Conduct some hands-on experimentation with words, sounds, technology, and images to produce your own unique poems. We'll have stations where you can create electrified blackout poetry, Dadaist cutups, concrete poetry, and more.

Great fiction starts with the heroes and heroines we love. To bring those characters to life on the page, the author must craft heroes and heroines as real as the people we know. In this workshop, Bethany Neal and Alex Kourvo will show you how to understand your characters deeply and portray them on the page authentically so readers will love them too.

Come with questions, a work in progress, or an empty notebook. All writers are welcome in this casual, supportive environment.

Authors Bethany Neal and Alex Kourvo will be on hand to answer questions and give encouragement. Bethany and Alex will also provide private, one-on-one critiques if you choose to have them read your work. Sharing your writing with other attendees is not required and is completely voluntary.

Pocket notebooks are a great distraction-free tool to capture things you want to remember. They can contain everything from to-do lists to travelogues to creative projects. Learn about the whys and hows of keeping a pocket notebook and leave with tools and inspiration to start on your journey. Stationery nerds: feel free to bring your notebooks, stickers, stamps, and other accessories to show off or swap!

In this interactive session, publishing expert Brandi Larsen will answer your questions about how the book business works. Driven by the audience’s interests, she’ll share insider stories from the center of the publishing industry and her best strategies on how you can be a part of it.

Submit your question in advance here

Create found poetry by blacking out chunks of text from documents in the AADL archives. You'll flex your creative muscles and learn local history, too!

Fiction and memoir is made up of scenes: units of action that dramatize the unfolding events. In this workshop, Bethany Neal and Alex Kourvo will help you understand scenes as the building blocks of a story, explain why each scene needs a pivot point, and why a character should never be the same at the end of a scene as she was at the beginning.

Come with questions, a work in progress, or an empty notebook. All writers are welcome in this casual, supportive environment.

Authors Bethany Neal and Alex Kourvo will be on hand to answer questions and give encouragement. Bethany and Alex will also provide private, one-on-one critiques if you choose to have them read your work. Sharing your writing with other attendees is not required and is completely voluntary.

This workshop invites participants to explore the narratives that shape their identities and the expectations placed upon them by family, society, and personal history. Through creative writing exercises and discussion, attendees will gain insights into the stories they've been told about themselves, the stories they tell, and most critically, the stories they want to tell. This workshop aims to:

The key to being a writer is to WRITE! Hear about the writing journey of author Kelly J. Baptist, then dive write into some creative exercises to get the inspiration flowing.