* The AWC Annual Conference *
August 20-22, 2021
Free, Virtual, & Yes, You Have to Register
The Alabama Writers' Cooperative presents this year's conference as a virtual opportunity on Zoom; it is free to all humans who register to participate. Our focus is to nurture and engage a diverse community of Alabama writers with this year's conference, and we're pleased with how the backgrounds and expertise of our faculty reflect that focus.
We are thrilled to have two keynote speakers, Angela Jackson-Brown on Friday and Randi Pink on Saturday, thanks to our partnership with PEN America and the Birmingham Chapter of PEN America, as well as an incredible line-up of faculty and speakers.
We are also partnering with the Emmett O’Neal Library to bring virtual library programming. A few basic rules and suggestions:
Registration is required. Please take time to study the events and submit one registration form for yourself which includes every event you’d like to attend. Once. Please don’t fill out the form multiple times.
Although being overcommitted isn’t advisable, when it comes to the AWC Virtual Conference, it’s better to overcommit (I.e. register for all the events you’d like to attend) than undercommit (i.e. register only for those events you are absolutely sure that you can and will attend). In an effort to ensure that the registration forms only get filled out once, the registration form has been placed at the bottom of this page, indicated by a large, yellow REGISTRATION button.
Manuscript consultations and pitch sessions are available to AWC members only. If you would like to participate in this, and you aren’t yet a member, please renew your membership or become a member before filling out the registration form. Pitch sessions are full.
We will email the Zoom link and any pitch session or manuscript consultation information one week prior to the conference start date.
Members-Only Opportunities
Free Manuscript Consultations for Members
The conference will include free manuscript consultations and free agent pitch sessions for AWC members on a first-come, first-serve basis. Space is limited. Manuscript consultations: Members may submit up to 12 pages and each will be conducted through email exchange. We will email the Zoom link for this one week prior to the conference start date.
Adam Prince (fiction) will provide fiction manuscript consultations for the first 20 registrations. Please submit up to 12 pages of stand-alone short stories, a sequence of flash fictions, or a novel excerpt.
Sue Brannan Walker (poetry) will provide poetry manuscript consultations to the first 10 registrations. Please submit up to 12 pages of poetry.
TJ Beitelman (nonfiction) will provide nonfiction manuscript consultations for the first 10 registrations. Please submit up to 12 pages of nonfiction, whether essay, memoir, or other.
Free Agent Pitch Sessions for Members (THESE ARE NOW FULL)
Erin Clyburn of The Jennifer DiChiara Literary Agency will offer 10 minute pitch sessions on Saturday between 11 a.m.-1 p.m. She will accept the first 8 registrations. We will email the Zoom link for this one week prior to the conference start date.
Free First-Page Reading Panel for Members
The free First-page Reading Panel enables AWC members to submit the first page of their manuscript in progress and industry professionals (including agents Erin Clyburn, Jemiscoe Chambers-Black, and Kaitlyn Johnson) will read as many submissions aloud as time permits, providing comments on what's working and what's not and giving general advice on what agents are looking for. This will be informative for participants to observe even if they don't submit their first page. We will email the Zoom link for this one week prior to the conference start date.
Friday, August 20
9:00 am
Introduction by Conference Chair, Jessica Jones
9:10 am
“The Problem & Promise of Pre-Writing?” with T. J. Beitelman
Writing can be time-consuming. Revision can be even more time-consuming. Who has time to "waste" on writing before you're actually writing "for real?" In this workshop, we'll try to turn that question on its head -- what writer worth her salt doesn't make time to pre-write?! -- and, in the process, we'll attempt to expand our definition of what counts as pre-writing. Fair warning: we'll take some time to practice a few useful pre-writing techniques in our time together.
10:00 am
“Do-It-Yourself Poetry Project” with Jennifer Horne
Alabama State Poet Laureate Jennifer Horne will talk about her “Mid-Week Poetry Break” pandemic project and help participants to brainstorm public poetry projects of their own and identify strategies for helping them become a reality.
11:00 am
Emmett O’Neal Library Programs with Matthew Layne
12:00 pm
Emmett O’Neal Library Tour with Matthew Layne
1:00 pm
“Petition Your Imagination” with Tina Mozelle Braziel
Ready to change the world? Stretch your imagination and writing muscles as you voice your ideal future environment in the form of a poem or lyric essay. During this writing exercise, we will envision, draft, and evoke the future we want. Ocean Vuong says that the future is in our mouths. We will speak it into being.
