Due to our commitment to establishing a safe and welcoming environment for our participants, we've decided to hold the C.D. Wright Women Writers Conference virtually this fall.
2020 Conference Information
NOVEMBER 5-7, 2020
Photo by Marley Cash-Powell
Schedule
All events will be held online. Unless noted otherwise, events are free and open to the public but require registration. All events will be held via Zoom, and each has a separate Zoom link, which will be distributed the day before the conference.
Registration
To register for free events, fill out this form. The deadline to register for free events is Wednesday, 11/4/2020 at 4:00pm CST.
To register for paid events, follow the instructions below.
Schedule
All events will be held online. Unless noted otherwise, events are free and open to the public but require registration. All events will be held via Zoom, and each has a separate Zoom link, which will be distributed the day before the conference.
Registration
To register for free events, fill out this form. The deadline to register for free events is Wednesday, 11/4/2020 at 4:00pm CST.
To register for paid events, follow the instructions below.
Thursday
2020 Keynote Speaker
Carmen Giménez Smith, Thursday, 11/5/2020, 7:00pm - 8:30pm CST
Giménez Smith holds a BA in English from San Jose State University and an MFA in creative writing from the University of Iowa's Writer Workshop. She is now a Professor of English at Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University in Blacksburg, VA. Giménez Smith is also the co-director for CantoMundo, which is an American literary organization that strives to support Latino/a poets and Latino/a poetry. She is the co-editor of The Nation’s poetry section as well as the publisher of Noemi Press. Her latest book of poetry, Be Recorder, was published by Graywolf Press in the Fall 2019.
Giménez Smith was born in New York, daughter to two South American Immigrants. This has inspired her to use her work to speak about the lives of Latinas. On the Academy of American Poets website, Giménez Smith is quoted as saying, “I think that the canon privileges male histories, both political and private, whereas women’s same histories are seen as domestic trifles. So I intend to go as deep as possible into those trifles.” Our conference is proud to have Giménez Smith and her mission to promote the female voice in literature along with us on this journey of recognizing, promoting, and encouraging women-identifying writers to use their voices in order to make a difference.
2020 Keynote Speaker
Carmen Giménez Smith, Thursday, 11/5/2020, 7:00pm - 8:30pm CST
Giménez Smith holds a BA in English from San Jose State University and an MFA in creative writing from the University of Iowa's Writer Workshop. She is now a Professor of English at Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University in Blacksburg, VA. Giménez Smith is also the co-director for CantoMundo, which is an American literary organization that strives to support Latino/a poets and Latino/a poetry. She is the co-editor of The Nation’s poetry section as well as the publisher of Noemi Press. Her latest book of poetry, Be Recorder, was published by Graywolf Press in the Fall 2019.
Giménez Smith was born in New York, daughter to two South American Immigrants. This has inspired her to use her work to speak about the lives of Latinas. On the Academy of American Poets website, Giménez Smith is quoted as saying, “I think that the canon privileges male histories, both political and private, whereas women’s same histories are seen as domestic trifles. So I intend to go as deep as possible into those trifles.” Our conference is proud to have Giménez Smith and her mission to promote the female voice in literature along with us on this journey of recognizing, promoting, and encouraging women-identifying writers to use their voices in order to make a difference.
Friday
Pre-Conference Generative Fiction Workshop with Padma Viswanathan
Friday, 11/6/2020, 12:00pm - 3:00pm CST
Led by award-winning novelist, translator, and playwright Padma Viswanathan, this workshop will offer generative prompts and inspiration for anyone interested in writing fiction. Writers of all levels of experience are welcome. Participants will receive multiple prompts, plenty of time for generating new writing, and the possibility of sharing work with others in the group. At a cost of $35, conference participants may register for this three (3) hour, virtual workshop conducted via Zoom.
Viswanathan's most recent work is a translation of São Bernardo, by the late, lauded Brazilian novelist Graciliano Ramos. Two previous novels include The Ever After of Ashwin Rao and The Toss of a Lemon. Viswanathan has published plays, essays, translations, and short fiction in national and international journals, and has earned grants from the US National Endowment for the Arts and the Canada Council for the Arts, to name a few. Canadian by birth, she now lives in Fayetteville, AR, and teaches in the Programs in Creative Writing and Translation at the University of Arkansas.
