PREMIERE WRITING CONFERENCE COMING TO WINSTON-SALEM

Carrboro, NC, 30 Oct. 2007 – This fall, North Carolina writers are eagerly anticipating the state’s most valuable professional development opportunity to explore the publishing and writing world: The North Carolina Writers’ Network Fall Conference on Writing and Publishing. 

The conference runs from 5pm Friday, Nov. 16 to 1pm Sunday, Nov. 18 at the Hawthorne Inn Hotel in downtown Winston-Salem. Registration is open through Wednesday, Nov. 7. Registration ends at midnight on Nov. 7 if registering online www.ncwriters.org; it ends at 5pm if registering by calling the NC Writers’ Network at 919-967-9540. Walk-in registration is also available.

The conference features three days of classes, panels and special events on the craft of writing, techniques for getting published, and networking opportunities with editors, agents and other writers. It offers more than 35 classes and workshops; manuscript critiques with distinguished teaching  writers; pitch sessions with agents and editors; faculty readings; master classes in fiction, creative nonfiction and poetry; a cocktail reception on Friday with honored Winston-Salem guests and faculty, and more.

The keynote speaker is well-known author Jill McCorkle, a Lumberton native, at 9pm Friday. (The Jill McCorkle keynote is free and open to the public. All other speakers and events are for conferees only.) Robert Morgan (Gap Creek; Boone: A Biography), a native of Hendersonville, will give a talk at Saturday’s banquet. Winston-Salem educator and filmmaker Nathan Ross Freeman of the Winston-Salem Youth Arts Institute will perform with four young poet friends at Saturday’s luncheon. Saturday morning’s “Breakfast with Author” talk features Carole Boston Weatherford of High Point (whose latest book, Moses: When Harriet Tubman Led Her People to Freedom, is a Caldecott Honor Book) in conversation with Kim Underwood of the Winston-Salem Journal. Sunday morning’s “Breakfast with Authors” features Salisbury native and New York Times best-selling author John Hart (King of Lies; Down River) and Louise Hawes of Pittsboro, a children’s’ and short story writer whose 14 books include the new Anteaters Don’t Dream, in conversation with editor Lauren Mosko.

UNC-TV’s “Bookwatch” host D.G. Martin recently wrote, ”If you ask me, ‘How do I get published?’, my answer will be: Go to the Writers’ Network Fall Conference. Then we’ll talk…… You will rub shoulders with North Carolina literary heroes like Jill McCorkle, Robert Morgan, Randall Kenan and Tony Abbott. Over the years, this conference has been instrumental in generating publishing deals for North Carolina writers. It has a reputation as one of the best - and most affordable - conferences of its kind for writers in the country.”

The North Carolina Writers’ Network is a nonprofit organization founded in 1985 to connect, promote and lead the writing community from beginners to published professionals. Its annual conference is held in different regions of the state each year. The Network’s publications, programs and services are made possible with support from the North Carolina Arts Council.