Interview by Kathleen Colvin We’re delighted mystery writer Mia P. Manansala will be the Saturday night keynote speaker at the 2024 Willamette Writers Conference. We asked Mia about her thoughts about publishing, as well as her love of cooking, which plays a prominent role in her series, Tita Rosie’s Kitchen Mysteries. WW: When you approach…
Writing Advice
Obstacles as Inspiration A Conversation with Jess Walter
By Gail Pasternack Earlier this week, I had the chance to meet with award winning author Jess Walter—a keynote speaker at the Willamette Writers Conference 2024. Walter believes that if we look at the lives of writers we love, we can see the hardships each of them has had to overcome. Norman Maclean, known for…
Deep Imagining with Molly Gloss
By Avis M. Adams To help a story draw closer to what the writer intended, we ask: What is this writer doing, how is she doing it, why is he doing it, what is their story about? As a national bestselling author and winner of the PEN West Fiction Prize, Molly Gloss is no stranger…
Writer Rituals and the Creative Process with Sage Cohen
By Jay Butler The holidays have come and gone, and in their wake comes a new year! With our latest waltz around the sun, now is the time for something new. Sometimes, that means a resolution to pursue throughout the year. Other times, it means a fresh start. However you begin the year, opening rituals…
In Her Cultish YA Novels, Kelly McWilliams Blends the Personal and the Historical
To author Kelly McWilliams, writing is about asserting valuable truths. With her 2020 novel, AGNES AT THE END OF THE WORLD, she “felt [she] needed to send a message into this world: a message about feminism and patriarchy and how we can survive oppression.” That sense of survival and hope is key to both of…
Writing Advice from Willamette Writers
Writing Advice from Zoraida Córdova
by Mari Hotchkiss An unusual career path. As a young child in Ecuador, Zoraida Córdova grew up listening to her grandmother’s stories that were filled with magic and wonder. At six years old, she immigrated to the United States with her mom and grandma, causing her to abandon her love of stories. “I stopped reading.…
Creating Characters
Happy Fall! Have you got your sweater? Your scarf? Your pumpkin-spiced whatever?Then sit down and talk with us about character. Hemingway said, “When writing a novel, a writer should create living people; people, not characters. A character is a caricature.” But how do we do that? That’s the challenge, isn’t it? We loved our classes…
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…