The 2022 Conference will be held at the exquisite Royal Sonesta Kauai Resort
November, 2022 | Kalapaki Bay | Lihue, Kauai

The 2022 Conference will be held at the exquisite Royal Sonesta Kauai Resort
Kalapaki Bay
Lihue, Kauai







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Story Summit at Kauai Writers Conference
We were thrilled when David Paul Kirkpatrick, former president of Paramount Pictures and Production President of both Walt Disney Studios and Touchstone Pictures, said he wanted to come to the Kauai Writers Conference and bring some of his screenwriting friends.
In his legendary career, he has overseen—to name just a few—the Indiana Jones and Star Trek franchises, and box office hits such as Top Gun, Ghost, and The Hunt for Red October. En route to becoming Paramount’s president, he was a story editor and helped develop such award-winning gems as Elephant Man, Ordinary People, and Terms of Endearment. At Disney, he oversaw Pretty Woman, The Little Mermaid, and Dead Poets Society, among many other hits.

David Kirkpatrick working on a scene with Sally Field and Kevin Kline in the comedy Soapdish
David will teach a four-day masterclass, Writing Scenes for the Screen.
Another Story Summit Writer’s School faculty member, Marta F. Kauffman, will teach a four-day Master Class on Writing for Television. She will be generously sharing stories and insights into creating and writing for television.
Marta is the co-creator, producer, writer and showrunner of both Friends and Grace and Frankie, two of the most successful series in the history of TV. Grace and Frankie is Netflix’s all-time longest running series. Among awards too numerous to list, Marta has won and been nominated multiple times for Golden Globe and Primetime Emmy Awards and is the winner of the Lifetime Achievement Award in Television by the Producers Guild of America.

Marta Kauffman on set of Grace and Frankie with Lily Tomlin and Jane Fonda (Melissa Moseley / Netflix)
Amy Ferris and Linda Schreyer will be co-facilitating their popular Kauai Master Class: Writing/Right Your Life, The Art of Memoir.
Debra Engle will be joining the Kauai faculty as well. She is the bestselling author of The Only Little Prayer You Need: The Shortest Route to a Life of Joy, Abundance and Peace of Mind. It features a foreword by His Holiness, the Dalai Lama, and an endorsement by Archbishop Emeritus Desmond Tutu. Debra will lead conference sessions on nonfiction writing, focusing particularly on writing about spirituality and self-development, and will be joined by bestselling author and Story Summit Writers School faculty member Alan Cohen.
Marta F Kauffman is an Emmy- and Golden Globe-winning television writer, producer, and showrunner behind the hit series Friends and Grace and Frankie. Kauffman got her big break alongside David Crane with their pilots Dream On (1990) and The Powers That Be (1992) before they co-created Friends. In 2015, Kauffman started her production company, Okay Goodnight, with industry veterans Robbie Tollin and Hannah KS Canter. Their first series, Grace and Frankie is Netflix’s longest-running original ever.

Marta Kauffman on set of Grace and Frankie with Lily Tomlin and Jane Fonda
Marta will be teaching the master class:
Writing for Series Comedy
Jim Burke is the President of Production at Focus Features. He won the 2019 Academy Award for best picture for producing Green Book, and was nominated for the best picture Oscar in 2012 for The Descendants.
David Paul Kirkpatrick
Most notably, David Kirkpatrick, was the President of Paramount Pictures and the Production President of Walt Disney Studios. He started as a screenwriter, selling his first script to Paramount at 16. He became story editor at Paramount at 25 where he managed thousands of screenplays. Over his long career, David has worked on over 200 motion pictures starting with ideas and seeing them through to successful production, marketing, and distribution. He has worked on such recognizable global franchises as Indiana Jones, and Star Trek. He has developed countless Academy Award winning movies including Ordinary People, Elephant Man, Witness, Terms of Endearment, and Forest Gump.

David Kirkpatrick working on a scene with Sally Field and Kevin Kline in the comedy Soapdish
David will be teaching the master class:
Writing Scenes for the Screen
Debra Landwehr Engle
Debra Engle is the author of five books, and she has contributed to several others. Her four books of nonfiction include The Only Little Prayer You Need: The Shortest Route to a Life of Joy, Abundance and Peace of Mind, which was translated into four languages and has been an international bestseller. It features a foreword by His Holiness the Dalai Lama and an endorsement by Archbishop Emeritus Desmond Tutu. She is a two-time winner of the Nautilus Award, honoring better books for a better world.
A longtime teacher of A Course in Miracles, Debra has offered workshops and classes worldwide based on her books and the principles of ACIM. For 15 years, she co-created and presented an international women’s program of personal growth and spirituality.
She has worked in publishing her entire career, beginning as a newspaper copywriter and Better Homes and Gardens book editor, then starting a thriving freelance business. She’s written and edited hundreds of articles for such national publications as Better Homes and Gardens, Country Home, Country Gardens and other lifestyle magazines. She also has served as project manager on publications for Fortune 500 companies, sharpening her skills in crafting a story for any audience.
Debra holds an MFA in Creative Nonfiction from Goucher College in Baltimore. Now co-director of the Story Summit Writer’s School, she works with budding authors one-on-one, in small groups, and through retreats and online courses.
Spiritual Writing: Matters of the Heart and Soul
Talks by Debra Landwehr Engle and Alan Cohen
The interest in books with a spiritual message has surged in the past few years, giving more writers a chance to share and teach through memoir, self-help and inspiration. These stories encompass everything from Christianity to Buddhism to New Thought, and many defy classification, reflecting a uniquely personal spiritual path. The Spiritual Writing talks will address this booming and highly diverse market, with insights on crafting wisdom stories that elevate the author’s sense of purpose and also stand out from the crowd.
Alan Cohen, M.A., is the author of 30 popular inspirational books, including the best-selling A Course in Miracles Made Easy and The Dragon Doesn’t Live Here Anymore, the award-winning A Deep Breath of Life, and the classic Are You as Happy as Your Dog?
His books have been translated into 25 foreign languages. His work has been featured on Oprah.com and in USA Today, The Washington Post and 101 Top Experts. Alan’s radio program Get Real has been broadcast weekly on Hay House Radio, and his monthly column From the Heart is featured in magazines internationally.
Alan is a respected keynoter and seminar leader for professional meetings in the fields of personal growth, inspiration, holistic health, human relations, and achievement of work/life balance. He has served as Instructor of Individual and Group Dynamics at Montclair State College, stood on the faculty of Omega Institute for Holistic Studies, and is a professor at EnTheos Academy for Optimal Living. He is a featured presenter in the award-winning documentary Finding Joe, celebrating the teachings of visionary mythologist Joseph Campbell.
Alan brings a warm blend of wisdom, intimacy, humor, and vision to the path of personal, professional, and spiritual growth. He loves to extract lessons from the practical experiences of daily living, and find beauty in the seeming mundane.
Learn more about Alan at alancohen.com
Spiritual Writing: Matters of the Heart and Soul
Talks by Debra Landwehr Engle and Alan Cohen
The interest in books with a spiritual message has surged in the past few years, giving more writers a chance to share and teach through memoir, self-help and inspiration. These stories encompass everything from Christianity to Buddhism to New Thought, and many defy classification, reflecting a uniquely personal spiritual path. The Spiritual Writing talks will address this booming and highly diverse market, with insights on crafting wisdom stories that elevate the author’s sense of purpose and also stand out from the crowd.
Stuart Coleman is a writer, speaker and environmental advocate. He is the author of three books, including the award-winning biography Eddie Would Go. Coleman is the recipient of the Elliot Cades Award for Literature, the Excellence in Non-fiction Award from the Hawaii Book Publishers Association and several writing fellowships. He is the Co-Founder and Executive Director of an environmental nonprofit called WAI (www.WaiCleanWater.org) and lives in Honolulu with his wife and one-eyed dog.
Lauren Groff is the author of the novels The Monsters of Templeton, shortlisted for the Orange Prize for New Writers, Delicate Edible Birds, a collection of stories, and Arcadia, a New York Times Notable Book, winner of the Medici Book Club Prize, and finalist for the L.A. Times Book Award.
Her third novel, Fates and Furies, was a finalist for the National Book Award in Fiction, the National Book Critics Circle Award, and the Kirkus Award. It won the 2015 American Booksellers’ Association Indies’ Choice Award for Fiction, was a New York Times Notable book and Bestseller, Amazon.com’s #1 book of 2015, and on over two dozen best-of 2015 lists. It also received the 2016 American Bookseller Association’s Indies’ Choice Award for Adult Fiction and, in France, the Madame Figaro Grand Prix de l’Héroïne. Rights have been sold in thirty countries.
Her most recent collection of stories, Florida, was released in June 2018. It won the Story Prize, and was a finalist for the National Book Award, Kirkus Prize, and the Southern Book Prize.
Her work has appeared in journals including the New Yorker, the Atlantic Monthly, Harper’s, Tin House, One Story, and Ploughshares, and in the anthologies 100 Years of the Best American Short Stories, The Pushcart Prize: Best of the Small Presses, PEN/O. Henry Prize Stories, and five editions of the Best American Short Stories.
In 2017, she was named by Granta Magazine as one of the Best of Young American Novelists of her generation.
In 2018, she received a Guggenheim fellowship in Fiction and a Fellowship at the Radcliffe Institute for Advanced Study.
She lives in Gainesville, Florida with her husband, two sons, and dog.