This workshop will take place Friday, November 6, 2020, from time to be determined. If you are interested, please email cdwrightconference@gmail.com to register. The registration and payment deadline is Friday, October 30, 2020, although spaces are limited and may fill before this date. Cancellation with a full refund is available until Friday, October 23, 2020. After this date, there will be no refunds.
Pre-Conference Generative Fiction Workshop with Padma Viswanathan
Friday, 11/6/2020, 12:00pm - 3:00pm CST
Led by award-winning novelist, translator, and playwright Padma Viswanathan, this workshop will offer generative prompts and inspiration for anyone interested in writing fiction. Writers of all levels of experience are welcome. Participants will receive multiple prompts, plenty of time for generating new writing, and the possibility of sharing work with others in the group. At a cost of $35, conference participants may register for this three (3) hour, virtual workshop conducted via Zoom.
Viswanathan's most recent work is a translation of São Bernardo, by the late, lauded Brazilian novelist Graciliano Ramos. Two previous novels include The Ever After of Ashwin Rao and The Toss of a Lemon. Viswanathan has published plays, essays, translations, and short fiction in national and international journals, and has earned grants from the US National Endowment for the Arts and the Canada Council for the Arts, to name a few. Canadian by birth, she now lives in Fayetteville, AR, and teaches in the Programs in Creative Writing and Translation at the University of Arkansas.
This workshop will take place Friday, November 6, 2020, from time to be determined. If you are interested, please email cdwrightconference@gmail.com to register. The registration and payment deadline is Friday, October 30, 2020, although spaces are limited and may fill before this date. Cancellation with a full refund is available until Friday, October 23, 2020. After this date, there will be no refunds.
New in 2020! Pre-Conference Peer Workshops
Friday, 11/6/2020, 4:00pm - 6:00pm CST
Over the past three years, conference participants have consistently praised the sense of community this conference has created and the opportunity it has provided to meet new writers with whom to exchange work. For this reason, we are launching a free virtual (Zoom) pre-conference event: peer group workshops. If you are interested in exchanging work with fellow writers and receiving feedback that can propel your projects, this is the opportunity for you!
These two-hour workshops will take place on Friday, 11/6. Conference organizers will group participants by genre in workshops of four people.
The deadline to sign up to participate is 10/18/20, which is also the deadline for submitting work (see instructions below). Participants will designate the genre they wish to discuss and send up to 16 pages of prose/hybrid work OR 5 poems/pieces of flash prose. You will receive peer work for review by 10/23, about two weeks before the workshop. During your assigned workshop period on Friday, 11/6, concentrate on providing verbal feedback; you may choose to exchange written comments afterwards.
We will provide a workshop moderator to handle technology, manage any chat function, and ensure each participant has an equal amount of time devoted to their work. This moderator will not comment on the pieces in the workshop.
If you are interested in participating in a workshop, please email cdwrightconference@gmail.com and include the genre of your choice.
Friday, 11/6/2020, 4:00pm - 6:00pm CST
Over the past three years, conference participants have consistently praised the sense of community this conference has created and the opportunity it has provided to meet new writers with whom to exchange work. For this reason, we are launching a free virtual (Zoom) pre-conference event: peer group workshops. If you are interested in exchanging work with fellow writers and receiving feedback that can propel your projects, this is the opportunity for you!
These two-hour workshops will take place on Friday, 11/6. Conference organizers will group participants by genre in workshops of four people.
The deadline to sign up to participate is 10/18/20, which is also the deadline for submitting work (see instructions below). Participants will designate the genre they wish to discuss and send up to 16 pages of prose/hybrid work OR 5 poems/pieces of flash prose. You will receive peer work for review by 10/23, about two weeks before the workshop. During your assigned workshop period on Friday, 11/6, concentrate on providing verbal feedback; you may choose to exchange written comments afterwards.
We will provide a workshop moderator to handle technology, manage any chat function, and ensure each participant has an equal amount of time devoted to their work. This moderator will not comment on the pieces in the workshop.
If you are interested in participating in a workshop, please email cdwrightconference@gmail.com and include the genre of your choice.
