Willamette Writers Conference 2014 Registration Open!

Just so you know, registration for the Willamette Writers Conference 2014 (AKA, the best writers conference west of the Mississippi) is open!

And I don’t know if it’s the best west-of-the-Mississippi writers conference for sure or not. It just sounds good. But it’s definitely the best first-weekend-of-August-west-of-the-Mississippi writers conference.

I can’t begin to say how much I love this conference.

Granted, as current president of Willamette Writers, I’m definitely biased. However, I also think of this conference as one of the happiest places on earth, and I thought that years ago.

People are happy. People are learning stuff. People are excited about their craft and their ideas and their goals in self-publishing and in the agent that they talked to on Friday morning who wants to see the entire draft of their novel (and not just the first 25 pages). Some of them are even excited about the prospect of going home and editing, if you can believe that.

And the happiness is infectious. Presenters and faculty are excited; speakers are inspired; agents, editors and film consultants are high on donut sugar; everyone walks around with a smile on their face…

Volunteers are downright giddy.

It is truly a magical experience.

Willamette Writers Conference 2014 Line-Up

This year we have the best line-up in agents and editors that I’ve ever seen from our Literary Coordinator Cornelia Becker Seigneur. Film Coordinator Mary Andonian has brought in screenwriters (and judges of screenwriters – eek!) for the film classes, as well as a stellar cast of film consultants and managers. And Program Chair Jason Brick has brought back workshop and classroom favorites like Hallie Ephron and Larry Brooks, as well as reaching out to new names in the self-publishing world and covering all the bases in the business of writing and genre fiction tracks.

Again – not to be biased – but there’s a great article (Yes! By me!) on the conference site that breaks down the workshops for you a bit and gives you access to a PDF TV guide so you can explore all three days using links on the website. Or just print it out and go it old school. But you’ll still need the website for bios and class descriptions. It’s better this way. Trust me. The conference committee can update it faster so that you have the most accurate information possible. Biographies and class descriptions are longer and more comprehensive, and there are links between faculty biographies, workshops, events, and back again, so hopefully you can find answers to all your questions and more. If not, let Willamette Writers know.

So register for the Willamette Writers Conference 2014! You won’t regret it. As an example of the best of the best in the introverted writer category, I can vouch for it. You’ll meet wonderful people, get inspired to get back to writing, editing or publishing (whichever stage you’re stuck at and discouraged by), and you’ll laugh, cry and downright feel.

Like I said, it’s a magical experience.