To learn more about Lauren
visit her website:
https://laurengroff.com

Meg will be teaching the master class
Identifying & Overcoming Challenges In Writing Fiction
with Amanda Eyre Ward.
To learn more about Lauren
visit her website:
megwolitzer.com
Three films have been based on her work; This Is My Life, scripted and directed by Nora Ephron, the 2006 made-for-television movie, Surrender, Dorothy, and the 2017 drama The Wife, starring Glenn Close.
The Uncoupling was the subject of the first coast-to-coast virtual book club discussion, via Skype.
Reviews for The Female Persuasion:
“Uncannily timely, a prescient marriage of subject and moment that addresses a great question of the day.”
–The New York Times
“Ultra-readable. . . illuminates the oceanic complexity of growing up female and ambitious.”
–Vogue
“The perfect feminist blockbuster for our times.”
–Kirkus, starred review
Jeff Arch was teaching high school English when his spec script for Sleepless In Seattle sold in 1990. The screenplay was nominated for Academy, Writers Guild of America, and BAFTA (British Academy of Film and Television Arts) awards. Arch’s life has never been the same. He has written for many Hollywood studios and producers and directors, including Penny Marshall, Ron Howard and Barry Levinson. He has just released his first novel, Attachments, with widespread acclaim.
Jeff will be teaching the master class: The Way of Character
ATTACHMENTS (2021)
“Prior to reading this wonderful book, I had only known Jeff Arch’s body of work as a screenwriter, most famously for his Oscar-nominated Sleepless in Seattle. Now, with Attachments, Jeff brings his deep humanity, his unique and unmistakable voice, and his cinematic economy of style to this powerful story of love and betrayal and the possibility of forgiveness. With meticulous plotting and masterful language, he brings life and light to characters as real as they are unforgettable.”
―DAVID P. KIRKPATRICK, former production chief of Walt Disney Studios and president of Paramount Pictures
“There are plenty of novels about childhood friends and lovers, brought together in adulthood, only to learn explosive secrets about the others and themselves. But Attachments transcends them all . . . Letting each character tell his or her own tale, Arch has created people, not mere plot holders, and you’ll follow them eagerly as they move through love, loss, acceptance and forgiveness. There’s a deep humanity and compassion running throughout the story―you’ll care about his characters, flawed though they are, really care. I loved Attachments.”―JANE HELLER, New York Times and USA Today bestselling author
SLEEPLESS IN SEATTLE
In 1989, Jeff Arch gave himself one year to write three screenplays. The second of those―a quirky romantic comedy where the two lovers don’t even meet until the very last page―sold almost immediately, and Sleepless in Seattle became a surprise mega-hit worldwide. For his screenplay, Jeff was nominated for an Oscar, as well as for Writers Guild and BAFTA awards, among others. His other credits include the Disney adventure film Iron Will, New Line’s romantic comedy Sealed With a Kiss, and the independent comedy Dave Barry’s Complete Guide to Guys. His script for Saving Milly, based on Mort Kondracke’s searing memoir, earned the 2005 Humanitas Nomination, an honor Jeff treasures. Jeff is a father, stepfather, father-in-law, and grandfather. Attachments is Jeff’s first novel.
“Sleepless in Seattle,” a real charmer, is a romantic comedy about an ultimate long-distance relationship. Emphasize “romantic.” Emphasize “comedy.” It delivers both.”
— Michael Wilmington Los Angeles Times.
Most of Turow’s books are set in his fictional Kindle County – which feels a lot like Chicago, where he litigates white-collar crime as a partner in the Chicago office of the Dentons law firm. But Testimony shifts courtroom drama to the International Criminal Court. Author Jeffrey Toobin calls it “Turow’s most ambitious and complex work… the best kind of thriller, one that stimulates the mind as well as thrilling the heart.”
One of Turow’s non-fiction books, One L, is considered an indispensible primer on the first year of law school. Another, Ultimate Punishment: A Lawyer’s Reflections on Dealing With the Death Penalty, grew out of his experiences regarding the death penalty. In 1995, Turow won a reversal in the murder conviction of Alejandro Hernandez, who was exonerated after 11 years in prison. He also has served on a commission to review Illinois’ capital punishment policy and the Illinois Executive Ethics Commission.
Turow also contributes to a variety of periodicals and plays in a rock band, the Rock Bottom Remainders (with Stephen King, Matt Groening, Mitch Albom, Amy Tan, Dave Barry and Ridley Pearson), which raises funds for literacy.
Learn more about Scott at www.scottturow.com
Téa Obreht was born in Belgrade in the former Yugoslavia in 1985 and has lived in the United States since the age of twelve. Her debut novel The Tiger’s Wife won the 2011 Orange Prize for Fiction and was a 2011 National Book Award Finalist.
Her writing has been published in The New Yorker, The Atlantic, Harper’s, Vogue, Esquire and The Guardian, and has been anthologized in The Best American Short Stories and The Best American Nonrequired Reading. She has been named by The New Yorker as one of the twenty best American fiction writers under forty and included in the National Book Foundation’s list of 5 Under 35. Téa Obreht lives in New York.
To learn more about Téa visit her website www.teaobreht.com
In a Balkan country mending from war, Natalia, a young doctor, is compelled to unravel the mysterious circumstances surrounding her beloved grandfather’s recent death. Searching for clues, she turns to his worn copy of The Jungle Book and the stories he told her of his encounters over the years with “the deathless man”. But most extraordinary of all is the story her grandfather never told her–the legend of the tiger’s wife.
NAMED ONE OF THE BEST BOOKS OF THE YEAR
by The Wall Street Journal; O: The Oprah Magazine; The Economist; Vogue; Slate; Chicago Tribune; The Seattle Times; Dayton Daily News; Publishers Weekly; Alan Cheuse, NPR’s “All Things Considered”
SELECTED ONE OF THE TOP 10 BOOKS OF THE YEAR
by Michiko Kakutani, “The New York Times”; Entertainment Weekly; The Christian Science Monitor; The Kansas City Star Library Journal
Winner of the 2011 Orange Prize for Fiction
New York Times Bestseller
2011 National Book Award Finalist
2012 Indies Choice Adult Debut Book of the Year
Christina Baker Kline
It’s one thing to write accurately about real people and real events of the past. It’s another thing to pull a character from one’s imagination. Christina Baker Kline has shown with her best-selling books A Piece of the World (2017) and Orphan Train (2013) that she can do both at the same time.
Christina Olson, the subject of Andrew Wyeth’s best-known painting, Christina’s World, rented a studio to the artist, and was his friend and confidant for 30 years. Kline breathes life into Olson by blending deep historical research, her own knowledge of Maine, and even aspects of her own grandmother, also born in 1893.
Kline worked a similar magic in Orphan Train, which shed light on the 1854-1929 practice of relocating orphaned children from East Coast slums to the rural Midwest – where some were integrated into loving families and others harshly treated as indentured servants.
Orphan Train spent more than two years on the New York Times bestseller list, including five weeks at No. 1, has 3.5 million copies in print, and is under consideration for a movie.
Kline enraptured a capacity crowd at the 2018 Kauai Writers Festival leading a class with Alice Hoffman and Kristin Hannah. Her class for 2019 will be announced soon.
In addition to five other novels – including Bird in Hand, Desire Lines and Sweet Water – Kline has written or edited five works of nonfiction on the topics of parenting, grief, and women’s studies. She has taught at Yale, New York University, and the University of Virginia, and served as Writer-in-Residence at Fordham University. She lives with her husband and sons in New Jersey and Maine.
Christina will be teaching the master class Turning Life Into Art along with Paula McLain and Meg Wolitzer.
Learn more about Christina at www.christinabakerkline.com
Mary Roach specializes in popular science and humor. As of 2016, she has published seven books,: Stiff: The Curious Lives of Human Cadavers (2003), Spook: Science Tackles the Afterlife (2005) (published in some markets as Six Feet Over: Adventures in the Afterlife), Bonk: The Curious Coupling of Science and Sex (2008), Packing for Mars: The Curious Science of Life in the Void (2010), My Planet: Finding Humor in the Oddest Places, Gulp: Adventures on the Alimentary Canal (2013), and Grunt: The Curious Science of Humans at War
Roach is noted for her curiosity and humor in addition to her research. Her many humor-laced articles in various publications over the decades include her monthly humor column, “My Planet”, in Reader’s Digest. Although Roach writes primarily about science, she never intended to make it her career. Roach stated in an interview with TheVerge.com, when asked what exactly got her hooked on writing about science,
“To be honest, it turned out that science stories were always, consistently, the most interesting stories I was assigned to cover. I didn’t plan it like this, and I don’t have a formal background in science, or any education in science journalism. Actually I have a bachelor’s degree in psychology.”
TV and radio shows have repeatedly asked Roach to appear as a guest so they could hear her opinions. She has appeared on programs including Coast to Coast AM, The Daily Show, and The Colbert Report. Roach has had monthly columns in Reader’s Digest (“My Planet”) and Sports Illustrated for Women (“The Slightly Wider World of Sports”).Besides being a best-selling author, Roach is involved in other projects. Roach reviews books for The New York Times, and was the guest editor of the Best American Science and Nature Writing 2011 edition. She also serves as a member of the Mars Institute’s Advisory Board, as an ambassador for Mars One and was recently asked to join the Usage Panel of the American Heritage Dictionary.
To learn more about Mary, visit her website at maryroach.net
Luis Alberto Urrea
Hailed by NPR as a “literary badass” and a “master storyteller with a rock and roll heart,” Luis Alberto Urrea is a prolific and acclaimed writer who uses his dual-culture life experiences to explore greater themes of love, loss and triumph.
A 2005 Pulitzer Prize finalist for nonfiction and member of the Latino Literature Hall of Fame, Urrea is the critically acclaimed and best-selling author of 17 books, winning numerous awards for his poetry, fiction and essays. Born in Tijuana to a Mexican father and American mother, Urrea is most recognized as a border writer, though he says, “I am more interested in bridges, not borders.”
His newest book, The House of Broken Angels, is a novel of an American family, which happens to be from Mexico. Angel de la Cruz knows this is his last birthday and he wants to gather his progeny for a final fiesta. The novel will be released in March 2018.
Last year, Urrea won an American Academy of Arts and Letters Fiction award and his collection of short stories, The Water Museum, was a finalist for the 2016 PEN-Faulkner Award and was named a best book of the year by The Washington Post and Kirkus Reviews, among others. Into the Beautiful North, his 2009 a novel, is a Big Read selection by the National Endowment of the Arts and has been chosen by more than 50 different cities and colleges as a community read. The Devil’s Highway, Urrea’s 2004 non-fiction account of a group of Mexican immigrants lost in the Arizona desert, won the Lannan Literary Award and was a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize and the Pacific Rim Kiriyama Prize. The Hummingbird’s Daughter, his 2005 historical novel, tells the story of Urrea’s great-aunt Teresa Urrea, sometimes known as the Saint of Cabora and the Mexican Joan of Arc. The book, which involved 20 years of research and writing, won the Kiriyama Prize in fiction and, along with The Devil’s Highway, was named a best book of the year by many publications.
In all, more than 100 cities and colleges have chosen Into the Beautiful North, The Devil’s Highway or The Hummingbird’s Daughter (or another Urrea book) for a community read.
Urrea has also won an Edgar award from the Mystery Writers of America for best short story (2009, “Amapola” in Phoenix Noir and featured in The Water Museum). Into the Beautiful North earned a citation of excellent from the American Library Association Rainbow’s Project. Urrea’s first book, Across the Wire, was named a New York Times Notable Book and won the Christopher Award. Urrea also won a 1999 American Book Award for his memoir, Nobody’s Son: Notes from an American Life and in 2000, he was voted into the Latino Literature Hall of Fame following the publication of Vatos. His book of short stories, Six Kinds of Sky, was named the 2002 small-press Book of the Year in fiction by the editors of ForeWord magazine. He has also won a Western States Book Award in poetry for The Fever of Being and was in the 1996 Best American Poetry collection. Urrea’s other titles include By the Lake of Sleeping Children, In Search of Snow, Ghost Sickness and Wandering Time.
Luis will be teaching the master class Writing with Joy.
To learn more about Luis,
visit his website at:
luisurrea.com
Adrienne Brodeur is the author of the memoir, Wild Game: My Mother, Her Lover and Me, which was described by The New York Times Book Review as:
“Exquisite and harrowing. . . . The book is so gorgeously written and deeply insightful, and with a line of narrative tension that never slacks, from the first page to the last, that it’s one you’ll likely read in a single, delicious sitting.”
Published in October 2019 by HMH Books, Wild Game’s film rights were bought by Chernin Entertainment with Kelly Fremon Craig, the director of Edge of Seventeen, attached to adapt and direct.
Adrienne has spent the past two decades of her professional life in the literary world, discovering voices, cultivating talent, and working to amplify underrepresented writers. Her publishing career began with founding the fiction magazine, Zoetrope: All-Story, with filmmaker Francis Ford Coppola, where she served as editor in chief from 1996-2002. The magazine has won the prestigious National Magazine Award for best fiction four times. In 2005, she became an editor at Harcourt (later, HMH Books), where she acquired and edited literary fiction and memoir. Adrienne left publishing in 2013 to become Creative Director — and later Executive Director — of Aspen Words , a literary arts nonprofit and program of the Aspen Institute.
Adrienne will teaching the master class Memoir.
Amy Ferris is an author, screenwriter, editor and playwright. Her memoir, Marrying George Clooney: Confessions From A Midlife Crisis debuted theatrically (Off-Broadway) in 2012. Ruth Pennebaker of The New York Times called her memoir “poignant, free-wheeling, cranky and funny.” Amy edited the anthology, SHADES OF BLUE, Writers on Depression, Suicide and Feeling Blue (Seal Press), co-edited the anthology DANCING AT THE SHAME PROM (Seal Press), and has contributed to numerous anthologies including He Said What? The Drinking Diaries, Exit Laughing, Hillary Clinton: Love Her Love Her Not, and The Buddha Next Door. Amy has written for both film and TV. Her screenplays include Mr. Wonderful (Directed by Anthony Minghella) and Funny Valentines (Directed by Julie Dash). Her YA novel, a greater goode (yes, all lowercase) was published by Houghton Mifflin. In 2018 Amy was awarded and named one of 21 Leaders for the 21st Century by Women’s eNews. She is currently co-authoring a book for HarperCollins.
Dr. Charles Johnson, University of Washington (Seattle) professor emeritus and the author of 23 books, is a novelist, philosopher, essayist, literary scholar, short-story writer, cartoonist and illustrator, an author of children’s literature, and a screen-and-teleplay writer.
A MacArthur fellow, Johnson has received a 2002 American Academy of Arts and Letters Award for Literature, a 1990 National Book Award for his novel Middle Passage, a 1985 Writers Guild award for his PBS teleplay “Booker“, the 2016 W.E.B. Du Bois Award at the National Black Writers Conference, and many other awards.
The Charles Johnson Society at the American Literature Association was founded in 2003. In 2020, Lifeline Theater in Chicago will debut its play adaptation of Middle Passage, titled “Rutherford’s Travels.” Dr. Johnson’s most recent publications are The Way of the Writer: Reflections on the Art and Craft of Storytelling, and his fourth short story collection, Night Hawks.
Charles will teach the master class The Way of the Writer.
Learn more about Charles here.
Nicholas Delbanco, making his fourth appearance at the KWF, has had a storied career as a writer, editor, teacher and literary judge. He has written thirty-one books of fiction and non-fiction (plus essays, short stories and reviews). He founded and led Bennington College’s writing program and is Robert Frost Distinguished University Professor of English Language and Literature at the University of Michigan, where he headed its renowned MFA and Hopwood Awards programs.
Delbanco has chaired the Fiction Panel for the National Book Awards, and served as judge for the Pulitzer Prize and the PEN/Faulkner award in fiction. He wrote the well-loved books on the craft of writing, The Sincerest Form: Writing Fiction by Imitation, and, with Alan Cheuse, the college text Literature, Craft and Voice.
Author Valerie Laken wrote of Delbanco’s role as a mentor: “He’s made a career of bringing together, supporting, and celebrating writers, and in doing that he made them all believe—not just in themselves, but in the value of literature itself.”
About his recent work The Count of Concord , Russell Banks wrote that Delbanco “brought his entire array of amazing gifts into play and has written a wonderfully sad, funny, bawdy, and intellectually adventurous novel.”
In the introduction to his non-fiction work about older artists, Lastingness: The Art of Old Age (2011), Delbanco wrote:
“This book is about tribal elders in the world of art. What interests me is lastingness: how it may be attained. For obvious reasons, this has become a personal matter; I published my first novel in 1966 and very much hope to continue.”
Helen Simonson’s bestselling first novel, Major Pettigrew’s Last Stand, has been published in 20 countries and translated into 18 languages. Helen has been awarded the 2010/11 Waverton Good Read Award, the Melissa Nathan Award for Comedy Romance, and an honorable mention for the 2011 PEN/Hemingway award for debut fiction. Major Pettigrew’s Last Stand carries within its deceptively charming pages a fully realized morality tale, a study of modern manners vs. well worn tradition, racial and cultural issues, religious tolerance, and the power of love to overcome all obstacles.
In her latest novel, The Summer Before the War, Helen Simonson returns with a breathtaking historical novel of love on the eve of World War I that reaches far beyond the small English town in which it is set.
“So vividly drawn it fairly vibrates…nothing short of a treasure.”
— Paula McClain, The Paris Wife and Circling The Sun