Editorial Consultations
Friday, 11/6/2020, various times
In order to help our attendees better understand the publishing industry and gain access to publishing opportunities, conference participants can, at a cost of $35, register for virtual, twenty-minute editorial consultations with visiting editors. Participants will submit 3-5 pages of poetry, 10-15 pages of prose (novel/memoir excerpts, essays, or stories), a query letter, a grant application, or 5-15 pages of a book proposal prior to the conference, and then meet with an editor and receive astute feedback during a virtual (online) one-on-one conversation on Friday afternoon, 11/6/2020, (a few slots will also be available on Saturday, 11/7/2020).
If you are interested in participating in a consultation, please email cdwrightconference@gmail.com with your preferred editor and genre. We will let you know the availability of editors and the procedure for making payment. Payment must be received by the time you submit your manuscript pages. Cancellation with a full refund is available until Monday, October 12, 2020. After this date, there will be no refunds.
Current list of participating editors (updated 8/6/2020):
Friday, 11/6/2020, various times
In order to help our attendees better understand the publishing industry and gain access to publishing opportunities, conference participants can, at a cost of $35, register for virtual, twenty-minute editorial consultations with visiting editors. Participants will submit 3-5 pages of poetry, 10-15 pages of prose (novel/memoir excerpts, essays, or stories), a query letter, a grant application, or 5-15 pages of a book proposal prior to the conference, and then meet with an editor and receive astute feedback during a virtual (online) one-on-one conversation on Friday afternoon, 11/6/2020, (a few slots will also be available on Saturday, 11/7/2020).
If you are interested in participating in a consultation, please email cdwrightconference@gmail.com with your preferred editor and genre. We will let you know the availability of editors and the procedure for making payment. Payment must be received by the time you submit your manuscript pages. Cancellation with a full refund is available until Monday, October 12, 2020. After this date, there will be no refunds.
Current list of participating editors (updated 8/6/2020):
- Anna Lena Phillips Bell, Editor or Ecotone and Lookout Books (poetry, fiction, or creative nonfiction)
- Eliza Borné, Editor of the Oxford American (creative nonfiction, memoir, or pitches/query letters for magazine essays)
- Kim Brown, Founder and Editor of Minerva Rising Press (fiction or memoir)
- Sara Lewis, Associate Editor of the Oxford American (fiction, creative nonfiction, memoir, book proposals, pitches for magazine essays, or grant applications)
- Jenny Molberg, Director of Pleiades Press (poetry, including book proposals)
- Melanie Palmer, President of the Grant Professionals Assoc., Arkansas Chapter, and owner of M. Palmer Consulting (grant application materials)
- Rhett Iseman Trull, Founder and Editor of Cave Wall Press (poetry)
- Erin Wood, Founder and Director of Et Alia Press (creative nonfiction and memoir, essays or book proposals)
Friday Social Hour
Friday, 11/6/2020, 6:00pm - 7:30pm
Join us for a virtual gathering and get to know writers from across the country.
Friday, 11/6/2020, 6:00pm - 7:30pm
Join us for a virtual gathering and get to know writers from across the country.
Saturday
2020 Keynote Speaker
Regina Porter, Saturday, 11/7/2020, 12:30pm - 2:00pm CST
Porter is a graduate of the Iowa Writers' Workshop, where she was an Iowa Arts Fellow. In 2019 she published her first novel, The Travelers. She is the recipient of a 2017-2018 Rae Armour West Postgraduate Scholarship. She is also a 2017 Tin House Scholar. Her fiction has been published in The Harvard Review. An award-winning writer with a background in playwriting, Porter has worked with Playwrights Horizons, the Joseph Papp Theater, New York Stage and Film, the Women's Project, Woolly Mammoth Theatre Company, and Horizon Theatre Company. She has been anthologized in Plays from Woolly Mammoth by Broadway Play Services and Heinemann's Scenes for Women by Women. She has also been profiled in Southern Women Playwrights: New Essays in History and Criticism from the University of Alabama Press. Porter was born in Savannah, Georgia, and lives in Brooklyn.
