Spring has come—a time for renewal and growth. Warmer weather makes travel easier, and relaxing pandemic guidelines open doors to gatherings that have been unavailable for the past couple of years. So this is a perfect time to reserve a slot at a writer’s conference.
Beth Steury's blog, "It's Conference Time, Baby!" whetted our appetite with several nearby Christian writer's conferences. I encourage you to revisit that page and delve into these opportunities.
And there's more. In Indiana, we have access to several writer's conferences that are not tailored to Christian writers but are nonetheless helpful. Here’s a sample of such conferences coming up soon. I hope they'll entice you to get out of isolation and learn some new skills.
April
23 – 2022 Gathering of Writers. Sponsored by the Indiana Writer’s Center, the Gathering is
keynoted by Angela Jackson-Brown, author of When Stars Rain Down (Thomas
Nelson: 2021) with workshops in a wide variety of writing genres. Tuition is
$99 for IWC members, $175 for non-members. Held at the Indiana State Library,
Indianapolis. Details at https://www.indianawriters.org/product/gow-2022/
April
23 – Pen It! Writer’s Conference. Sponsored by Pen It! Publications, a Columbus publisher owned
by Pastor Ray Stanton and his wife Debi, this conference features workshops on realistic
dialogue, believable scenes, and more. The conference will be held at the Brown
County Historical Society building in Nashville, IN. Tuition is $45 in-person
or $35 via Zoom. Details at https://penitpublications.com/2021-virtual-writers-conference/
April
30 – Riley Children’s Author Workshop. Children’s authors Annie Sullivan and Chadwick
Gillenwater present a day of seminars on writing children’s and YA books. Tuition
is $100 and the event will be at the James Whitcomb Riley home, 528 Lockerbie
Street, Indianapolis. Details at http://alturl.com/5bvra
June
2-5 – I.U. Writer’s Conference. Indiana’s most prestigious writer’s conference, this program
has featured several Nobel and Pulitzer winners, National Book Award winners,
and New York Times best-selling authors. All presentations are held on
the Indiana University campus in Bloomington. Tuition is $375 for classes (your
choice of 3 per day) or $750 for workshops (including a manuscript critique,
limited to 15 participants each). Details at https://iuwc.indiana.edu/
If your life
has been enriched by writer’s workshops, I encourage you to support the Indiana
Prison Writer’s Workshop, which offers twelve weeks of classes to inmates of
three Indiana prisons. Consider making a
donation, hosting a reading at your public library, etc. Details at http://inprisonwritersworkshop.org/
Joe Allison writes both fiction and nonfiction, and has been a member of the Indiana chapter of American Christian Fiction Writers since 2010. His most recent book is Hard Times (Warner Press: 2019). He lives in Anderson, IN, with his wife Maribeth.