To learn more about Helen
visit her website:
www.helensimonson.com
Amanda Eyre Ward is the author of Sleep Toward Heaven, How to be Lost, Forgive Me, Close Your Eyes, The Same Sky, and the short story collection Love Stories in this Town. Her work has been optioned for film and television and published in fifteen countries.
“Treat yourself to The Jetsetters and let Amanda Eyre Ward’s wit, poignancy, and insight take you away. You deserve it. . . . The funniest novel that ever broke your heart.”— Andrew Sean GreerNew York Times bestselling and Pulitzer Prize–winning author of Less
Amanda’s work has garnered many accolades, including the Violet Crown Book Award (Sleep Toward Heaven), a Target Bookmarked Pick (How to Be Lost and The Same Sky), and a Kirkus Best Book Pick (Close Your Eyes).
After spending time in Maine, Cape Cod and New Orleans, Amanda and her family settled in Texas, where she currently lives.
Amanda will be teaching the master class
Identifying & Overcoming Challenges In Writing Fiction
with Meg Wolitzer.

To learn more about Amanda
visit her website:
www.amandaward.com
Elena Delbanco recently retired after teaching for twenty-seven years at the University of Michigan’s Gerald R. Ford School of Public Policy. Before moving to Ann Arbor, she worked at Bennington College in Vermont, where she and her husband, the writer Nicholas Delbanco, together with the late John Gardner, founded the Bennington Writing Workshops. Delbanco has long been engaged in the world of classical music. Her father was the renowned cellist Bernard Greenhouse (of the Beaux Arts Trio), who owned the Countess of Stainlein ex-Paganini Stradivarius violoncello of 1707. The imagined fate of that instrument, upon her father’s death, inspired The Silver Swan, her first novel.
Despite spending much of her life in the company of authors, Delbanco came late to writing. This has given her perspective on beginning to write at this stage of life. The story of her conception of The Silver Swan and seeing it through rounds of edits, publication, and finding critical acclaim inspired many attendees of the 2016 Kauai Writers Conference. We are pleased to have her back.
Paula McLain is the author of the New York Times bestselling novels, When the Stars Go Dark, The Paris Wife, Circling the Sun, and Love and Ruin.
She was born in Fresno, California in 1965. After being abandoned by both parents, she and her two sisters became wards of the California Court System, moving in and out of various foster homes for the next fourteen years. When she aged out of the system, she supported herself by working as a nurses aid in a convalescent hospital, a pizza delivery girl, an auto-plant worker, a cocktail waitress–before discovering she could (and very much wanted to) write. She received her MFA in poetry from the University of Michigan in 1996.
She is the author of The Paris Wife, a New York Times and international bestseller, which has been published in thirty-four languages. The recipient of fellowships from Yaddo, The MacDowell Colony, the Cleveland Arts Prize, the Ohio Arts Council and the National Endowment for the Arts, she is also the author of two collections of poetry; a memoir, Like Family, Growing up in Other People’s Houses; and a first novel, A Ticket to Ride. She lives with her family in Cleveland.
“[Paula] McLain has brought Hadley to life in a novel that begins in a rush of early love. . . . A moving portrait of a woman slighted by history, a woman whose . . . story needed to be told.”
—THE BOSTON GLOBE
“The Paris Wife creates the kind of out-of-body reading experience that dedicated book lovers yearn for, nearly as good as reading Hemingway for the first time—and it doesn’t get much better than that.”
—MINNEAPOLIS STAR TRIBUNE
“Exquisitely evocative . . . This absorbing, illuminating book gives us an intimate view of a sympathetic and perceptive woman, the striving writer she married, the glittering and wounding Paris circle they were part of. . . . McLain reinvents the story of Hadley and Ernest’s romance with the lucid grace of a practiced poet.”
—THE SEATTLE TIMES
Paula will be teaching the Turning Life Into Art Master Class along with Christina Baker Kline and Meg Wolitzer.
To learn more about Paula
visit her website:
www.paulamclain.com
Laura Lentz is a master writing teacher, author and developmental editor. She has taught themed creative writing workshops for over a decade to artists all over the world in intimate online groups and on Kauai’s north shore.
She is the author of Story-Quest, The Writer, the Hero, the Journey. Story-Quest is workbook for writers to guide them through the twelve stages of the Hero’s Journey by offering sequential writing prompts and literary examples for each stage of the hero’s journey out of best selling memoirs and poetry.
Laura helps writers expand their body of work by offering challenging and thought-provoking exercises inspired by poetry, science, music and excerpts from literature. Intimate groups of experienced writers from all over the world gather in small online groups for live, engaging workshops that are announced privately through her mailing list at www.literatiacademy.com.
Laura is also co-founder of Literati Academy, a community and school to support, encourage and assist writers in all creative endeavors. Laura is known for her Sex on the Page writing workshop, Ancestors and Epigenetics and her annual Poetry Room, which teaches writers how to use poetic form in all writing.
Laura is also the founder of the bi-annual Speak, Kauai spoken word performances on Hawaii that showcase writers from all over the world to sold out audiences, live streams and standing ovations.
Laura will be teaching the master class Story Quest: The Writer, the Hero, the Journey
To learn more about Laura, see her story on literati.academy or contact her at Laurawriter@me.com.
Dale Launer is the writer of some of the funniest movies ever made: My Cousin Vinny with Joe Pesci and Marissa Tomei, Dirty Rotten Scoundrels with Steve Martin and Michael Caine, and Ruthless People with Danny DeVito and Bette Midler. He also produced My Cousin Vinny and Dirty Rotten Scoundrels.
In May 2007, his film Tom’s Nu Heaven, which he produced, wrote and directed, won Best Picture at the Monaco Film Festival.
This twentieth anniversary tribute to My Cousin Vinny delves into its enduring role in film culture. Upon its release, New York Times film critic Vincent Canby noted:
“The film has a secure and sophisticated sense of what makes farce so delicious, which may not be surprising, since its credentials are about as impeccable as you can find in the peccable atmosphere of Hollywood.”
— Vincent Canby
Dale will be teaching a master class on Screenwriting: What works, what doesn’t, and why.
Joshua Mohr is the author of the memoirs Model Citizen (2021) and Sirens (2017), as well as five novels including Damascus, which The New York Times called “Beat-poet cool.” He’s also written Fight Song and Some Things that Meant the World to Me, one of O Magazine’s Top 10 reads of 2009 and a San Francisco Chronicle best-seller, as well as Termite Parade, an Editors’ Choice in The New York Times. His novel All This Life won the Northern California Book Award. He is the founder of Decant Editorial.
Listen to Josh read an excerpt from Model Citizen over at Poets & Writers.
To learn more about Joshua visit his website www.joshuamohr.net
Priya Parmar’s novel, Vanessa and Her Sister was recently chosen as a New York Times Book Review ‘Editor’s Choice’ selection, an Entertainment Weekly ‘Must List’ pick, a People Magazine ‘Book of the Week’, and as an editor’s pick for: O Magazine, Oprah.com, Vanity Fair, Elle Magazine, New York Magazine, Christian Science Monitor, US Weekly and USA Today and Priya was chosen for the Barnes and Noble ‘Discover Great New Writers’ 2015 program.
Educated at Mount Holyoke College, The University of Oxford and The University of Edinburgh, she is the author of one previous novel, Exit the Actress. Priya divides her time between Kauai and London.
Priya is also the co-author of the wildly successful musical Sylvia, which debuted last year at London’s Old Vic theater.
To learn more about Priya, visit her website at www.priyaparmar.com

Sam Horn is the CEO of the Intrigue Agency. Her 3 TEDx talks and 9 books – including Tongue Fu!, POP!, Wash Post bestseller Got Your Attention, and SOMEDAY is Not a Day in the Week have been featured in New York Times, Forbes, Fast Company, Publishers Weekly, on NPR.
Her speaking clients include Oracle, Intel, Cisco, Accenture, Fidelity, Nationwide, Ernst Young. She’s been hired by Richard Branson’s New Now Leaders, TED Fellows, SXSW and NASA to coach their executives and project managers on media relations and public speaking.
Sam was Pitch Coach for Springboard Enterprises, which has helped female entrepreneurs generate $26 billion in funding/valuation, and was Exec.Director of Maui Writers Conference (which Writers Digest called “The best writers conference in the world”) for 17 years.
To learn more about Sam, visit her website at samhorn.com
Richard Russo is the author of seven novels, a memoir, and one short story collection. His fifth book, Empire Falls, won the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction in 2002 and was later adapted for television by HBO based on Russo’s teleplay, earning him an Emmy nomination.
He also wrote the novel, Nobody’s Fool, which was adapted into a critically acclaimed film featuring Paul Newman. Known for his insightful, often humorous depictions of gritty northeastern towns and the characters that inhabit them, Russo has said that he wants,
“that which is hilarious and that which is heartbreaking to occupy the same territory in books,” because he thinks, “they very often occupy the same territory in life, much as we try to separate them.”
In 2016 he was given the Indie Champion Award by the American Booksellers Association; and in 2017 he received France’s Grand Prix de Littérature Américaine He taught English at Colby College for many years and lives with his wife in Maine.
Richard will be teaching the master class Beginning a Novel.
learn more about Richard here.
Linda Schreyer is an award-winning television writer. She has mentored countless writers to completion of their books, taught classes since 1995 and currently leads Slipper Camp – a popular structured online writing course, and conducted large writing workshops for organizations. Her books include, From Cowboy to Mogul to Monster, a biography of producer Mark Damon. Tears and Tequila (with Jo-Ann Lautman) is her first novel. You can find more about Linda at at her IMDB profile.
Linda will be teaching the memoir master class The Power of Words: Writing/Righting Our Lives with Amy Ferris.
Elizabeth Stark is the host of Story Makers Podcast, and author of the novel Shy Girl (FSG, Seal Press), finalist for the Ferro-Grumely and Lambda Literary Awards. A feature film she produced, Lost in the Middle, won Best Feature at the 2019 Broad Humor Film Festival and was a Festival Favorite at Cinema Diverse in Palm Springs. She co-directed and co-wrote several films, including FtF: Female to Femme, a creative documentary and Little Mutinies, a short (both distributed by Frameline). She earned an M.F.A. from Columbia University in Creative Writing and has taught at the Pratt Institute, UCSC, St. Mary’s, where she was the visiting distinguished writer, and elsewhere. She currently co-directs and teaches at Book Writing World and Sonoma County Writers Camp.
Learn more about Elizabeth at elizabethstark.com
Elizabeth will be teaching the master class Scene Making: The Essence of Storytelling with Ellen Sussman.

