Month: February 2026

  • Write Around Portland

    Write Around Portland

    Write Around Portland’s mission is to change lives through the power of writing. Write Around Portland holds free creative writing workshops in hospitals, prisons, schools, treatment centers, low income residences, homeless shelters and social service agencies. Write Around Portland workshops are based on respect, writing and community. Three times a year, Write Around Portland publish books of participants’ writing and organize readings where participants share their writing with each other and with the greater community.

    Learn more at https://www.writearound.org/.

    Schedule

  • Keri-Rae Barnum

    Keri-Rae Barnum

    Keri-Rae Barnum has empowered hundreds of authors to launch and grow their writing careers with confidence and real-world results. She is the owner and CEO of New Shelves Books, where she partners with publishers and authors alike to strengthen production, distribution, and visibility in bookstores and libraries.


    She is also the author of Tough Love for Indie Authors: An Honest Look at What It Takes to Win in Self-Publishing (Sibyl Writing Craft, February 2026), a practical guide grounded in her hands-on experience working across every stage of the publishing process to help indie authors publish, market, and sell their books. Through her work, Keri specializes in platform building, strategic book launches, and innovative marketing approaches that have helped numerous titles reach bestseller lists and long-term sales success.

    Schedule

  • Frances Lu-Pai Ippolito

    Frances Lu-Pai Ippolito

    Frances Lu-Pai Ippolito is the founder of Demagogue Press. When she’s not rolling a d20 and playing with meeples, she’s reading or writing SF/F/H/genre-busting stories. Her writing has appeared in several venues including Nightmare Magazine, Flame Tree Press’s Asian Ghost Stories and Immigrant Sci-fi Stories, Mother:Tales of Love and Terror, Death’s Garden Revisited, and Unquiet Spirits: Essays by Asian Women in Horror. Frances also co-chairs the Young Willamette Writers program that provides free writing classes for high school and middle school students. You can find her on FB Frances Pai and IG @francespaippolito.

    Schedule

  • July 30th 9AM – 5PM Zoom: Pitches and Critiques

    Registered for a pitch or critique? Join us online to meet with your industry professional. Login before your meeting starts and we will get you settled in to a private Zoom room for your conversation with your professional. Zoom links are sent to participants via email.

  • July 29th 9AM – 5PM Zoom: Pitches

    Registered for a pitch? Join us online to meet with your industry professional. Login before your meeting starts and we will get you settled in to a private Zoom room for your conversation with your professional. Zoom links are sent to participants via email.

  • July 19th 7 – 9PM Zoom: Pitch for the Prize

    Come pitch your work to a panel of industry professionals. You can step up to the Zoom spotlight for three minutes to share your work and receive feedback from the panel, or you can listen in and learn. At the end of the evening, the professionals will pick the grand prize winner. Come to pitch and come to learn! It’s going to be a great evening online.

  • 1 – 1:30PM Sunday Belmont Foyer: Auction & Book Pick-Up

    Pack your bags, grab your baskets and books, and head out the door. Time for auction pick up and settling of consigment sales. The conference is over, but we will see you online and in-person this September!

  • 11:30AM – 1PM Sunday Belmont A/B/C: Keynote and Goodbye

    What an amazing weekend it has been. from critiques to conversations and workshop and keynotes, we wrote and laughed and shared so much together. It will be hard to say goodbye, but don’t worry…there’s more to come (including a keynote announcement this April!).

  • 11 – 11:30AM Sunday Belmont Foyer: Brunch

    Your weekend of writing is almost over! Join us for Sunday brunch. Pour your coffee and take your seat for our final keynote presentation. Keynote announcement coming in April!

  • 10 – 11AM Sunday Zoom 1: Poetically, short.

    What happens when a poem steps off the page and onto the screen? In this workshop, you’ll learn the techniques and mechanics of screenwriting by turning a favorite poem into a short script. Bring three poems you love (no advance submission required) and choose one to transform into a screenplay for a short film. You’ll learn how to shape material that originated elsewhere, developing the collaborative skills essential to film and television, as you build an outline and begin drafting your short in proper screenplay format.