At Willamette Writers, we are all about writers!
As a non-profit educational organization, Willamette Writers is committed to helping writers connect with their communities, develop their craft, and expand their career. Our chapter meetings are open to everyone! We are here to help you!
Want to be more involved? Become a member!
A community of writers supporting and learning from each other. We strive to provide members with everything they need to thrive—community support, networking opportunities, continuing education, inspiration, publicity, and much more.
Here’s all you get for just $57 a year:
Willamette Writers Membership benefits:
Weekly Chapter Meetings: with talks and inspirational, educational presentations on the craft and business of writing from leaders in the writing world
Online Coffee Hours: socialize with other writers twice a week
The Write Place: weekly productivity meeting, an opportunity for mutual support and accountability towards achieving your writing goals
The Timberline Review literary journal: free submissions and discounted subscriptions or copies
WilWrite Conference: early registration and discount on our acclaimed yearly writers conference
Kay Snow Writing Awards: Discounted submissions to our writing contest
FilmLab Contest: discounted submissions to our filmmaking contest
Critique groups: We help connect members to critique groups for various genres.
Post your writing news free: on our website, in our weekly Dispatch email, in our quarterly Newsletter, and on our social media. We want to celebrate YOU!
Join today!
We’d love for you to be part of the community.
Join a Meeting or a Workshop Near You
All Writers Welcome!
Members & Full-Time Students Attend for Free!
Online: Coffee at your Kitchen Table
Online: Writing About Trauma with Deborah A. Lott
Online: Coffee at your Kitchen Table
The Write Place: An Online Meeting for Productivity
Online: Contracts and Copyrights with David Paul Williams
YWW Online: Make it Believable with Connie King Leonard
Online: Short writing with Anthony St. Clair
Online: Be a Storyteller with Charlie Jane Anders
Your writing community NEWS
Member News: Author Event — Buried Truths
Author Elsa Wolf is pleased to announce that several book clubs have read her paperback novel, Buried Truths: A Daughter’s Tale, and asked her to appear as a guest speaker. She hopes to be invited to more events. This tale is about the deception surrounding Heidi’s adoption in 1958, and the evolution of her life.…
Member News: New Release — Small Business Experience Marketing
The timing is perfect for small business owners to take advantage of the practical ideas and low-cost ways to grow and thrive with the new book, Small Business Experience Marketing. Written by community event consultant Bridget Bayer, this innovative manual of best practices shows how to create memorable experiences by tickling all the senses and…
Member News: Preorder — Love, Dance, & Egg Rolls
Member News: Author Event — Baggy Red Pants and Other Stories
Baggy Red Pants and Other Stories: Short Stories, Poems, Lyrics and Visual Art by 3 Hand Stephen (writer, performer, recording and visual artist, and singer/songwriter Stephen Cohen) was published by Wake-Robin Press on August 3rd. There will be an Annie Blooms Books virtual reading event on Zoom at 7 PM on September 20th. Find out…
Member News: New Release — Dread Watch
Dread Watch is a middle grade supernatural thriller by Jared Agard, released on September 1st, 2021. Caleb Meyer stumbles upon an old pocketwatch in an abandoned railroad museum. Something about it makes him sure that, if he has it, the watch will take away all of his fears. But the watch is a trap concocted…
Member News: eBook — River Run
Amazon has chosen River Run by J. S. James as a Kindle Book Deal (priced at $1.99) beginning Aug. 9, 2021. Tell your friends. River Run is an explosive debut mystery for readers of Christine Carbo and Paul Doiron featuring a newly minted deputy thrust into the cutthroat world of hunting. This waterfowl season, the…
Member News: New Release — Guin the Emerald
Portland author Louisa Kelley announces the release of the latest book in her WLW fantasy romance series, The Shift Series. Shape-shifting dragons in Portland, gorgeous women, intrigue, romance and mystery, plus a baby dragon! This book follows the acclaimed first book in the series, Fianna The Gold. Guin is on a mission in the Oregon…
Member News: New Release — Blue Song
Blue Song, Nancy Rhodes’ first published novel, released on May 19. Allie Bennett, fed up with a lackluster advertising position at a dying newspaper and a life choked by a traumatic relationship, purchases a one-way ticket to Chile. The plan to find and face that demon from her past goes awry when a group of…
Member News: New Release — Back Up