Ellen Sussman is the author of four national bestselling novels: A Wedding in Provence, The Paradise Guest House, French Lessons and On a Night Like This. All four books have been translated into many languages and French Lessons has been optioned by Unique Features to be made into a movie. Ellen is also the editor of two critically acclaimed anthologies, Dirty Words: A Literary Encyclopedia Of Sex and Bad Girls: 26 Writers Misbehave.
She was named a San Francisco Library Laureate in 2004 and in 2009. Ellen has been awarded fellowships from The Hawthordnen International Retreat, The Sewanee Writers Conference, The Napoule Art Foundation, Hedgebrook, Brush Creek, Ledig House, Ucross, Ragdale Foundation, Writers at Work, Wesleyan Writers Conference and Virginia Center for the Creative Arts. She has taught at Pepperdine, UCLA and Rutgers University. Ellen now teaches through Stanford Continuing Studies and in private classes out of her home. She has two daughters and lives with her husband in the San Francisco Bay Area.
Ellen is the co-founder and co-director, with Elizabeth Stark, of Sonoma County Writers Camp.
Ellen will be teaching the master class Scene Making: The Essence of Storytelling with Elizabeth Stark.
Elizabeth Rosner is a bestselling novelist, poet, and essayist living in Berkeley, California. Her most recent book, SURVIVOR CAFÉ: The Legacy of Trauma and the Labyrinth of Memory, was featured on NPR’s All Things Considered and in The New York Times; it was a finalist for a National Jewish Book Award and named one of the Best Books of 2017 by the San Francisco Chronicle. Her third novel, ELECTRIC CITY, was included among the Best Books of 2014 by National Public Radio. Her poetry collection, GRAVITY, was also published in 2014. THE SPEED OF LIGHT, Rosner’s acclaimed debut novel in 2001, was translated into nine languages. Short-listed for the prestigious Prix Femina, the book won several literary prizes in both the US and Europe, including the Prix France Bleu Gironde; the Great Lakes Colleges Award for New Fiction; and Hadassah Magazine’s Ribalow Prize, judged by Elie Wiesel. BLUE NUDE, her second novel, was selected as one of the Best Books of 2006 by the SF Chronicle. Rosner’s essays have appeared in the NY Times Magazine, Elle, the Forward, and numerous anthologies. Her book reviews appear frequently in the SF Chronicle.
Elizabeth will be teaching the Master Class – Cutting and Polishing: Turning your good manuscript into a great book .
learn more at:
Dana Newman is an LA-based independent literary agent representing authors of practical and narrative non-fiction in the areas of memoir, biography, business, popular culture, current affairs, lifestyle and wellness (health, mind/body/spirit and sports/fitness), and on the fiction side she focuses on literary fiction and women’s upmarket fiction. She’s always on the lookout for compelling voices, ideas and stories, and is a passionate believer in the power of books to connect and transform us.
Dana is also an attorney, focusing on publishing law and contracts. She’s a member of the California State Bar and the Association of Authors’ Representatives, and holds a B.A. in Comparative Literature from UC Berkeley, and a J.D. from the University of San Francisco. Before founding her literary agency she worked as in-house counsel in the entertainment industry.
More information about her agency is available at dananewman.com.
Schedule a Pitch Session with Dana.
Schedule a Manuscript Critique with Dana.
Roger Jellinek started his publishing career at Random House, and went on to be deputy editor of the New York Times Book Review; editor in chief of Times Books; a science newsletter editor with Columbia University; a map publisher in Honolulu; editorial director of a metaphysical publishing house on Maui; and since 2006 Executive Director of the annual Hawai‘i Book & Music Festival. With his wife Eden Lee Murray he founded Jellinek & Murray Literary Agency in Honolulu in 1995, and in addition to taking on occasional editorial projects he represents an eclectic list of literary fiction, and general nonfiction.
Schedule a Pitch Session with Roger.
Schedule a Manuscript Critique with Roger.
Vicky Bijur started her agency in 1988 after working at Oxford University Press and with the Charlotte Sheedy Literary Agency. She represents fiction and non-fiction.
Books she represents have appeared on the New York Times Bestseller List, in the New York Times Notable Books of the Year, Los Angeles Times Best Fiction of the Year, Washington Post Book World Rave Reviews of the Year, and been nominated for the L.A. Times Book Award as well as the National Book Critics Circle Award. Three of her mystery writers have won Edgar awards.
Vicky has served as president of the AAR (Association of Authors’ Representatives), the only organization of literary and dramatic agents in North America. She has been a member of the AAR Royalties Committee since 1993 and is currently Chair of its Ethics Committee.
Vicky has been profiled in Poets & Writers and in Literary Agents: A Writer’s Introduction by John Baker (Macmillan). She has been quoted on the subject of agenting in the Wall Street Journal, the Washington Post, and Entertainment Weekly. She can be heard on Writers on Writing here, here, and here.
Vicky is currently accepting submissions of literary fiction and commercial women’s fiction. She is not the right agent for science fiction, fantasy, romance, or self-help.
Schedule a Pitch Session with Vicky.
Schedule a Manuscript Critique with Vicky.
Susanna Einstein has worked as a literary agent since 2005, and launched Einstein Literary Management in 2015. She has worked in publishing since 1995, first in the publicity and editorial departments at what was then called Warner Books (now Grand Central Publishing) and then as a literary scout at Maria B. Campbell Associates. A native New Yorker, she graduated with distinction from Northwestern University. She lives in NJ with her husband and two children.
Susanna Einstein is a member of the board of directors of the Association of Authors’ Representatives and a member of the Women’s Media Group. She has a particular fondness for crime fiction, upmarket commercial women’s fiction, MG and YA fiction, and narrative non-fiction. She likes a good story well told.
Schedule a Pitch Session with Susanna.
Schedule a Manuscript Critique with Susanna.
Lisa Leshne has been in the media and entertainment business for almost 30 years. Prior to founding the Leshne Agency in 2011, Lisa was a literary agent at LJK Literary. Before working in book publishing, Lisa co-founded The Prague Post newspaper in 1991 and served as Publisher for almost a decade. She later became Executive Director, International, for WSJ.com, the Wall Street Journal Online, responsible for business operations in Europe and Asia, overseeing advertising, marketing and circulation. Her entire career has been spent working with and advocating for writers.
The Leshne Agency is a full-service literary and talent management agency, representing a select number of bestselling and debut writers interested in building their brands, audience platforms, and developing long-term relationships via all forms of traditional and social media. They take a deeply personal approach by working closely with authors to develop their best ideas for maximum impact, providing hands-on guidance and networking for lasting success.
Lisa is most passionate about narrative and prescriptive non-fiction, especially on social justice, sports, health, wellness, business, political and parenting topics. She loves memoirs that transport the reader into another person’s head and give a voyeuristic view of someone else’s extraordinary experiences. Lisa also enjoys literary and commercial fiction and young adult and middle-grade books that take the reader on a journey and are just plain fun to read.
Schedule a Pitch Session with Lisa.
Schedule a Manuscript Critique with Lisa.
Alia Hanna Habib is a literary agent at the Gernert Company. Alia began her publishing career as a book publicist at Houghton Mifflin Harcourt. She represents narrative nonfiction, memoir and literary fiction.
Her list includes the New York Times’ 1619 Project’s forthcoming book series; MacArthur Fellow and journalist Nikole Hannah-Jones; Doree Shafrir, author of Startup: A Novel; journalist and PBS NewsHour White House correspondent Yamiche Alcindor; Chasten Buttigieg’s New York Times bestseller I Have Something to Tell You; Josh Levin’s The Queen, winner of the National Book Critics’ Circle Award in Biography; literary critic Lauren Oyler’s forthcoming debut novel Fake Accounts; award-winning and bestselling poet and essayist Hanif Abdurraqib and Clint Smith, poet, scholar, author of the poetry collection Counting Descent and forthcoming nonfiction debut How the Word is Passed.
Her authors have been awarded the Pulitzer Prize, the National Book Critics Circle Award, and the LA Times Book Prize and have been nominated for the Edgar Awards, PEN Awards and the National Book Award.
Schedule a Pitch Session with Alia.
Schedule a Manuscript Critique with Alia.
Lynn Johnston
The Lynn Johnston Literary Agency represents books called “firebreathing” and “righteous” by the New York Times, “exuberant” by O: The Oprah Magazine and “a godsend” by Publishers Weekly.
Lynn’s authors are purposeful, sincere and sometimes controversial and ever determined. Among their many accolades are the Pulitzer Prize, George Polk Award, Peabody Award, GLAAD Media Award, Global Teaching Prize (finalist) and National Headliner Award.
Lynn’s list includes New York Times, Los Angeles Times, Wall Street Journal and USA Today bestsellers, winner of the International Association of Culinary Professionals Cookbook Award, PEN finalist, and numerous “best of year” citations.
Lynn is a highly respected solo agent based in New York representing mostly nonfiction.
Asked to describe her approach to agenting, Lynn wrote: “I care,” I said off the top of my head. After thinking about it some more and searching for a better answer, I decided that’s really it. My entire unique selling proposition is I care about my authors, the important work they do, how it gets translated into book form, what happens to the book before and after publication and ultimately, the effect it has in the world.
Schedule a Pitch Session with Lynn.
Schedule a Manuscript Critique with Lynn.
Jeff Kleinman is a literary agent, intellectual property attorney, and founding partner of Folio Literary Management, LLC, a New York literary agency which works with all of the major U.S. publishers (and, through subagents, with most international publishers).
As an agent, Jeff feels privileged to have the chance to learn a great variety of new subjects, meet an extraordinary range of people, and feel, at the end of the day, that he’s helped to build something – a wonderful book, perhaps, or an author’s career. Books of his clients include the bestsellers The Art of Racing in the Rain (Garth Stein), The Snow Child (a Pulitzer finalist; Eowyn Ivey), Widow of the South (Robert Hicks), and Mockingbird (Charles Shields), among many others.
Learn more about Jeff at www.foliolit.com
Jeff will be teaching the Master Class – The Art and Business of Getting Published: Traditional, Indie, and Everything in Between along with Regina Brooks.
Schedule a Pitch Session with Jeff.
Schedule a Manuscript Critique with Jeff.
Michelle Tessler has worked in the publishing industry for over twenty years. Before forming her boutique agency in 2004, Michelle worked at the William Morris Agency and the prestigious literary agency Carlisle & Company (now Inkwell Management). She also spent seven years working in content and business development in the Internet industry, beginning in 1994 when she was hired by best-selling author James Gleick to help launch The Pipeline. In light of the digital opportunities that are transforming publishing, Michelle’s experience in the Internet world is of great benefit to her authors, both as they navigate ebook opportunities, and as they look for creative and effective ways to market their books to niche communities that can be targeted online.
She represents a select number of best-selling and emerging authors in both fiction and non-fiction. Clients include accomplished journalists, scientists, academics, experts in their field, as well as novelists and debut authors with unique voices and stories to tell. She values fresh, original writing that has a compelling point of view. She represents, among many others, Paul Collins, Frans de Waal, Mira Jacob, Amy Stewart and Amanda Eyre Ward.
Learn more at www.tessleragency.com
Schedule a Pitch Session with Michelle.
Schedule a Manuscript Critique with Michelle.
Andy Ross opened his literary agency in 2008. Prior to that, he was the owner of the legendary Cody’s Books in Berkeley for 30 years. During that time, he sold more than 10 million books and hosted over 5000 events for some of the world’s greatest authors. In 1989, Cody’s was fire bombed in retaliation for the store featuring Salman Rushdie’s The Satanic Verses. This made them the first victim of Islamic terrorism in The United States, which goes to show that bookselling can be a dangerous business. They never stopped selling the book.
Andy’s agency represents books in a wide range of non-fiction genres including: narrative non-fiction, science, journalism, history, popular culture, and current events . They also represent literary, commercial, historical, crime, upmarket women’s fiction, and YA fiction. For non-fiction he looks for writing with a strong voice, robust story arc, and books that tell a big story about culture and society by authors with the authority to write about their subject. In fiction, he likes stories about real people in the real world. No vampires and trolls, thank you very much. He doesn’t represent poetry, science fiction, paranormal, and romance.
Authors Andy represents include: Daniel Ellsberg, Jeffrey Moussaieff Masson, Anjanette Delgado, Elisa Kleven, Tawni Waters, Randall Platt, Mary Jo McConahay, Gerald Nachman, Michael Parenti, Paul Krassner, Milton Viorst, and Michele Anna Jordan.
Andy also works as a freelance editor.
Schedule a Pitch Session with Andy.
Schedule a Manuscript Critique with Andy.
Susan Golomb is a senior agent at Writers House, representing writers of fiction and non-fiction, for both adult and juvenile books as well as illustrators. She works with literary and commercial fiction, women’s fiction, science fiction/fantasy, narrative non-fiction, history, memoirs, biographies, psychology, science, parenting, cookbooks, how-to, self-help, business, finance, young adult and juvenile fiction/non-fiction and picture books. In addition to referrals, she still takes on new clients from among the twenty to thirty unsolicited submissions that she receives daily.
Golomb graduated from the University of Pennsylvania and worked as a theatrical production coordinator and story editor before starting her literary agency in 1988. Her clients include Marisha Pessl (Special Topics in Calamity Physics – Viking, 2006), Tom Rachman (The Imperfectionists – Dial Press, 2010), Gwyn Hyman Rubio, author of Icy Sparks (Viking, 1998), and she discovered Jonathan Franzen’s first novel, The Twenty-Seventh City (FSG, 1988). She also represents Yvon Chouinard, Harry Dent, Joshua Max Feldman, Glen David Gold, Rachel Kushner, Krys Lee, and William T. Vollmann, among many others.
Schedule a Pitch Session with Susan.
Schedule a Manuscript Critique with Susan.
Jay Mandel is interested in representing authors of autobiography and memoir, commercial fiction, journalism and investigative reporting, literary fiction, narrative nonfiction, and nonfiction. His clients Include Sloane Crosley, Mohsin Hamid, Terry Hayes, and Mary Roach.
“I like to know how writers see their work in the context of the marketplace. Which books are reminiscent of their own, why the success of certain titles or authors may bode well for them. I’m otherwise all about the facts. I don’t like elaborate attempts to be charming. I want to know what’s on offer. We can both preserve our charm for a later date.”
Schedule a Pitch Session with Jay.
Schedule a Manuscript Critique with Jay.
Erin Malone has been a literary agent at WME since 2006. Prior to books she worked in film/TV. She represents fiction as well as narrative (personal and investigative) and platform-driven nonfiction, and occasional lifestyle titles—primarily in the areas of psychology, science, culture, and food. More than any specific genre, she’s drawn to good stories and distinct points of view.
Among the clients she represents are New York Times bestselling authors, major book club selections, Thurber Prize finalists, Hugo and Edgar Award nominees, Fulbright Scholars, Goodreads Choice Award winners (and combinations thereof). She is looking to work with writers who make us think, as well as those who provide a great escape. She ascribes ardently to Carrie Fisher’s adage that “if life weren’t funny it would just be true, and that’s unacceptable.” Originally from the Midwest, she worked in WME’s NYC office before moving to LA, where she lives with her husband, an author and film producer, and their two kids.
Schedule a Pitch Session with Erin.
Schedule a Manuscript Critique with Erin.
Jane Friedman has 20 years of experience in the publishing industry, with expertise in business strategy for authors and publishers. She’s the editor of The Hot Sheet, the essential industry newsletter for authors, and has previously worked for F+W Media and the Virginia Quarterly Review. In 2019, Jane was awarded Publishing Commentator of the Year by Digital Book World.
Jane’s newest book is The Business of Being a Writer (University of Chicago Press); Publishers Weekly said that it is “destined to become a staple reference book for writers and those interested in publishing careers.” Also, in collaboration with The Authors Guild, she wrote The Authors Guild Guide to Self-Publishing.
In addition to being a columnist with Publishers Weekly and a professor with The Great Courses, Jane maintains an award-winning blog for writers at JaneFriedman.com; her expertise has been featured by The New York Times, The Washington Post, NPR, PBS, CBS, the National Press Club and many other outlets.
Jane has delivered keynotes and workshops on the digital era of authorship at worldwide industry events, including the Writer’s Digest annual conference, Stockholm Writers Festival, San Miguel Writers Conference, The Muse & The Marketplace, Frankfurt Book Fair, BookExpo America, and Digital Book World. She’s also served on grant panels for the National Endowment for the Arts and the Creative Work Fund, and has held positions as a professor of writing, media, and publishing at the University of Cincinnati and University of Virginia.
INDIVIDUAL CONSULTATIONS:
Reserve an individual session with Jane to discuss you manuscript.
Stephanie Stokes Oliver heads SSO Media, an international consulting firm that specializes in book, magazine, and digital publishing. She serves as a literary scout for Simon & Schuster’s Atria Book Group, and as author curator for the Anguilla Lit Fest.
In 2004, Stephanie served as editor-in-chief of Essence.com. She was asked to assist in the merger of Essence Communications with Time Inc. in the capacity of deputy editor, returning to the magazine for the second time. Stephanie originally joined Essence as senior editor of the lifestyle section. During her 16 years at Essence, when the magazine reached the milestone circulation of 1 million, she rose from West Coast Editor to the second-in-command position of editor of the magazine.
In 1998, she formed SSO Media, Inc., a publishing and digital content consulting firm in the New York area, contributing as guest beauty editor to O, The Oprah Magazine, as consulting editor to start-up Lifetime magazine, writing for SpaFinder, and producing the website for the New York Women in Communications. In 2000, she became the founding editor-in-chief of NiaOnline, a popular digital magazine for Black women where she served for two years and wrote a monthly blog for six years.
Currently, Stephanie works “location independent,” living between Anguilla, where she moved from the New York City area in 2007, and Seattle, her high-tech hometown. At the Anguilla Community College, she teaches a course on Publishing 101. She also serves as author curator for the annual Anguilla Lit Fest, held each May for readers, writers, thinkers, and vacationers.
She is the author of Black Ink: Literary Legends on the Peril, Power, and Pleasure of Reading and Writing, Song for My Father: Memoir of an All-American Family, and Seven Soulful Secrets for Finding Your Purpose and Minding Your Mission.
INDIVIDUAL CONSULTATIONS:
Reserve an individual session with Stephanie to discuss you manuscript.

