It’s fascinating to hear two smart authors talk to each other about their work. It’s just a great opportunity to glean information that helps us in a variety of ways. We pick up writing tips. Gain new perspectives. Sometimes even learn that the problems we keep having affect writers at all levels.

Throughout this year’s Willamette Writers Conference, authors, agents, publishers, and producers will take their turn in our bookstore venue to have informal discussions and conversations about all things related to writing… the work and the career. Here are a few examples…

Saturday afternoon, two rapidly rising names in the writing for young readers world — one from each coast — will sit down together to discuss their work, as well as the kid lit market and its rise in popularity. Keynote speaker and NYC author Corey Ann Haydu and Portlander Heidi Schultz, the winner of Willamette Writers’ 2016 Up and Coming Author award, will share the bookstore stage for a conversation that gives us insight into their genre and their careers.

Forest Avenue Press publisher Laura Stanfill, who is taking pitches this year, will join Portland author and keynote speaker Ellen Urbani on Sunday afternoon to discuss the author/publisher relationship and what to expect from the process of taking work to print. Just as Laura and Ellen did with Ellen’s novel, Landfall.

Distinguished faculty members like novelist Hallie Ephron will sit down with rising stars like novelists Fonda Lee and William Hertling to share personal stories about process, changes in the industry, and the challenges and opportunities of both publishing worlds: the traditional route and the self-publishing path.

So when you’re not attending classes or pitching your work, stop by the bookstore. There will be something happening all day every day.