing about women in sports.

Join us for our second annual translation event! Three poetry translators will share their experiences from choosing the text through the translation process and publication. They will discuss the choices they make in their work and how language, culture, and time period affects the final work.

David Ebenbach, an award winning writer of fiction, poetry, and non-fiction will discuss his new novel, Possible Happiness. David will also talk about the decisions, challenges, and benefits of writing in multiple genres.

This is a member event for our Lunch Break Writers. If you’re interested in becoming a member, please visit this page for more information!

Visual Stories, Personal Truths: a conversation on graphic memoirs with Kelcey Ervick, Alice Kaltman, and Jesse Lee Kercheval.

Join us for a Q&A with Cassie Mannes Murray, founder and director of Pine State Publicity.

Against Book Banning: Protecting Freedom of Speech in America

Stories can change and move our hearts. Let’s write together and raise money Harris Walz.

Writing the Missing: A Conversation on Family, Disappearance, and Creative Investigations

Miriam Gershow and Stephanie Austin will discuss the messy intimacies at the heart of their recent books, Miriam’s short story collection, Survival Tips (Propeller Books) and Stephanie's nonfiction chapbook, Something I Might Say (WTAW Press). Whether it is the bonds between family, friends, or near strangers, they will examine how the muddle of contradictory feelings is often what reveals the truth.

On the two-year anniversary of their weekly writing check-ins, fiction writers Nicole Haroutunian and Helen Georgas will be in conversation about Nicole’s novel, Choose This Now, and the form of the novel-in-stories.

Celebrate Regie Cabico's new book with a reading followed by an informative discussion from Mid-Atlantic Review Editorial Board Chair, Gregory Luce. Learn about what poetry journal editors look for and more submission insight. Day Eight publishes poetry books and the Mid-Atlantic Review (online with some print issues.) Q&A will follow.

In the poem "Primary Source," Sara R. Burnett writes, “I’ve a better understanding of terror / and the miraculous.” In this time of great global and personal challenges, how do we write and live both the terror and the miraculous? Poet Sara R. Burnett and therapist Rachel Noble will discuss how to approach both as writers and humans. Burnett will read poems on the subject and Noble will offer some ways to find personal power in the face of fears. You’ll have a chance to pose your own questions in the Q&A.

How do we capture the emotional power of food experience in our writing? Crafting narratives with food memories opens up rich fields of exploration and connections, rendering complex, vibrant narratives that resonate with emotion. Focusing on food memories and experiences, five panelists draw upon multi-genre work from fiction to creative nonfiction to discuss craft techniques, revision strategies, and how they use food in their work to explore and interrogate relationships and social issues.

Trauma, racial injustice, rape culture, family relationships, body image: we all carry these weights around with us in our own way. How can we examine and write about them without crumbling under their weight? Join TJ Butler, Rebecca Morrison, and Tara Campbell for a discussion of working productively with tough material: how to start, how to dig, and how to recognize and respect your limits.

We often write around a subject until we eventually write the final (or a published) version. Some early drafts might not look anything like the final draft, but the poet knows where the poem began. In this Fake AWP session, poets will read a final draft and either an early draft or a close-cousin poem that helped them to write the final draft.

Giovanna Bellesia Contuzzi and Victoria Offredi Poletto will discuss translating My Language is a Jealous Lover by Adrián N. Bravi into English. They will read from the text and share their process of translating and working together on the project.

Dark Winter Stories with John Copenhaver, Tracy Cross, and Lindsay Merbaum.

Join us to celebrate the release of AWAKENINGS: STORIES OF BODIES & CONSCIOUSNESS (ELJ Editions), edited by DIANE GOTTLIEB. Readings from contributors will be followed by a Q&A.

Circling History: Writing What Carries the Body - a conversation with Jehanne Dubrow and Julia Kolchinsky Dasbach

Join us for a reading and conversation with Joshunda Sanders, in celebration of the release of her debut novel, Women of the Post.

Join us for a reading with Minna Dubin - and special guest Stella Fiore - to discuss Minna’s new book, MOM RAGE.

Join us for a Q&A with Saba Sulaiman, senior literary agent at Talcott Notch Literary Services. Saba will discuss her top tips on writing a winning query letter & answer all your questions about the process of finding a literary agent. You'll leave this one-hour session armed with tools to get you started (or help you continue) searching for the right literary agent for your work.

A short reading and chat with Yael Goldstein-Love, author of THE POSSIBILITIES (Random House) + 30 minutes of Lunch Break writing time.

Join us for a reading and conversation with Jolene McIlwain to celebrate the release of her debut collection, SIDLE CREEK, from Melville House!

Join authors Gayle Brandeis and Leta McCullough Seletzky as they discuss their their newest books, and the importance of writing the history of those closest to us to build a larger, more inclusive community-history. They will discuss writing mortality, analyzing shifting identities (particularly your own, or your family history), and the craft of making life into art.

Join us for a reading & conversation with Lily Poetry Review Book authors TOMMY ARCHULETA, MARÍA LUISA ARROYO CRUZADO, KELLY DUMAR, RICHARD HOFFMAN, KAREEM TAYYAR, and MEGHAN STERLING.