Learn more about Stephanie at
Kevin Larimer is editor-in-chief of Poets & Writers, the leading literary organization in the United States. He has served as moderator / interviewer for many of the sessions of KWC online. Everyone who saw his presentations at the 2019 Kauai Writers Conference recognizes what a depth of knowledge Kevin brings, along with natural warmth and humor. We are most grateful for his participation.
INDIVIDUAL CONSULTATIONS:
Reserve an individual session with Kevin to discuss you manuscript.
Regina Brooks is the founder and president of Serendipity Literary Agency LLC in New York, New York. Her agency is the largest African American owned agency in the country and has represented and established a diverse base of award-winning clients in adult and young adult fiction, nonfiction, and children’s literature. Her authors have appeared in USA TODAY, NY TIMES, and the Washington Post, as well as on Oprah, ABC, NBC, CBS, CNN, FOX, MSBNC, TV ONE, BET, and a host of others. In 2015, Publishers Weekly nominated Regina Brooks as a PW Star Watch Finalist, and she was honored with a Stevie Award in Business. Writer’s Digest magazine named Serendipity Literary Agency as one of the top 25 literary agencies. Formerly, she held senior editorial positions at John Wiley and Sons (where she was not only the youngest but also the first African-American editor in their college division) and McGraw-Hill.
Prior to her publishing career, she worked as an aerospace engineer and made history as the first African American woman to receive a Bachelor of Science degree in aerospace engineering from The Ohio State University. She is a graduate of The School of the Arts High School in Rochester, NY.
She is the author of Essence Magazine’s quick pick children’s book, NEVER FINISHED NEVER DONE (Scholastic), WRITING GREAT BOOKS FOR YOUNG ADULTS 2e (Sourcebooks), and YOU SHOULD REALLY WRITE A BOOK: HOW TO WRITE, SELL AND MARKET YOUR MEMOIR (St. Martin’s Press), and a well received blogger for the Huffington Post. Brooks is also on the faculty of the Harvard University publishing program the Whidbey Island Writers MFA, Western Connecticut MFA low residency programs, Writer’s Digest University and teaches annually at more than twenty worldwide conferences. She has been highlighted in several national and international magazines and periodicals, including Publishers Weekly, Forbes, Media Bistro, Writers and Poets, Essence Magazine, Ebony, Jet, Women on Writing, Writer’s Digest Magazine, The Writer, The Network Journal, and Rolling Out.
She was named Woman of the Year by The National Association of Professional Women, A New York Urban League Rising Star Award winner, and a finalist for the StevieTM Award for Women Entrepreneurs. Regina Brooks is featured in books such as The Guide to Literary Agents and the NAACP nominated Down to Business: The First 10 Steps for Women Entrepreneurs, How to Build a Platform, and Bill Duke’s Dark Girls. She is also listed in International Who’s Who under the categories of Professional Management, Technology, Entrepreneurs, and Engineering.
In November 2010, Brooks partnered with Marie Brown, of Marie Brown and Associates, and Marva Allen of Hue Man Bookstore to launch a new publishing imprint with Johnny Temple’s Akashic Books called Open Lens.
Further, Possibiliteas is the brainchild of literary agent and tea enthusiast, Regina Brooks, who believed that tea—the world’s oldest performance-enhancing beverage—could have a beneficial effect on her clients—writers, artists, and other creative professionals who were looking for fuel for their creative fire.
She is a pilot and cofounder of Brooklyn Aviation as well as a member of the Association of Author Representatives and New York Women in Film and Television.
Ms. Brooks is the founder and co-Executive Director of Y.B. Literary Foundation, Inc. (www.ybliterary.org), a not-for-profit organization designed to kindle a passion for literature within high school students and an appreciation for the possibilities and opportunities that reading can provide.
Learn more at www.serendipitylit.com

