We are proud to announce the industry professionals accepting pitches this year at our 50th annual Willamette Writers Conference. We are welcoming a fantastic group of agents, editors, managers, and producers, and the list will continue to grow in the coming weeks. You will find a list of all our current industry professionals here.
We are welcoming editors from Penguin, Hachette, Lonely Planet, and JIMMY (James Paterson's new middle grade imprint). We have agents, managers and producers from top agencies, including TriadaUS, Foundry, Romark Entertainment, and many others. Find out more about them here.
Register now. Join us this August to launch your career.
Join the Willamette Writers Conference - August 2-4, 2019
Our 50th annual conference (50!!!) will be a BLAST! Three full days of classes, workshops, keynotes, critiques, and events. We invite you to join us for a weekend of community as you develop your craft and expand your career on August 2nd-4th, 2019 in Portland, Oregon at the Airport Sheraton Hotel.
After a successful launch of our Master Classes with industry professionals at our 2018 conference, we are doing it again in 2019. Early registrations get first pick of our Master Class offerings in early March!
We'll also be offering many options for one on one critique, including On the Spot Critiques and Advance Manuscript Critique. As always, we'll have a roster of agents, editors and film executives ready to hear about your project. Plus, if you register now, you'll find your seat with our pitch pros first. It is going to be an amazing weekend! See you in August!
Member News
Member News: Call for Proposals
Member News: Nancy E Dollahite, Field Notes from Sichuan
Just released by Nancy E Dollahite, Field Notes from Sichuan; Learning to be a Foreigner, will ring true with anyone who has ever lived abroad or felt like an outsider. Based on the author’s experience teaching there in the 1980s, this is one woman’s love story with rural China as it rushes toward becoming a…
Member News: Poetry Open Mic at the Beaverton Public Library!
Poetry Open Mic at the Beaverton Public Library! Free and open to the public. Beaverton Public Library Auditorium Saturday, April 13, 4:00-5:30 PM In honor of National Poetry Month, join us to share some poetry. Read your own poetry or a favorite poem by someone else. Opening the show we are pleased to welcome Dr.…
Member News: Annie Bloom’s Reading and Signing of Revenge in 3 Parts
Book launch for Valerie J. Brooks’ femmes-noir novel REVENGE IN 3 PARTS. Come hear her read, entertain, and tell you why she considers noir to be protest lit. Thursday, April 25, 2019, 7 PM – 8 PM Annie Bloom’s Books 7834 SW Capitol Hwy, Portland, Oregon 97219 In this gripping psychological thriller and debut noir…
Member News: Book Launch
Tasche Laine’s Book Launch Event for her second book, CHAMELEON, is Thursday, April 11th, 7:00 p.m., at Another Read Through (3932 N Mississippi Ave, Portland). CHAMELEON is a domestic thriller about a single mom who meets an alluring psychotherapist who isn’t what he seems. Adept at manipulation, Geoffrey toys with Tara’s mind, compelling her to…
Member News: DEBRIEFING THE DEAD is a 2019 RITA® Award Finalist
Member Kerry Blaisdell is thrilled to announce that her debut novel DEBRIEFING THE DEAD is a finalist in the Romance Writers of America’s prestigious RITA® Awards contest. To celebrate, the ebook will be on sale for $0.99 April 4-May 3, 2019! Read this award-winning novel before the sequel, WAKING THE DEAD, comes out on May…
Member News: Writing Horses
“WRITING HORSES: An exploration of the horse-human interface, writing, and the creative process Saturday, May 4 2019, 10:00 am-5:00 pm at Rocking B Farms in Ridgefield, WA (30-45 minutes from Portland, OR, 20 minutes from Vancouver, WA). Writers and horse lovers of all levels of experience are welcome! From an early age horses develop connections…
Member News: Julie Whipple Presents at McMenamins Kennedy School
Award-winning journalist and author Julie Whipple will present her book, Crash Course on April 29 at McMenamins Kennedy School History Pub Series. https://www.mcmenamins.com/events/197517-crash-course-the-portland-air-disaster-that-made-history-and-changed-history. Crash Course is the true story about the Portland crash of United Flight 173. Find out how it changed our lives, and how a three-year-old orphan named Lisa fought powerful foes to…
Member News: Valerie J. Brooks Reading at Annie Bloom’s
“Valerie J. Brooks will be celebrating her Portland launch of her femmes-noir REVENGE IN 3 PARTS with a reading and book signing on Thursday, April 25 from 7-8 at Annie Bloom’s Bookstore, 7834 SW Capitol Hwy, Portland, Oregon. “REVENGE IN 3 PARTS is a swift, seductive, menacing tale of extortion and murder. Like the great…
Member News: Don’t Read This Book
DON’T READ THIS BOOK. It’s a book you should read … about a book you shouldn’t read. Vampires, werewolves, golems, necromancers, and a high speed chase through the UK and France to the catacombs under Paris, all center around a writer trying to keep her manuscript out of the wrong hands. Magdalena Wallace is the…
Join a Meeting or a Workshop Near You
All Writers Welcome! Members & Full-Time Students Attend for Free!