2020 Panels
Is Anyone Out There? Fostering Community in Rural Places, Saturday, 11/7/2020, 10:00am - 11:30am CST
Jacque Boucher, Traci Brimhall, Luisa Muradyan, Mawi Sonna, Winniebell Zong
Living in a rural place can make it hard to connect with other writers. Despite these challenges our panelists have run reading series, book clubs, created literary non-profits, edited journals, started writing groups, and found ways to foster genuine connection online. Our panel will discuss tips and tricks we’ve learned through both our successes and failures.
*With current social isolation as the rule, this panel will be helpful to many of us regardless of our rural or urban settings.
Invisible Labor: Anticipating Audience Critique in Poetry & Nonfiction on Race, Saturday, 11/7/2020, 3:00pm - 4:30pm CST
Marianne Chan, Su Cho, Lisa Low
Considering your audience as a writer of color, particularly when writing about race, is fraught, and the labor of doing so is invisible. This panel is rooted in the idea of prolepsis: “anticipating a possible objection or counter-argument in order to answer or discount it” (OED). Our discussion will explore how we and other poets and prose writers of color anticipate audience resistance and white fragility. Topics will include writer ethos, vulnerability, silence, and myth-making. Led by three Asian American women writers, the panel will look at proleptic strategies that critique whiteness and make space for marginalized experiences.
2020 Keynote Speaker
Regina Porter, Saturday, 11/7/2020, 12:30pm - 2:00pm CST
Porter is a graduate of the Iowa Writers' Workshop, where she was an Iowa Arts Fellow. In 2019 she published her first novel, The Travelers. She is the recipient of a 2017-2018 Rae Armour West Postgraduate Scholarship. She is also a 2017 Tin House Scholar. Her fiction has been published in The Harvard Review. An award-winning writer with a background in playwriting, Porter has worked with Playwrights Horizons, the Joseph Papp Theater, New York Stage and Film, the Women's Project, Woolly Mammoth Theatre Company, and Horizon Theatre Company. She has been anthologized in Plays from Woolly Mammoth by Broadway Play Services and Heinemann's Scenes for Women by Women. She has also been profiled in Southern Women Playwrights: New Essays in History and Criticism from the University of Alabama Press. Porter was born in Savannah, Georgia, and lives in Brooklyn.
2020 Panels
Is Anyone Out There? Fostering Community in Rural Places, Saturday, 11/7/2020, 10:00am - 11:30am CST
Jacque Boucher, Traci Brimhall, Luisa Muradyan, Mawi Sonna, Winniebell Zong
Living in a rural place can make it hard to connect with other writers. Despite these challenges our panelists have run reading series, book clubs, created literary non-profits, edited journals, started writing groups, and found ways to foster genuine connection online. Our panel will discuss tips and tricks we’ve learned through both our successes and failures.
*With current social isolation as the rule, this panel will be helpful to many of us regardless of our rural or urban settings.
Invisible Labor: Anticipating Audience Critique in Poetry & Nonfiction on Race, Saturday, 11/7/2020, 3:00pm - 4:30pm CST
Marianne Chan, Su Cho, Lisa Low
Considering your audience as a writer of color, particularly when writing about race, is fraught, and the labor of doing so is invisible. This panel is rooted in the idea of prolepsis: “anticipating a possible objection or counter-argument in order to answer or discount it” (OED). Our discussion will explore how we and other poets and prose writers of color anticipate audience resistance and white fragility. Topics will include writer ethos, vulnerability, silence, and myth-making. Led by three Asian American women writers, the panel will look at proleptic strategies that critique whiteness and make space for marginalized experiences.
Saturday Social Hour
Saturday, 11/6/2020, 6:00pm - 7:30pm
Join us for a virtual gathering and get to know writers from across the country.
Schedule last updated on 9/20/2020
Saturday, 11/6/2020, 6:00pm - 7:30pm
Join us for a virtual gathering and get to know writers from across the country.
Schedule last updated on 9/20/2020
Nan Snow Emerging Writer Award
As part of its mission to promote the work and careers of women-identifying writers, the conference sponsors the Nan Snow Emerging Writer Award, which celebrates conference attendees whose writing shows considerable promise. The deadline to submit was August 15, 2020. Video or audio recording of the winners will be posted to the website on Saturday, 11/7/2020.