Regina will be teaching the Master Class – The Art and Business of Getting Published: Traditional, Indie, and Everything in Between along with Jeff Kleinman.
Schedule a Pitch Session with Regina.
Schedule a Manuscript Critique with Regina.
Arielle Eckstut is co-founder of The Book Doctors, a company dedicated to helping writers get successfully published. She is the author of nine books including She is the author of nine books including The Essential Guide to Getting Your Book Published and The Secret Language of Color: The Science, Nature, History, Culture and Beauty of Red, Orange, Yellow, Green, Blue & Violet.
She is also an agent-at-large at the Levine Greenberg Rostan Literary Agency, where for over 25 years, she has been helping hundreds of talented writers become published authors.
Lastly, Arielle co-founded LittleMissMatched, the iconic company that sells socks that don’t match in packs of three.
To learn more about Arielle’s work with authors visit www.thebookdoctors.com
Lisa Sharkey, SVP and Director of Creative Development at Harper Collins Publishers, was recently described by one of her authors, number one bestseller Congressman Jamie Raskin as a “clairvoyant publishing wizard”. Following more than two decades producing, writing and developing Emmy award-winning network and syndicated television news, Lisa made the switch into books because of her love for literature, storytelling, and going deep.
Sharkey is a champion of powerful, poignant, and persuasive storytelling. More than 75 of the books she has published have become New York Times bestsellers, selling millions of copies in multiple languages across the globe over the past 15 years. Her authors have accomplished extraordinary things and changed the world by telling their stories. Sharkey publishes books in the categories of politics, journalism, true crime, music, sports, medicine, self-help, cooking, mindfulness, science, religion, military life, and inspirational memoir. Sharkey is a mother of three, a yoga teacher, and a mentor of military veterans who are transitioning into civilian life.
She lives in one of New York’s first ever eco houses that she designed along with her architect husband who co-authored their book Dreaming Green.
David Sterry is co-founder of The Book Doctors, a company dedicated to helping writers get successfully published. He is the author of 16 books on a wide variety of subjects, from memoir to middle grade fiction, sports to reference. His work has been translated into over a dozen languages, optioned by Hollywood, and appeared on the cover of the Sunday New York Times Book Review. Before writing professionally, David was a comic and an actor. His one man show, based on his memoir, Chicken, was named the number one show in the United Kingdom for its entire run at the Edinburgh Theatre Festival, Fringe by The Independent.
Learn more about David’s literary work at
To learn more about his work with authors visit www.thebookdoctors.com
Brooke Warner
She Writes Press was founded by Kamy Wicoff and Brooke Warner in 2012 as a response to the barriers to traditional publishing getting higher and higher for authors. Kamy’s online community, She Writes, had been founded on the principle of connecting and serving women writers everywhere, offering a community for established and aspiring writers. Brooke had been the Executive Editor at Seal Press for eight years, and was witnessing firsthand the contracting publishing environment, where she personally was having to reject beautifully written books on a regular basis because the submitting author didn’t have a strong enough author platform.
Kamy and Brooke envisioned a company where authors would be invited to publish based on the merit of their writing alone. They wanted to found a press for women writers that would be a platform—that could launch their writing careers, and where they could legitimately compete with their traditional counterparts.
In 2013, She Writes Press secured traditional distribution through Ingram Publisher Services and established itself as a real player in the hybrid publishing world. This relationship secured the right for SWP authors to submit their books for review through traditional channels, creating a more level playing field. SWP authors have been featured in O! magazine, People, and USA Today, and have been reviewed in all of the trade magazines: Publishers Weekly; Kirkus; Booklist; Library Journal; and featured on Shelf Awareness.
Jean Hanff Korelitz is the author of the novels: You Should Have Known (Adapted for HBO as The Undoing by David E. Kelley, directed by Susanne Bier and starring Nicole Kidman, Hugh Grant and Donald Sutherland), the most watched show of 2020 on HBO. Admission (adapted as the 2013 film of the same name, starring Tina Fey, Lily Tomlin and Paul Rudd), The Devil and Webster, The White Rose, The Sabbathday River and A Jury of Her Peers, as well as a middle-grade reader, Interference Powder, and a collection of poetry, The Properties of Breath.
Two new novels, The Plot and The Latecomer, will be published by Celadon Books in 2021 and 2022.
learn more at jeanhanffkorelitz.com
Chip Cheek is the author of the bestselling novel Cape May, which received starred reviews from Kirkus and Booklist, was an American Booksellers Association Indie Next pick and Indies Introduce selection, and has been published in six languages. His stories have appeared in The Southern Review, Harvard Review, Washington Square, and other journals and anthologies, and he has been awarded fellowships to the Bread Loaf Writers’ Conference, the Tin House Summer Workshop, and the Vermont Studio Center.
Learn about Chip Cheek’s writing of Cape May: How He Found the Story That Obsessed Him
Deceptively relaxed and simple at first…[Cape May] soon reveals itself as a swirling vortex of psychological suspense with insights about marriage that recall writers like Margot Livesey and Alice Munro. The 1950s setting, the pellucid prose, and the propulsive plot make this very steamy debut novel about morality and desire feel like a classic. — Kirkus, Starred Review
John DeDakis is a former White House Correspondent, former Senior Copy Editor for CNN’s The Situation Room with Wolf Blitzer, and author of five mystery-suspense novels featuring a strong female protagonist. In addition, he taught journalism at The University of Maryland-College Park and leads writing workshops here and abroad.
His latest novel, Fake, features a White House correspondent dealing with “fake news” in the #MeToo era. The book was released in September 2019 and received a Reader Views Literary Award.
During John’s award-winning career in journalism (25 years at CNN), he interviewed such luminaries as Alfred Hitchcock, Jimmy Carter and Ronald Reagan.
Learn more at johndedakis.com
Sharyn Skeeter was fiction/poetry/book review editor at Essence and editor in chief at Black Elegance magazine. She’s taught at Emerson College, University of Bridgeport, Fairfield University, and community colleges. She participated in panel discussions and readings at universities in India and Singapore.
Sharyn has published magazine articles, poetry, and fiction. She lives in Seattle where she’s a trustee at ACT Theatre. Her novel, Dancing with Langston (Green Writers Press), is the gold award winner in the 2019 Foreword INDIES Book of the Year Awards in Multicultural Adult Fiction.
Alka Joshi was born in India and raised in the U.S. since the age of nine. She has a BA from Stanford University and an MFA from California College of Arts. At age 62, Joshi published her debut novel, The Henna Artist, which immediately became a New York Times bestseller, a Reese Witherspoon Bookclub pick, was Longlisted for the Center for Fiction First Novel Prize, was translated into 26 languages,and is being developed into an episodic series by Netflix. The sequel, The Secret Keeper of Jaipur (June 2021), is also being translated into multiple languages and will be followed by a third book in the trilogy, The Perfumist of Paris in March, 2023.
Master Class Workshops
Four days of close personal guidance in small groups with living masters of their genres. Choose from Fiction, Memoir, Nonfiction, Publishing and more.
MORNING MASTER CLASSES
4 Days | Monday 11/7 – Thursday 11/10 2022 | 9:00am to 12:00
Writing for Series Comedy
with Marta F. Kauffman
The name says it all. Friends was not only about a tightly knit team of characters, it was a model of creative collaboration, led by series co-creator and legendary producer Marta F. Kauffman. This is an unparalleled opportunity to learn how Marta created Friends and the hit series, Grace and Frankie—and learn what one of the most successful producers in TV history looks for when she puts together a team of writers. To make this class as real-world as possible, Martha will create breakout groups and give you assignments to work on with fellow participants. Sharpen your pencil, because she’ll this is one brilliant writing workout.
Marta will be joined in this class by her friend, co-facilitator and fellow screenwriter extraordinaire Amy Ferris. Her screenplays include Mr. Wonderful (Directed by Anthony Minghella) and Funny Valentines (Directed by Julie Dash).

Marta F. Kauffman is an Emmy- and Golden Globe-winning television writer, producer, and showrunner behind the hit series Friends and Grace and Frankie. Kauffman got her big break alongside David Crane with their pilots Dream On (1990) and The Powers That Be (1992) before they co-created Friends. In 2015, Kauffman started her production company, Okay Goodnight, with industry veterans Robbie Tollin and Hannah KS Canter. Their first series, Grace and Frankie is Netflix’s longest-running original ever.
Writing with Joy
with Luis Urrea
Luis Urrea exemplifies our quest to bring together gifted writers who are also gifted teachers of writing. His workshops and classes have inspired writers of all levels of accomplishment to write with passion, grace and skill. A distinguished professor of creative writing at University of Illinois Chicago, he describes his approach to teaching:
“Teaching is more than one might think. Yes, skills and ideas. But with my writing students at UIC, it is about hope, respect and love. I ask of them a generosity and fearlessness. We are loyal to each other. And I am proud to see them publish their work, though a couple are getting more famous than me! That is irritating . One unwritten rule in my workshops is if you are not laughing every time we meet, I have failed. One of my personal rules for teaching that I try to sneak in on students — because they are often a little less starry-eyed than I am — is “fill your pen with love or don’t bother picking it up.”
This is a generative workshop. It is a combination of experience, lecture, and writing time. Luis gives you as many examples and writing prompts as can fit into your time, leaving ample time for writing. We complete writing exercises and share them with each other. Sometimes it might just be an exercise in seeing, but it all to goes into your notebooks. This workshop requires your acceptance of the many gifts of the day. Once you see them, they never stop coming. In some ways, Luis sees writing like a hummingbird that must be welcomed into your garden. Bring lots of pens and pencils.
If you are looking to tap into an inner reservoir of wonder and joy and to write from that level, then this is the class for you.
Luis recommends reading The Hummingbird’s Daughter if you want to understand his underlying thoughts on gifts, grace and trust.
Luís Alberto Urrea is the best-selling author of 18 books, including The Devil’s Highwayand The Hummingbird’s Daughter. His latest novel, The House of Broken Angels, was a national bestseller and New York Times Notable Book for 2017. A finalist for the Pulitzer Prize, Urrea has won the Lannan Literary Award, the Pacific Rim Kiriyama Prize, an American Book Award, the Christopher Award and an Edgar Award, among other honors. His 2015 collection of short stories, The Water Museum, was a finalist for the PEN/Faulkner Award and won an Academy of Arts and Letters award. His novel Into the Beautiful North is a current selection of the NEA’s Big Read program. Urrea’s books have been selected by more than 100 different cities and colleges for community reads programs and he is much in demand as a speaker, lecturer, and teacher. Born in Tijuana to a Mexican father and American mother, Urrea is most recognized as a border writer, though he says, “I am more interested in bridges, not borders.” He lives outside of Chicago and is a distinguished professor of creative writing at the University of Illinois-Chicago.
Turning Life Into Art
with Christina Baker Kline, Paula McLain & Meg Wolitzer
Christina Baker Kline and Paula McLain are returning to KWC to lead this class again. It was the most popular of all the master classes for the last two years. Attendees came away feeling that their entire approach to writing had been transformed and enriched.
This year, they will be joined by Meg Wolitzer.
The class is a rare opportunity to learn from these remarkable authors. Each will delve deeply into the process by which she draws inspiration for her work from people, places and events in her life. Writing, at its essence, is a process of transmuting one’s life experiences into art. In this class, you will learn unique way each of these renowned writers does this.
It is equally suitable for writers of fiction and memoir. Through dialog and written exercises, each of the teachers will inspire and challenge you to become more conscious and intentional about how you yourself are “turning life into art.”
Christina Baker Kline’s Orphan Train and A Piece of the World are each major international bestsellers.
Paula McLain is author of the New York Times bestselling novels The Paris Wife, Circling the Sun, and Love and Ruin.
Meg Wolitzer is the New York Times–bestselling author of The Interestings, The Uncoupling, The Ten-Year Nap, The Position, The Wife, and Sleepwalking.
Identifying & Overcoming Challenges in Writing Fiction
with Meg Wolitzer and Amanda Eyre Ward
This class is for participants who have a fiction work in progress. It will combine workshop, writing prompts, and mentorship, providing individually focused guidance for each participant. We will delve into your manuscript and discover what it most ideally wants to be and what needs to happen for it to become that.
Each participant should bring a short excerpt from their own writing, a page or two you admire from published work by another author, and a brief written discussion of what you think are the most important problems you need to overcome in your current project.

