Category: WilWrite26 Schedule

  • 4 – 5PM Saturday Zoom 1: How a Literary Agent Supports Your Writing Career

    Join a panel of literary agents as they discuss the many ways agents support authors throughout their publishing journey. From preparing a manuscript for submission and identifying market opportunities to negotiating contracts and building a long term career, the panel will offer an inside look at the author and agent relationship.

    Faculty

    • Daniele Hunter
      Daniele Hunter (she/her) is a queer, chronically ill, disabled junior agent in the children’s department at McIntosh & Otis. She started at McIntosh & Otis in 2016 as an intern and has been there ever since. She has a BA in English with concentrations in Literary Criticism, Poetry, and Creative Writing from Drew University. Before agenting,… Read more: Daniele Hunter
    • Natalie Kimber
      Natalie/Nat Kimber (she/her) has been an agent with The Rights Factory since 2014, and is based in Weehawken, NJ. She represents adult fiction, nonfiction, and books for young adults. She is the lead organizer of the NYC Writers Circle. She takes pride in guiding authors through the strategy and practical process of publishing, and yet she acknowledges that a wondrous… Read more: Natalie Kimber

  • 4 – 5PM Saturday Windsor C: Break This Line

    Can a paragraph become poetry? Join poet Brian Garrison in a conversation on ways to use line breaks as we tinker with words. You’ll experiment with transforming ordinary sentences into lyrical, expressive lines that capture rhythm, emotion, and meaning.

    Faculty

    • Brian U. Garrison
      Brian U. Garrison, he/him, is President of the Science Fiction & Fantasy Poetry Association (SFPA). Check out his Etsy shop to see wall art that combines his words with visuals from collaborators. His chapbook Micropoetry for Microplanets (Space Cowboy Books) earned 3rd Place in the 2025 Elgin Awards. He lives under a tall, leafy tree… Read more: Brian U. Garrison

  • 4 – 5PM Saturday Windsor B: Crafting a Series

    How do you keep readers hooked across a trilogy or a full series of books? In this workshop with Jared Agard, you’ll explore exercises, strategies, and examples to craft story arcs that span multiple books. You’ll walk away with practical tools to build compelling, lasting series that keep your audience coming back for more.

    Faculty

    • Jared Agard
      Jared Agard is the author and illustrator of the middle grade supernatural thriller, Dread Watch, published by Chicken Scratch books in 2021. The first book in his middle grade science fiction trilogy, Intergalactic Backpack, will be published in September 2026. Jared is also an art and film teacher for high schoolers in the Beaverton School… Read more: Jared Agard

  • 4 – 5PM Saturday Windsor A: Legal Contracts for Writers

    Ever wonder what you’re really signing when you agree to a contract? Join lawyer Valerie Saski as she breaks down common worries in legal contracts, including different contract types and what you’re actually signing away on the dotted line. You’ll also learn which terms can come back to bite you if things go wrong. Bring a notebook and your questions for this interactive workshop.

    Faculty

    • Valerie Sasaki
      Valerie is a tax, business, and estate planning attorney in Portland, Oregon. Her favorite thing to do is to detangle complex language and solve problems. She has various degrees and accolades, none of which have to do with writing fiction. And yet we march on! It took her 20 years to feel competent at her… Read more: Valerie Sasaki

  • 4 – 5PM Saturday Belmont C: Genre Screenwriting Workshop

    Genre is where imagination meets tension. As a writer, you can stretch reality while keeping every moment grounded and real. This workshop is designed for screenwriters who are comfortable with craft fundamentals and want to explore genre writing or deepen their existing genre work. We’ll move through the craft challenges that genre presents to a skilled writer: how to honor audience expectations while finding something genuinely your own; how to use tropes as tools rather than crutches; and how to make the familiar feel surprising.