Member News: New Release — The Blossom of the Thar
Oscar Z. Hutson’s new novel, The Blossom of the Thar, released June 6th. Rahoul Sharma wants to improve life in Thar desert in his native State of Rajasthan, India. His friend, Sohrabi Mirza, a Muslim girl of great beauty, shares his ideals. Using his engineering skills to implement solar power on a large scale, Rahoul…
Writing Resources from Willamette Writers
Writing Advice from Zoraida Córdova
by Mari Hotchkiss An unusual career path. As a young child in Ecuador, Zoraida Córdova grew up listening to her grandmother’s stories that were filled with magic and wonder. At six years old, she immigrated to the United States with…
Creating Characters
Happy Fall! Have you got your sweater? Your scarf? Your pumpkin-spiced whatever?Then sit down and talk with us about character. Hemingway said, “When writing a novel, a writer should create living people; people, not characters. A character is a caricature.”…
How To Happily Write A Query Letter
We’re excited that Bill Kenower is a member of the faculty at the upcoming Willamette Writers Conference. Bill is the author of Fearless Writing: How to Create Boldly and Write With Confidence and Write Within Yourself: An Author’s Companion. In…
HOW TO WIN THE SUBMISSION WAITING GAME
We’re excited that Erick Mertz is a member of the faculty at the upcoming Willamette Writers Conference. Erick is a Portland-based ghostwriter and fiction/memoir manuscript consultant. Over the last five years as a full-time freelancer he has written manuscripts for…
Experts Weigh In: 10 Crucial Screenwriting Mistakes
Experts Weigh In: 10 Crucial Screenwriting Mistakes Lee Jessup, a member of our screenwriting faculty at the upcoming Willamette Writer’s Conference and the author of Breaking In: Tales from the Screenwriting Trenches and Getting It Write: An Insider’s Guide To A…
The 7 Things Writers Need to Make a Living by Sonia Simone
Written by SONIA SIMONE Reprinted with permission from Copyblogger. If you’re a writer, you might have heard this most of your life: People don’t make a living writing. You should find something practical to do with your life. Smart, capable writers grimly…
WW News
Author Cohorts
Join your author cohort this fall! Author cohorts will meet online for weekly write-ins, check-ins, and workshops during the month of November. After the cohort, you will be connected with a published mentor to help you continue along your author journey. Reserve your spot now – $99 for Willamette Writers members, and $199 for guests.…
Writing Advice from Zoraida Córdova
by Mari Hotchkiss An unusual career path. As a young child in Ecuador, Zoraida Córdova grew up listening to her grandmother’s stories that were filled with magic and wonder. At six years old, she immigrated to the United States with her mom and grandma, causing her to abandon her love of stories. “I stopped reading.…
Literary Agents at the 2020 Willamette Writers Conference Register now for our 2020 Conference, and meet these agents, along with other top notch industry professionals. You can register for a pitch or critique, and share your work with these pros. They are excited to hear from you. At the conference, you can join them in…
C.C. Humphreys, Best-Selling Author of Historical Fiction, Joins the Willamette Writers Conference
TV Development and Production with Grant Rosenberg
Willamette Writers Authors at the Portland Book Festival
We are proud to be supporting these Willamette Writers member authors at this year’s Portland Book Festival on November 9th! 9AM-9:30AM Dede Montgomery Sue Fagalde Lick Sharleen Nelson Tasche Laine 9:30AM-10AM Kerry Blaisdell Kay Jennings Phillip Kenney Deni Starr 10AM-11AM Paula Butterfield Charley Descoteaux Marilyn McDonald Holly Manno 11AM-12PM Mazarine Treyz Marilynne Eichinger Rick George Jo Sparkes 12PM-1PM Ruby Lee Cornelius Holly Manno Bob Ferguson Kim Hester 1PM-2PM Anne Hendren Jeff Stookey R. Gregory Noakes Heather Ames 2PM-3PM Dawn Prochovnic Julie Dawn…
FiLMLaBtv 2019 Writer’s Room The 2019 winning script is “Stripes,” written by Alexandra Keister. Keister, an executive assistant and screenwriter, has written two feature-length screenplays, both romantic comedies, and a handful of short screenplays that range from dark sci-fi to the classically uplifting my-dog-is-dead story. She graduated from Oregon State University in 2012 with a BA…
Willamette Writers Authors Sign Books at The Portland Book Festival
by Ari Mathae Willamette Writers, the Portland literary community, and book lovers near and far will meet again Saturday 10, 2018, for the largest celebration of books in the Pacific Northwest: The Portland Book Festival. The event starts at 9 A.M. at the Portland Art Museum and continues there and at other neighboring venues in the…