Meg Wolitzer is the New York Times bestselling author of The Interestings, The Ten-Year Nap, The Wife, and other books. Her latest novel, The Female Persuasion, was named to various Notable and Best Books of 2018 lists, including in The New York Times, The Washington Post, The Atlantic, People, Glamour, and Kirkus Reviews. She was the guest editor of The Best American Short Stories 2017, and has also published books for young readers, including To Night Owl From Dogfish, co-written with Holly Goldberg Sloan. Wolitzer is currently a faculty member in the Stony Brook Southampton MFA program, where she co-directs BookEnds, a one-year, non-credit intensive in the novel. The recent, critically-acclaimed film based on her novel The Wife starred Glenn Close and Jonathan Pryce.
Amanda Eyre Ward is the author of Sleep Toward Heaven, How to be Lost, Forgive Me, Close Your Eyes, The Same Sky, and the short story collection Love Stories in this Town. Her work has been optioned for film and television and published in fifteen countries. The Same Sky is a beautiful and heartrending novel about motherhood, resilience, and faith. Amanda spent a year visiting shelters in Texas and California, meeting immigrant children and hearing their stories. The Same Sky is a ripped-from-the-headlines story of two families on both sides of the American border. Her latest novel, The Jetsetters, has received rave reviews. Amanda’s work has garnered many accolades, including the Violet Crown Book Award (Sleep Toward Heaven), a Target Bookmarked Pick (How to Be Lost and The Same Sky), and a Kirkus Best Book Pick (Close Your Eyes).
Beginning a novel
with Richard Russo
Richard Russo’s master class at the Kauai Writers Conference is for writers beginning or at the early stages of a work of fiction. It aims to help you with the all-important questions of framing, subject matter, both superficial and deep, and finding a narrative structure best suited for the story you want to tell. Taking a hard look at these topics at the beginning of a novel can make the difference between a sharply focused and engrossing story and one which never finds its footing.
Richard says: Beginning a new work of fiction can be a bit like waking up in the dark. Where in the world (literally) are you? Is it a big place or a small one? What is its shape? What are its dimensions? If nothing else, answering these questions relieves anxiety.
So, how do writers recognize what they’re working on? What are the tell-tale signs that it might be long form fiction? Which storytelling elements naturally result in length? Which are more likely to result in fiction that’s more contained? Is it important to know what you’re working on from the start? If not at the beginning, at what point should writers know with some degree of certainty what the thing is? When should you start to worry if you don’t? And how can you tell whether you are, by temperament, a novelist or a short-story writer?
Students will be asked to submit five pages of fiction, preferably from (or near) the beginning of something – a story, a novel or (better yet) something that might be either.
Richard Russo is the Pulitzer Prize winning author of widely acclaimed novels, short stories, and screenplays. He is also a wildly popular teacher, having taught creative writing at Penn State University at Altoona, the University of Southern Illinois, Iowa Writer’s Workshop, and Colby College in Waterville, Maine. His 2001 novel Empire Falls received the 2002 Pulitzer Prize for Fiction. He has written seven other novels, a collection of short stories, and a memoir (Elsewhere). His short story “Horseman” was published in The Best American Short Stories 2007 edited by Stephen King and Heidi Pitlor.
Russo co-wrote the film Twilight with the director Robert Benton. Benton adapted Russo’s Nobody’s Fool as a film of the same title, starring Paul Newman, which he also directed. Russo wrote the teleplay for the HBO multiple award-winning adaptation of Empire Falls, the screenplay for the 2005 film Ice Harvest, and the screenplay for the 2005 Niall Johnson film Keeping Mum, which starred Rowan Atkinson. In 2017 he received France’s Grand Prix de Littérature Américaine.
Poets and Writers, in their extensive 2016 profile of Russo, wrote “He has become a statesman of American letters. He is revered for writing fiction set against the backdrop of declining mill towns while consistently drawing hilarity from his characters’ pathos; his wonderfully unhurried novels brim with wry humor and ruminative protagonists. The Washington Post has called Russo “the patron saint of small-town fiction.”
Memoir
with Adrienne Brodeur
Adrienne Brodeur is the author of Wild Game, Amazon’s #1 best memoir of 2019. This class is a rare opportunity to spend four days with Adrienne and get her direct guidance on your own memoir. She will share her account of the challenges she faced putting her deeply personal—and even shocking—story on the page.
Nearly everyone writing a memoir comes face to face with the question: do I dare write about that? What will my mother, my children, my spouse think? The reality is that the things we most fear to write are often what people most want to read. Adrienne will help you decide how to turn your own intimate and perhaps painful issues into literature, into captivating prose that people are compelled to read, and into a book they will want to own.
Adrienne Brodeur is the author of Wild Game, Amazon’s #1 best memoir of 2019.
“Exquisite and harrowing…. [Wild Game] is so gorgeously written and deeply insightful, and with a line of narrative tension that never slacks, from the first page to the last, that it’s one you’ll likely read in a single, delicious sitting.” — The New York Times
The Art and Business of Getting Published: Traditional, Indie, and Everything in Between
with Jeff Kleinman & Regina Brooks
In this comprehensive masterclass, you’ll learn not just the foundational principles of getting a book published, but you’ll also gain expert insight into the changing landscape of the publishing industry, and how you can navigate your own path toward success. Learn what it takes to capture the attention of a New York publisher or literary agent, plus when self-publishing might be best suited for your content or business goals.
This masterclass will cover:
- How to evaluate the commercial potential of your project and what it takes to appeal to a mainstream publisher or literary agent—plus how to use databases and online tools to identify the right home for your work.
- What professional submission materials look like. Your query letter should be short and sweet and pack a punch. Learn what it means to sell your story, and how to avoid problems that plague (and sabotage) authors.
- Query letter and pitch session workshop. Hone your query letter and work on your book’s one-sentence description.
- When a literary agent is necessary or desirable. You’ll learn about what the role of today’s literary agent looks like and how it is evolving, what standard agenting practices are, how to evaluate the ideal agent for your work, and how to practice proper author etiquette within the agent-author relationship.
- The author platform dilemma. Not too far into your publishing journey, you’ll hear agents and editors talk about platform. You’ll learn what an author platform is, when it’s necessary for mainstream publication, why it’s often necessary to have one to get published. You’ll also get tips on how to be a good “literary citizen,” which can be comparable to a platform. There aren’t easy answers, but you’ll learn what industry expectations are, and how data and meta tags have created new opportunities for content rich creators.
- How publishers market books (or not) and the role that authors play as publishing partners for sales success.
- You’ll also learn how to evaluate if your content is ideal for a book format or another medium such as podcast, course, or documentary.
At the end of the class, you’ll have a comprehensive, business understanding of the book publishing industry and an author’s place in the ecosystem of agents, publishers, and retailers. You’ll gain a deep understanding of the commercial publishing business model, and how you can approach the process with the right expectations and mindset.
The Way of Character – How to write people that audiences and readers will remember
with Jeff Arch
A master class in creating unforgettable characters. There are no secrets, there are no tricks, there is only the creation, from the ground up, of authentic human beings that readers will identify with, and follow from the very first pages all the way through to the final fade. Whether it’s a novel, a screenplay or stage play, stories are about people—people who want things, who go after them, who succeed and fail—not because of outside circumstances, but because of how your characters respond to them, and continue going forward, no matter what. Because it’s the “no matter what” that makes us who we are, and makes or breaks every great story. In real life, and on the page. That’s what authenticity is about, and that’s what’s common to every great story.
Revision and Improvement
with Nicholas Delbanco
It is an honor and a privilege to have Nicholas Delbanco conduct a workshop at the Kauai Writers Conference. He’s served as both chairman of the fiction panel of the National Book Awards and as a judge for, among other contests, the Pulitzer Prize and the PEN/Faulkner Award in Fiction.
In this master class, Delbanco will help a maximum of twenty writers discover the key improvements their works-in-progress need. Each student will be invited to submit an excerpt. Delbanco will read them in advance and then spend time on each one in class, analyzing, dissecting, and coming up with a penetrating analysis of where it succeeds or fails to communicate the writer’s deep intention. Each student will come away with a detailed strategy for revision and improvement to achieve the work’s true potential.
Delbanco is the author of thirty-one books, both fiction and nonfiction, most recently WHY WRITING MATTERS, in which he distills a lifetime’s experience of teaching writing. He was the founding director of the Bennington Writing Workshops and served for many years as head of the esteemed creative writing program at University of Michigan. There he was director of the Hopwood Awards Program, the oldest and best known series of writing prizes in the academy.
John Updike said Delbanco “wrestles with the abundance of his gifts as a novelist the way other men wrestle with their deficiencies.” He is a writer that other writers, including many of the most celebrated, look up to and have sought out for advice.
We think this class is the literary equivalent of having Chopin give you a piano lesson. Over his distinguished career, he has helped many hundreds of writers in all stages of their careers, from absolute beginners to established authors seeking to top The NY Times bestseller list.
We can promise that those fortunate enough to find a spot in Delbanco’s workshop will find it a seminal event in their writing careers.
Nicholas Delbanco has published thirty-one books of fiction and non-fiction. His most recent novels are The Count of Concord and Spring and Fall; his most recent works of non-fiction are The Countess of Stanlein Restored and The Lost Suitcase: Reflections on the Literary Life. As editor he has compiled the work of, among others, John Gardner and Bernard Malamud.
Nicholas has served as Chair of the Fiction Panel for the National Book Awards. He’s The Robert Frost Distinguished University Professor of English Language and Literature at the University of Michigan and heads the MFA Program as well as the Hopwood Awards Program. He received a Guggenheim Fellowship and, twice, a National Endowment for the Arts Writing Fellowship. His teaching text for McGraw-Hill is entitled Literature: Craft and Voice, and he edited a three-volume Introduction to Literature with Alan Cheuse. in 2004 he published The Sincerest Form: Writiing Fiction by Imitation. His new non-fiction book, Lastingness: The Art of Old Age was published by Grand Central Publishing in 2011.
AFTERNOON MASTER CLASSES
4 Days | Monday 11/7 – Thursday 11/10 2022 | 1:30pm to 4:30pm
Writing Scenes for the Screen
with David Paul Kirkpatrick
Director John Ford said that it’s critical to have 5 great scenes in any movie. Kirkpatrick built his career working with writers creating 5 memorable, scenes in their screenplays. In this workshop, you will not only learn how to conceptualize and write the scenes, but your fellow participants will be “getting those scenes on their feet” and acting them out together in scene labs. Part of learning scene is playing all the parts. When you leave this workshop, Kirkpatrick’s intent is to equip you with the secret sauce in scene-making that will make your script irresistible and producible.

Most notably, David Kirkpatrick, was the President of Paramount Pictures and the Production President of Walt Disney Studios. He started as a screenwriter, selling his first script to Paramount at 16. He became story editor at Paramount at 25 where he managed thousands of screenplays. Over his long career, David has worked on over 200 motion pictures starting with ideas and seeing them through to successful production, marketing, and distribution. He has worked on such recognizable global franchises as Indiana Jones, and Star Trek. He has developed countless Academy Award winning movies including Ordinary People, Elephant Man, Witness, Terms of Endearment, and Forest Gump.
The Way of the Writer
with Charles Johnson
In this four day class, Charles will offer the most important and useful lessons he has learned from a lifetime of writing and teaching others to write.
He’ll start with basics such as word choice, sentence structure, and narrative voice, then delve into the mechanics of scene, dialogue, plot and storytelling, and explore the larger questions at stake for the serious writer. What separates literature from industrial fiction? What lies at the heart of the creative impulse? How does one navigate the literary world?
The class will combine workshop, discussion, and exercises all chosen to provide the most fundamental improvement in the craft of each participant fortunate enough to find a place in it. The Kauai Writers Conference is honored and grateful to Charles for teaching this course.
Charles Johnson is a National Book Award winner and an acclaimed teacher of writing. His book,
The Way of the Writer: Reflections on the Art and Craft of Storytelling, has been praised by some of our most eminent writers as the best book written on the subject:
“If you’re looking to learn to tell stories in written form, look no further. This book is as accessible as it is profound, lively, practical, and full of earned wisdom. I was a student of Charles Johnson’s, and can vouch for the power and value of his teaching. There are plenty of craft books available out there, but this is the only one I know of that is–and I don’t think I’m exaggerating–indispensable.” — David Guterson, author of Snow Falling on Cedars.
“Those of us who put pen to paper for a living have known of Charles Johnson for a very long time. He is one of America’s greatest literary treasures. He is a skilled wordsmith, superb craftsman, master of understatement, philosopher, cartoonist, and deeply talented novelist whose 1991 novel Middle Passage, (which won the National Book Award for fiction) predates the current surfeit of Underground Railroad novels by a good two decades. Like the great Ralph Ellison to whom he is often compared, he will forever cast a long shadow over us who follow in his wake. Here he graciously opens up the treasure chest of writing secrets and philosophy for those of us who seek to kneel at the tree of learning, told by a man who has kissed the black stone of literary excellence.” — James McBride, National Book Award-winning author of The Good Lord Bird and The Color of Water.
Dialogue: The art of putting words in someone else’s mouth
with Joshua Mohr
In this course, students will work on many in-class exercises to hone their ear for dialogue. “We’ll work on giving each character a nuanced voice,” says Josh. “We’ll select the right words to push the plot forward, generate subtext, strip our dialogue down to its meaty essentials; when each line of dialogue bolsters the story, we’ll have established a connection between character and reader.” Throughout the course, students will be exposed to a great array of dialogue, from traditional novel and short story examples, to memoir, to playwriting and screenwriting. “The larger net we cast,” Josh says, “the better chance we’ll land an example that resonates for each student.”
Joshua Mohr is the author of the novels “Termite Parade,” an Editors’ Choice on The New York Times Best Seller List, and “Some Things that Meant the World to Me,” one of O Magazine’s Top 10 reads of 2009 and a SF Chronicle best-seller. His most recent novel is “Damascus” about which the New York Times said:
“The author’s jaunty voice [is] Beat-poet cool…Mohr nails the atmosphere of a San Francisco still breathing in the smoke that lingers from the days of Jim Jones and Dan White, a time when passionate ideologies and personal dysfunction intermingled and combusted.” — New York Times
Mohr teaches in the MFA program at the University of San Francisco and Stanford University’s creative writing program.
STORYquest: the Writer, the Hero, the Journey
with Laura Lentz
Stories are as old as cave drawings and as new as a story inside of you burning to find the page. Joseph Campbell and Christopher Vogler have written about the Hero’s Journey and the critical stages of story to explore to make a story come alive.
All of story – the big event, the obstacles, hitting rock bottom and the long journey home to self – all of these stages matter, including the angels and mentors we meet along the way.
Laura Lentz – author of the writing workbook STORYquest, the Writer, the Hero, the Journey, has turned the stages of storytelling into unique writing prompts with examples out of four books of award-winning literature. Laura’s popular online & Kauai class is now a master class at the Kauai Writers Conference, where writers will explore six of the twelve critical stages of storytelling.
This is an ideal class to structure your story and explore elements critical to move a story along. For memoirists, fiction writers and poets.