    Faculty

    • Dustin Morrow
      Dustin Morrow bridges the worlds of creative practice and scholarly inquiry as an Emmy-winning filmmaker, bestselling author, film festival programmer, optioned screenwriter, podcaster and educator. He is a tenured Professor in the School of Film at Portland State University. More here: https://dustinmorrow.com/biography/. Schedule

  • 4 – 5PM Saturday Belmont B: How to be a Happy and Successful Writer

    How do you stay happy, healthy, and feeling successful as a writer or artist while dealing with rejection, imposter syndrome, envy, and other fun challenges of the creative life? Randy Henderson will share research-based tips on defining success and maintaining emotional well-being as a creative. He’ll also show how to craft character arcs as a tool for examining our writing selves.

    Faculty

    • Randy Henderson
      Randy Henderson is the author of the quirky Finn Fancy contemporary fantasy trilogy from Tor. He’s also a Writers of the Future grand prize winner, Clarion West grad, sometime TTRPG livestreamer, and frequent cat pillow. Socials: @randyauthor. Find out more at https://www.randy-henderson.com/. Schedule

  • 4 – 5PM Saturday Belmont A: Panel: Agents and Editors in Conversation

    Curious about how the publishing industry works behind the scenes? What really happens after an agent submits a manuscript to an editor? Join a panel of literary agents and editors as they discuss the process of bringing books to market, what influences publishing decisions, and how you can position your work for success.

    Faculty

    • CoCo Freeman
      CoCo is a graduate of Bard College with a B.A. in Written Arts. Before joining Linda Chester, she worked for Tom Yoon Productions developing projects and editing existing material. She is very happy to have entered the world of her first love, books. Find out more at https://lindachester.com. Schedule
    • T.S. Ferguson
      Before joining Azantian Literary Agency, T.S. Ferguson worked for 16 years as an editor for some of the top children’s and teen book publishers in the business, including Little, Brown Books for Young Readers, Harlequin Teen/Inkyard Press, and JIMMY Patterson Books. He has worked with New York Times bestselling and award-winning authors such as Sherman… Read more: T.S. Ferguson

  • 3:30 – 4PM Saturday Belmont A/B & Zoom One: Break

    Refill your coffee and head to the courtyard. It’s the perfect time to meet with friends or make new ones before our last round of workshops for the day.

  • 2 – 3:30PM Saturday Zoom 2: Dirtying Up Your Character: Finding their Flaws

    Why is “dirtying up” your character so important? It makes them more complex and memorable. Many writers focus too much on making their protagonist likable, but real people are flawed and your characters should be too. In this workshop with Marilyn Atlas, you’ll explore the difference between likability and relatability, learning why relatability matters more. You’ll analyze well-known characters, bring your own original character, and dive deep into their psyche through interactive exercises. We’ll also watch movie scenes and discuss how writers make characters relatable even when they’re unlikable.

    Faculty

    • Marilyn R Atlas
      Marilyn R Atlas is a literary talent manager, award-winning producer and the co-author of Dating Your Character. Among her credits as a film producer are Real Women Have Curves (winner audience award Sundance Film Festival 2002) for HBO; A Certain Desire, starring Sam Waterston; and Echoes, which won the Gold Award at the Texas International… Read more: Marilyn R Atlas

  • 2 – 3:30PM Saturday Zoom 1: The Pocket Guide to Pantsing: How to write a novel without an outline, with confidence

    Pantsers: want to ditch outlining forever but don’t know how? Writing a novel without one is like solving a puzzle blind—daunting, but not impossible, and mastering it means writing stories you never dreamed of, stories readers will pay for. In this no-BS presentation, prolific author Michael La Ronn shares the process he’s used to write 30+ novels without an outline: a reliable structure to follow, how to beat self-doubt, exactly what to write when you’re stuck, and how to edit as you go for a clean first-and-final draft.

    • Michael La Ronn
      Michael La Ronn has published many science fiction & fantasy books and self-help books for writers. He built a writing career publishing 10-12 books per year while raising a family, working a full-time job, and even attending law school classes in the evenings. Visit his fiction website at www.michaellaronn.com and his resources for writers at… Read more: Michael La Ronn