2:00 pm
“10 Steps to Make Your Nonfiction a Page-Turner?” with T. K. Thorne
You’ve got the story—now how do you make it connect with a reader? What specific tools make a page-turner and how can you employ them effectively? • 10 specific strategies to making readers care about your story; • The difference between conflict and tension and how to use them effectively in a nonfiction; • How is writing nonfiction the same and different from fiction? • How much research is enough/too much? • The writing principle that's better than “following the rules.”
3:00 pm
“Descriptive Phrasing” with Voice Porter
All workshops are geared toward verbal presentation. These are sessions designed to create or alter works to be taken in by a listener, more so, than a reader. In the “Descriptive Phrasing” workshop, we will work through prompts to create descriptions using senses and emotions.
4:00 pm
“Think Like a Screenwriter: How Getting Familiar with Screenplay Format Can Help You Identify the Essentials in Your Fiction (and Poetry)” with Katie Boyer
This workshop will begin by providing a brief overview of screenplay format, including scene headings, action blocks, and dialog. Examples will come from a recent screenplay adapted from a novel, such as The Martian or The Girl on the Train. Discussion will shift to film as a visual medium and ways that the screenplay suggests visual images and relies on brevity. Finally, the workshop will examine screenwriting techniques that can be applied to creating or editing fiction and poetry.
5:00 pm
“What’s Your Itinerary: Deciding the Structure for Your Memoir” with Charlotte Pence
Planning the structure of your book-length memoir is akin to choosing your next trip. What vibe are you wanting? What is the goal: to learn, to laze, or to adventure? What are practical considerations such as time and money? In this talk, Charlotte Pence will share a range of memoir structures so that writers will come away with a clearer idea of where they want to go—and what they’ll need to pack for the trip.
6:00 pm
”Activism is the Rent”: Keynote Address by Angela Jackson-Brown in Conversation with Arnee Odoms (Co-sponsored by PEN America)
Join award-winning author Angela Jackson Brown and the Alabama state coordinator for Black Voters Matter Arnee Odoms, in an event sponsored by PEN America's Birmingham chapter. Brown will read from her recent novel, When Stars Rain Down, and then join Odoms in discussion on how literary engagement can be a powerful springboard for engaging in regional activism and the fight for freedom of expression.
7:00 pm
Virtual Open Mic & Social
More information about signing up to read at the Virtual Open Mic will come soon, and be made available to those who register to attend the conference. Members will have an opportunity to do an online book-line exchange and to share their books with other members.
Saturday, August 21
8:00 am
“Writing Nature” with Tina Mozelle Braziel
From the trees just outside your window to an encounter with a rare salamander, nature offers a vast array of inspiration. In this session, Tina will discuss some of her favorite nature writers and will lead you in writing exercises that explore your outdoor experiences.
9:00 am
“How to Write Historical Nonfiction” with Monique Jones
In this class, I'll focus on how I wrote my first nonfiction book, The Book of Awesome Black Americans. I will focus particularly on developing a theme for your book, organizing your chapters, creating an overall narrative to tie your research together, and how to properly research using the internet (i.e. using credible sources versus potentially misleading sources).
10:00 am
“Refining” with Voice Porter
All workshops are geared toward verbal presentation. These are sessions designed to create or alter works to be taken in by a listener, more so, than a reader. In “Refining,” we will take previously written works and edit for rhythm, cadence, and phrasing (spacing).
11:00 am
Pitch Sessions with Erin Clyburn
Erin Clyburn of The Jennifer DiChiara Literary Agency will offer 10 minute pitch sessions on Saturday between 11 a.m.-1 p.m. She will accept the first 8 registrations. We will email the Zoom link for this one week prior to the conference start date.
1:00 pm
“From the Outside In: Structural Approaches to Narrative” with Shaun Hamill
You have a great idea. Maybe it's a fantastical, magical world. Maybe it's a historical epic. Maybe it's a love story about that one special summer between high school and college. But so far, that's all you have: an idea. How do you get from that first spark to a finished story, memoir, or novel? In this workshop, we'll explore some practical tools to structure a functioning narrative. This isn't a recipe or formula for shake-and-bake fiction, but a road map you'll design to help you make the trip to a finished first draft and beyond.