Laura Lentz is a master writing teacher, author and developmental editor. She has taught themed creative writing workshops for over a decade to artists all over the world in intimate online groups and on Kauai’s north shore.
Her workbook Story-Quest, Make your story a Hero’s Journey is workbook for writers to guide them through the twelve stages of the Hero’s Journey by offering sequential writing prompts and literary examples for each stage of the hero’s journey out of best selling memoirs and poetry. Laura helps writers expand their body of work by offering challenging and thought-provoking exercises inspired by poetry, science, music and excerpts from literature.
Laura is also co-founder of Literati Academy, a community and school to support, encourage and assist writers in all creative endeavors. Laura is known for her Sex on the Page writing workshop, Ancestors and Epigenetics and her annual Poetry Room, which teaches writers how to use poetic form in all writing. Laura is also the founder of the bi-annual Speak, Kauai spoken word performances on Hawaii that showcase writers from all over the world to sold out audiences, live streams and standing ovations.
Scene Making: The Essence of Storytelling
with Elizabeth Stark & Ellen Sussman
A dramatic scene takes hold of a reader and insists: Pay attention. Live here. Engage fully. Great scenes make the reader lean into the story, refuse to put down the book, dream the tale we put on the page. We know this and yet developing the images and ideas of our stories into wonderful, fleshed-out, vivid scenes challenges all of us. This Master Class will explore what “show, don’t tell” really means in the books we love — and in our own writing. We’ll aim to create unforgettable scenes that pull our readers into the story and don’t let go.
We’ll examine all of the elements that go into great scene-making: gripping narrative, revealing inner thoughts, sensory detail, pitch-perfect dialogue, great back-story, flawless prose. Does the setting serve your story? Have you chosen the right point of view? Is there dramatic action that moves your story forward? We’ll use in-class exercises in order to explore the many ways in which we can make a scene come alive on the page.
If we are socialized not to “make a scene,” how do we do just that? Push your characters over the edge, make things happen, get out of the habit of keeping quiet! Fiction is not life, but a heightened version of life. Same with narrative non-fiction. Get to the heart of your story and let it beat, loud and hard and with great force.
Ellen Sussman is the New York Times bestselling author of four novels, A Wedding in Provence, The Paradise Guest House, French Lessons, and On a Night Like This. She is the editor of two critically acclaimed anthologies, Bad Girls: 26 Writers Misbehave and Dirty Words: A Literary Encyclopedia of Sex. She teaches through Stanford Continuing Studies and in private classes and she is the co-founder and co-director of Sonoma County Writers Camp.
Elizabeth Stark is the host of Story Makers Podcast, and author of the novel Shy Girl (FSG, Seal Press), finalist for the Ferro-Grumely and Lambda Literary Awards. A feature film she produced, Lost in the Middle, won Best Feature at the 2019 Broad Humor Film Festival and was a Festival Favorite at Cinema Diverse in Palm Springs. She co-directed and co-wrote several films, including FtF: Female to Femme, a creative documentary and Little Mutinies, a short (both distributed by Frameline). She earned an M.F.A. from Columbia University in Creative Writing and has taught at the Pratt Institute, UCSC, St. Mary’s, where she was the visiting distinguished writer, and elsewhere. She currently co-directs and teaches at Book Writing World and Sonoma County Writers Camp.
Inside the World of Publishing
with Lisa Sharkey
Are you fantasizing about becoming a published author? How does your vision of what it takes to get published compare to the reality of what’s available to you? Lisa Sharkey, senior vice president and director of creative development at HarperColllins Publishers will teach a master class in how to go from concept to book shelf. Students will learn the ins and outs of what makes a book sell, how to identify the right pathway to success, and the latest trends in publishing avenues. Lisa is known for her out of the box thinking and has been behind the publication of more than 50 New York Times bestsellers. The books she has acquired and published have sold millions of copies all over the world. Prior to her career and book publishing, Lisa was a television news journalist and has won two Emmy awards, a Peabody Award, and a Dupont award for her journalism.

Lisa Sharkey, SVP and Director of Creative Development at Harper Collins Publishers, was recently described by one of her authors, number one bestseller Congressman Jamie Raskin as a “clairvoyant publishing wizard”. Following more than two decades producing, writing and developing Emmy award-winning network and syndicated television news, Lisa made the switch into books because of her love for literature, storytelling, and going deep.
Sharkey is a champion of powerful, poignant, and persuasive storytelling. More than 75 of the books she has published have become New York Times bestsellers, selling millions of copies in multiple languages across the globe over the past 15 years. Her authors have accomplished extraordinary things and changed the world by telling their stories. Sharkey publishes books in the categories of politics, journalism, true crime, music, sports, medicine, self-help, cooking, mindfulness, science, religion, military life, and inspirational memoir. Sharkey is a mother of three, a yoga teacher, and a mentor of military veterans who are transitioning into civilian life.
She lives in one of New York’s first ever eco houses that she designed along with her architect husband who co-authored their book Dreaming Green.
Cutting and Polishing: Turning your good manuscript into a great book
with Elizabeth Rosner
You’ve completed a draft, or nearly so. You think it’s good. But is it the best it can be? Is it enough of a gem to stand out in today’s crowded marketplace? What can you do to transform your manuscript from adequate to extraordinary? That is the topic of this unique class.
In Elizabeth Rosner’s three-decade career as a teacher and nationally bestselling author, she has worked with hundreds of writers in revising and refining drafts and turning them into successful books. She has not won the Pulitzer for her writing (at least so far), but if there were one for teaching, we think she would be a top candidate. And a multitude of her grateful students share this opinion. She is truly an exceptional teacher.
Elizabeth will invite you to share excerpts, both those that you think are excellent, and others that you aren’t sure about. She will skillfully dissect them, finding what makes the great parts great and where the less-than-great parts are missing the mark.
She will help you to identify what truly works in your manuscript. The originality of your voice. The depth of your characters. The power of your story arc. The fluency and cleanliness of your prose. Then, with her exceptional gift for gently yet accurately guiding writers, she will help you understand where these strengths shine brightly, and where they don’t.
Writers sometimes dread the process of revision. “I gave it my best shot,” they tell themselves. “I’d rather move on to another book now.” And their book languishes unpublished, or if it is published, not widely read. Elizabeth’s inspirational teaching has helped many to bring the same joyful creative energy to the revision process that compelled them to write the book in the first place.
We enthusiastically recommend this class for writers who have a completed or nearly completed manuscript in any genre—fiction, memoir, non-fiction, short story or other—who have the courage to recognize that their creation is not quite the masterpiece they want it to be, and the determination to bring it to its true potential.

Elizabeth Rosner is a bestselling novelist, poet, and essayist living in Berkeley, California. Her most recent book, SURVIVOR CAFÉ: The Legacy of Trauma and the Labyrinth of Memory, was featured on NPR’s All Things Considered and in The New York Times; it was a finalist for a National Jewish Book Award and named one of the Best Books of 2017 by the San Francisco Chronicle. Her third novel, ELECTRIC CITY, was included among the Best Books of 2014 by National Public Radio. Her poetry collection, GRAVITY, was also published in 2014. THE SPEED OF LIGHT, Rosner’s acclaimed debut novel in 2001, was translated into nine languages. Short-listed for the prestigious Prix Femina, the book won several literary prizes in both the US and Europe, including the Prix France Bleu Gironde; the Great Lakes Colleges Award for New Fiction; and Hadassah Magazine’s Ribalow Prize, judged by Elie Wiesel. BLUE NUDE, her second novel, was selected as one of the Best Books of 2006 by the SF Chronicle. Rosner’s essays have appeared in the NY Times Magazine, Elle, the Forward, and numerous anthologies. Her book reviews appear frequently in the SF Chronicle. A graduate of Stanford University, the University of California at Irvine, and the University of Queensland in Australia, Elizabeth has been teaching writing workshops and lecturing internationally for three decades. She also coaches writers privately.
Screenwriting: What works, what doesn’t, and why
with Dale Launer
Screenwriting is a very different craft from novel writing. Fiction writers wanting to transition to screenwriters tend to forget that the primary impact of film is visual. Literature seeks to evoke visual image in the mind of the reader, but film does so directly. Dialog and description play supporting roles in film; visual image is the star.
Perhaps Dale’s unflagging awareness of the comedic impact of image is the key to what makes his films so funny. He admits that it is very difficult to define what works in comedy, and even harder to teach it. But he promises to try.
The route from ideas in the comedy writer’s head to finished scenes in a film is often circuitous. Dale’s stories about his road trip through Mississippi and Alabama he undertook as research for My Cousin Vinny are hilarious. He can tell about his real life introductions to grits, small town judges who wanted to avoid being described as unsophisticated, and getting stuck in the southern mud. And he will describe his battles with studio heads, directors and actors to portray what originally made him laugh in these experiences.
There will also very likely be one or two unannounced special guests dropping in to co-teach with Dale. But his leadership of the class is more than reason enough to enroll.
Dale Launer, the writer of some of the funniest movies ever made, is coming to the next KWC to teach a master class on screenwriting. Dale wrote and produced My Cousin Vinny. If you haven’t seen it, we envy you. If you’ve only seen it a couple of times, see it again. It’s no surprise that Marissa Tomei won the oscar for this role.
Dale also wrote Dirty Rotten Scoundrels, another comedic gem, starring Steve Martin and Michael Caine, directed by Frank Oz, and Ruthless People, with Danny DeVito and Bette Midler.
2022 Conference Schedule
This schedule is subject to change.
Friday, November 11th, 2022
Time | Kauai Ballroom 2 | Kauai Ballroom 1 | Puna Ballroom | |
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7:30 – 9:00 |
– REGISTRATION – – BREAKFAST – |
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9:00 – 9:30 | WELCOME AND BLESSING Kumu Sabra Kauka and her hula halau |
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9:30 – 10:30 | Meg Wolitzer, Christina Baker Kline, Richard Russo Sources of Inspiration Moderated by Kevin Larimer |
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10:45 – 11:45 | Marta F Kauffman (Creator and writer of Friends and Grace and Frankie) Creating characters that people love |
Joshua Mohr Workshop: Plaracterization – The kiss between plot and character |
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12:00 – 1:00 | – LUNCH – Puna and Kauai Courts |
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1:15 – 2:15 | Charles Johnson, Luis Urrea Nicholas Delbanco (former chairs of the National Book Award fiction panel) What makes good writing good? |
Adrienne Brodeur Workshop: Memoir |
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2:30 – 3:30 | Sam Horn Promoting and Marketing Your Book |
Amy Ferris Workshop: Memoir |
Laura Lentz Workshop: Writing about Sex |
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3:45-4:45 | Jean Hanff Korelitz, Dale Launer Writing with the screen in mind |
Sharyn Skeeter, Charles Johnson Biofiction: bringing historical characters to life |
Alka Joshi
My journey to writing bestsellers at 62
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6:00 – 9:30 | – LUAU – Performance by the Punua Family Beachside tent at the Luau Garden |
Saturday, November 12th, 2022
Time | Kauai Ballroom 2 | Kauai Ballroom 1 | Puna Ballroom | |
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7:30 – 9:00 |
– BREAKFAST – |
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9:00 – 10:00 | Christina Baker Kline, Amanda Eyre Ward Workshop: Grab your readers’ hearts and don’t let go |
Jim Burke (Production president of Focus Features) How I look for the film potential in a book |
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10:05 – 11:05 | Paula McLain, Priya Parmar, Amanda Eyre Ward The Writer’s Path with individual breakout sessions |
David Paul Kirkpatrick (Former President of Paramount Pictures), Jim Burke (Production president, Focus Features) The winding path from book to film |
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11:10 – 12:05 | Richard Russo, Luis Urrea How and why we write |
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12:15 – 2:15 | – BEACH SIDE LUNCH – Under the tent at the Kalapaki Beach Luau Grounds Special guest Stuart Coleman, author of Eddie Would Go |
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2:30 – 3:25 | Elizabeth Stark Ellen Sussman Those crucial first four pages |
Paula McLain The Exquisite Risk: Inviting mystery, uncertainty and vulnerability into the creative process |
Women’s Voices Amy Ferris, Brooke Warner, Adrienne Brodeur |
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3:35 – 4:25 | Nicholas Delbanco Charles Johnson Voice and point of view |
Elizabeth Stark, Ellen Sussman Workshop: Creating emotion on the page |
Kevin Larimer The craft and business of journalism |
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4:35 – 5:25 | Dale Launer How and why I wrote My Cousin Vinny |
Brooke Warner with attendees who have published books Many Paths to Publishing Success |
Christina Baker Kline Creativity (multimedia presentation) |
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8:00 – 9:30 | – EXCLUSIVE FILM SHOWING – Mission: Joy Finding Happiness in Troubled Times. The friendship between His Holiness The Dalai Lama and Archbishop Desmond Tutu. |
Sunday, November 13th, 2022
Time | Kauai Ballroom 2 | Kauai Ballroom 1 | Puna Ballroom | |||
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9:00 – 11:00 |
– COURTYARD BRUNCH – |
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11:00 – 12:30 |
– PITCHSHOP – |
– Our Writing Process – |
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12:45-1:45 | Richard Russo Workshop: Character Development |
Joshua Mohr Workshop: Finding & Honing Your Voice |
Michelle Tessler, Susan Golomb How agents evaluate your work |
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1:55-2:55 | Priya Parmar Workshop on opening lines |
Debra Engle, Alan Cohen Spiritual Writing: Matters of the Heart and Soul |
Andy Ross, Kevin Larimer Surviving and thriving in today’s new publishing landscape |
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3:05-4:05 | Luis Urrea Writing from the Heart |
Jean Hanff Korelitz What compels readers to turn the pages? |
Elizabeth Rosner Telling stories from the inside out. |
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4:15-5:00 | Meg Wolitzer, Richard Russo Write what you know and love (or hate) |
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5:00-5:20 | Closing Ceremony |