As writers, we need to find words that do lots of work. We need language that carries meaning, image, feeling, movement, and all kinds of important things. Sometimes, we need words to come alive! Bringing words to life. That’s what we’re going to play with in this workshop. We will listen to language that feels alive. We will make words real and shape what we hear into Sculpey sculptures. And we will write and share!

The key to a winning query letter is understanding and articulating your book and its audience. In this generative workshop, writer and publishing expert Brandi Larsen will give an introduction of how to create a query letter, focusing on your book's pitch.

Attendees will partner with each other to create, share, and receive feedback on their book's one sentence hook.

Join UNCULTURED: A Memoir co-writer and publishing expert Brandi Larsen for this special event!

Get ready for AADL's 32nd It's All Write! teen writing contest with this workshop with local Author Mimi Olson!

Middle-grade author Mimi Olson’s storytelling workshop will help middle school students find inspiration and identify the stories that are all around them. In addition to covering many elements of drafting a short story, participants will learn where and how to start their own pieces. She will also read an excerpt from her novel Middle School is No Place for Magic.

Whether or not you've finished your first draft, the key to crafting a novel is building a writing routine that works for you. Author Claire Winn will discuss overcoming hurdles in your drafting process, where writer's block comes from, and how to revise your story into the one you've envisioned.

LGBTQ+ representation has evolved over the years as artists have increasingly felt more comfortable sharing their stories with audiences. Local comics creators Anne Haddox (SQUiRT, CRUSH), Emma Jayne (LSBN, Trans Girls Hit the Town), and Nick Stellanova (The Dazzle) will discuss their creative process and queer representation in comics. This panel will be moderated by Connor Good (Karmada Arts and author of Epic Cosplay Costumes).

Alex Hoffman (Fieldmouse Press), Aya Krisht (Maamoul Press), Cris Siqueria (Lion's Tooth), and Yhasmin Wilder (Detroit Zine Fest) will offer insights on how to work with publishers and get your work out there. This discussion will be moderated by publisher and distributor John Porcellino (King-Cat Comix, Spit and a Half).

This event is part of A2CAF: Small + Indie Press. For a full list of events and vendors, go to aadl.org/a2cafsip. 

Books for teen and pre-teen readers have never been more popular, and many adults enjoy reading them too. But what makes a YA or Middle Grade book special? And how do authors know what age group they are writing for? In this workshop, Alex Kourvo and Bethany Neal will be joined by authors Andrea Hannah, Jim C.

Whether at the idea phase, in the middle of a draft, or during revisions, sometimes writers get stuck. In this workshop, Bethany Neal and Alex Kourvo will provide practical tips and new solutions to keep fiction writers moving forward in all stages of book creation.

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.

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.