The Art of the Pitch: Presenting Your Writing to Publishers and Artist Residencies

TIME: Sunday, November 30, 2014, from 2-4pm
LOCATION: Daedalus Books, 2074 NW Flanders St, Portland, OR 97209
* To take advantage of the early bird discount, please email.

COST: $50 at door/$40 early bird special by November 16 to register and pre-pay.

Award-winning poets and editors Jill McCabe Johnson and John Sibley Williams will guide you
through an interactive two-part workshop that provides both hands-on experience and conceptual
strategies to help you succeed in finding and pitching your work to the book publishers and artist
residencies that match your vision and aesthetics.

In the residency portion, participants will:
• Learn what reviewers look for in residency applications
• See examples of successful applications
• Gain tips and practical advice for crafting a compelling application package
• Find out how to target residencies that are a good fit for your work
• Draft the “story” of your creative work for application purposes

In the book publisher portion, participants will:
• Learn how to craft comprehensive publisher pitches
• Find out how to tailor your approach to specific publishers
• See examples of successful cover letters, marketing plans, and CVs
• Discover how to research and judge which publishers best suit your work and goals
• Draft the pitch cover letter for your book

For further information, please contact Daedalus Books or check out their Facebook event
page.

Jill McCabe Johnson is the founding director of Artsmith, an arts organization providing artist
residencies in the San Juan Islands. Her first poetry collection, Diary of the One Swelling Sea
(MoonPath Press, 2013), was awarded a 2014 Nautilus Book Award in Poetry. She is the series
editor for the Being What Makes You anthology series from the University of Nebraska Gender
Programs, including Becoming: What Makes a Woman (2012), and Being: What Makes a Man
(2014). Jill earned her MFA in Creative Writing from Pacific Lutheran University and her PhD
in English from the University of Nebraska-Lincoln, where she was the 2013-2014 Louise Van
Sickle Fellow in Poetry.

John Sibley Williams is the author of eight poetry collections, most recently Controlled
Hallucinations (FutureCycle Press, 2013) and has edited to Northwest poetry anthologies. He
is the winner of the HEART Poetry Award and has been nominated for the Pushcart, Rumi, and
The Pinch Poetry Prizes. John serves as editor of The Inflectionist Review and Board Member
of the Friends of William Stafford. He has an MFA in Creative Writing from Rivier College
and an MA in Book Publishing from Portland State University, and he works both as a literary
agent and as Marketing Director of Inkwater Press. A few previous publishing credits include:
American Literary Review, Third Coast, Nimrod International Journal, Inkwell, Cider Press
Review, Bryant Literary Review, and various anthologies. He lives in Portland, Oregon.