Corvallis: Reading Your Work as Performance with Terri Thomas
Southern Oregon: Monthly Meeting
Portland: Setting with Rosanne Parry
Salem: Monthly Meeting
Newport: Monthly Meeting
Vancouver: Monthly Meeting
Corvallis: Coming Through The Crucible with Philip Kenney
Southern Oregon: Monthly Meeting
On Writing from Willamette Writers
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…
Ten Tips for Writing an Effective Pitch
By Alyssa Schaffer and Joanna Szabo Pitching your manuscript can be one of the more intimidating aspects of the writing process, so we’ve collected a few essential tips to help you prepare your next pitch. Start with a hook. This…
What Agents Want – Tips from Meeting with Literary Agent Laura Bradford
At the April 4 Willamette Writers meeting, attendees got to hear from Laura Bradford, founder of Bradford Literary Agency, about what agents look for in writers. Here are some key takeaways from the presentation. Are You Someone Agents Want to…
The Willamette Writers Conference
2019 Willamette Writers Conference Pitch Professionals We are proud to announce the industry professionals accepting pitches this year at our 50th annual Willamette Writers Conference. You will find a list of all our current industry professionals here. We are welcoming a fantastic group of agents, editors, manager, and producers, and the list will continue to…
Julie Whipple Book Signing at Powells
Julie Whipple will be reading and signing copies of her new book, Crash Course Join Julie Whipple at Powell’s downtown flagship store on West Burnside on Monday, August 20 at 7:30 (http://www.powells.com/book/-9780692070406#product_details) and award-winning audiobook narrator Heather Henderson for a special performance of excerpts from the book. Long-time Portland residents vividly recall the crash of…
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 a variety of clients. In a blog he posted this past December, he shares advice…
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 pass around war stories on Facebook. Penny-a-word assignments, clients who don’t pay, disdain for our…
Open Mic Night at the Willamette Writers Conference
Open Mic night started at the Willamette Writers Conference in 2013, when I mentioned to the conference chair that I attended a really fun Open Mic Night at another writing conference. This launched us into a talk about how we could make one for Willamette Writers and how we could make it even better than…
What’s New at the Willamette Writers Conference
Welcome to our 2018 Conference! This year, our theme for The Best Three Days in Writing is “Celebrating Diverse Voices in Writing.” The whole team is really looking forward to what we’ve got in store for you all this August 3rd -5th. As you know, the conference has grown and changed much over its 49-year…
Experiences at The Willamette Writers Conference
“A writers conference can be an empowering and uplifting experience,” according to Scott Myers, a producer, writer, and assistant director. Myers presented at the Willamette Writers Conference this year, and said it was a “special experience.” He explains on his website about his conference experience that he met so many writers and old friends, and his classes were packed. His…
Writing Through the Tough Times by Julie Fast
New Conference Opportunity for Members: Sell Your Books at the Consignment Booth
Thanks for checking out this opportunity. We are finalizing the details and should have them for you this week. In the meantime, please let us know you’re interested by completing the short form below or via this link (same form, use whatever works better for you). We will let you know when we have more…
New Opportunity at Conference: Author Headshots
For the first time ever, the 2017 Willamette Writers Conference will have a professional photographer at the conference to take author headshots. A limited number of slots will be offered Friday and Saturday afternoon, so book your slot before they are all taken. Why Do Author’s Need Headshots? Last year’s conference keynote speaker Jane Friedman…
Our News
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…
Member News: Mary Andonian & David Poulshock launch ISA Third Thursdays
Mary Andonian & David Poulshock launch ISA Third Thursdays Members Mary and David are launching the local chapter of the International Screenwriters Association(ISA). It’s a monthly mixer for screenwriters on Third Thursdays, where you can mingle with fellow screenwriters, meet film and television industry professionals, and win door prizes — including a free Willamette Writer’s…
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 a blog he posted this past June, he shares his perspective on how he learned…
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 a variety of clients. In a blog he posted this past December, he shares advice…
Attend FiLMLaB.tv workshops and get all the value without even attending!
Attend FiLMLaB.tv workshops and get all the value without even attending! Well, not really. Eventually you’ll have to “attend.” But thanks to space-age technology, Willamette Writers is presenting two valuable workshops online that you will be able to access 24/7 AND multiple times right up until the conference. That means that even if you’re not…
Ten Tips for Writing an Effective Pitch
By Alyssa Schaffer and Joanna Szabo Pitching your manuscript can be one of the more intimidating aspects of the writing process, so we’ve collected a few essential tips to help you prepare your next pitch. Start with a hook. This should be one or two lines covering the most exciting thing about your book. However,…
Willamette Writers is Sponsoring Write to Publish
We are delighted to contribute to this year’s Write to Publish conference with Ooligan Press to help writers, agents, and publishers alike get more familiar the ins and outs of the industry! What: A one-day conference demystifying the publishing industry When: April 21, 2018 9:00 am – 6:00 pm Where: George C. Hoffmann Hall 1833…
Randall Jahnson and FiLMLaB Screenwriting Workshop
Screenwriting Workshop Willamette Writers and FiLMLaB invite you to join us for an online screenwriting workshop with Randall Jahnson. Details Date: Saturday, April 21st Time: 12-2PM Cost: Free Open to the public This is an online workshop Click here to register. About Randall Jahnson Randall Jahnson has written more than 20 feature-length screenplays. Not all…
Help Support Young Writers
What a wonderful year. We started out with our chapter meetings across the state, joined together at our annual conference, and finished the year with a closer — and much larger — community of support and friendship. Every day, Willamette Writers members are developing their craft and expanding their careers. Today, we ask you to…