2:00 pm
How to Put Together a Poetry Manuscript with Jennifer Horne
Explore options and strategies for putting together a collection of your own work, from chapbooks to full-length manuscripts, from self-publishing to swinging for the fences.
3:00 pm
“Agents First-Page Reading”: Erin Clyburn, Jemiscoe Chambers-Black, and Kaitlyn Johnson
The free First-page Reading Panel enables AWC members to submit the first page of their manuscript in progress and industry professionals (including agents Erin Clyburn, Jemiscoe Chambers-Black, and Kaitlyn Johnson) will read as many submissions aloud as time permits, providing comments on what's working and what's not and giving general advice on what agents are looking for. This will be informative for participants to observe even if they don't submit their first page. We will email the Zoom link for this one week prior to the conference start date.
4:00 pm
“How to Promote Your Book” with Tina Mozelle Braziel
Your book is coming out, now what? Drawing on her experiences, award-winning poet Tina Mozelle Braziel will describe the steps to take to publicize your book, organize a book tour, and connect with your audience.
5:00 pm
“How to Present to an Audience” with Voice Porter
All workshops are geared toward verbal presentation. These are sessions designed to create or alter works to be taken in by a listener, more so, than a reader. In “How to present to an audience”, we will discuss "poet voice", cold reads, reading and reacting to your audience and more.
6:00 pm
“Breaking Up: How to End Our Poems and Prose” with Charlotte Pence
In this workshop, we will focus on different strategies both poets and prose writers have employed to create satisfying yet surprising endings. Some writers we will find inspiration from include Eduardo Corral, Jericho Brown, Layli Long Soldier, Joan Didion, Kazuo Ishiguru, and Annie Proulx. After we look at examples together, participants will have the opportunity to revise endings that they bring to the workshop in break-out groups.
7:00 pm
Keynote Address: “Writing Our Way Through,” by Randi Pink
We are emotional beings. Especially now, we’re all riding our own personal roller coasters of emotion to make it through this unpredictable moment in history. We’re sad, overwhelmed, exhausted, joyful, angry! Society says repress the intensity of our emotions, but I say, use them! History will look back on this moment, longing for our raw, unfiltered words. There is no way around it. We must write through it.
8:00 pm
Awards Announcement & Virtual Social
Awards will be announced.
Sunday, August 22
8:00 am
“How to Write for Online Journalism” with Monique Jones
In this class, I will go over some of the most important skills and techniques I use every day in my career as a freelance entertainment journalist interviewing celebrities and reviewing film and television. Some of my class will focus on interviewing skills, differences between online journalism and print journalism, and how to pitch for jobs.
9:00 am
“Reality Check: What They Don’t Teach You in Film School” with Joel Eisenberg
This workshop discusses the myths and realities of the film and television businesses. We will discuss whether agents are necessary for all career trajectories, how a writer-producer can empower themselves to take control of their own career, and how to think outside the box while being a creative entrepreneur. Bring a pen!
10:00 am
Panel on Literary Agents: Karim Shamsi-Basha, John Mantooth, and Alec Shane
Learn more about how literary agents think and select their clients from this discussion.
11:00 am
“How to Make Your Children’s Book Stand Out” with Karim Shamsi-Basha
My children’s book, Cat Man of Aleppo – published this past April by Penguin Random House - has just won the 2021 Caldecott Honor. What does it take for a children’s book to stand out? Is it the idea, execution, story, mechanics, style, illustrations, or another factor in the myriad of elements that compose a children’s book? You will leave this workshop knowing how to dream-up, write, and execute a stellar children’s book.
12:00 pm
Annual AWC Members Meeting
Members must be present to vote on decisions for the coming year. This is a members-only event, though new members are welcome. AWC members will vote for the next state poet laureate.
As promised, the magic registration button is here, right above this text, waiting for you. We can’t wait to see you online and celebrate Alabama writing with you!
Bookstore
AWC is pleased to partner with independently-owned Thank You Books in Birmingham to provide an online bookstore where conference attendees can purchase books written by this year's faculty.