WV Writers, Inc. will hold its 2024 Fall Writers Conference on November 2, 2024.
This will be an in-person conference. Online registration closes October 29, 2024 - we will accept walk-ins afterwards.
Location: The First State Capitol, located at 1413 Eoff Street, Wheeling, West Virginia.
Time: 10:00 am until 4:00 pm. Sign-ins start at 9:30. Please see the schedule for session times.
Cost: $100 for members, $130 for nonmembers (which will include an annual membership — join beforehand and save $5). A box lunch from Hall of Fame Cafe is included with your registration fee. You get your choice of sandwich (ham and Swiss, turkey and American, or Italian), sides of pasta salad and chips, and a fresh chocolate chip cookie. WV Writers will provide soft drinks.
To attend, register at https://wvwriters.org/attend. We will not accept mailed forms.
Presenters
Marc Harshman
Marc Harshman, besides being a poet. is the author of 14 nationally acclaimed children’s books including FALLINGWATER: THE BUILDING OF FRANK LLOYD WRIGHT’S MASTERPIECE, co-authored with Anna Egan Smucker, illustrated by LeUyen Pham, and subsequently named an Amazon Book of the Month. Previous titles have included THE STORM, a Smithsonian Notable Book. His children’s books have been published in Spanish, Korean, Danish, Japanese, and Swedish. His collections of poetry include WOMAN IN RED ANORAK, winner of the Blue Lynx Prize, BELIEVE WHAT YOU CAN, winner of the Weatherford Award from the Appalachian Studies Association [Vandalia/WVU Press] and also named the Appalachian Book of the Year by the Mountain Heritage Literary Festival in Tennessee. DARK HILLS OF HOME, was published by Monongahela Book in 2022 to celebrating his 10th anniversary as WV Poet Laureate, and his latest volume is FOLLOWING THE SILENCE from Press 53. He was recently named the Appalachian Heritage Writer for 2024 by Shepherd University’s Appalachian Studies program whose past honorees have included Barbara Kingsolver, Charles Frazier, Bobbie Ann Mason, Henry Louis Gates, and Nikki Giovanni. He is co-winner of the Allen Ginsberg Poetry Award and his poem, “Dispatch from the Mountain State,” appeared in the 2020 Thanksgiving edition of the New York Times. He holds degrees from Bethany College, Yale University Divinity School, and the University of Pittsburgh. Appointed in 2012 by Governor Earl Ray Tomblin, Harshman is the seventh poet laureate of West Virginia.
Christina Fisanick
Dr. Christina Fisanick is the author or editor of more than 30 books and dozens of articles, essays, and poems. Her latest book, Pulling the Thread: Untangling Wheeling History, is a collection of essays focusing on little known stories from Wheeling’s past. She is the co-editor of "We Are Here!": New Writing from Northern Appalachia, which will be published by the University of Kentucky Press in fall 2025. She is currently working on an historic novel which takes place at Fostoria Glass in Moundsville, WV in the years immediately following WWII. In addition, Fisanick is an English professor and an internationally recognized scholar in the teaching of digital storytelling as public history. Fisanick serves as the president of the Writers Association of Northern Appalachia (WANA) and the co-host of WANA LIVE!: The Reading Series. Learn more: christinafisanick.com.
Making History: Researching and Writing about the Past
Are you intrigued by a tidbit of information about your family’s history or a fact about your community's history that you think other people would enjoy hearing about? Join Dr. Christina Fisanick for this interactive workshop that will help you incorporate research into your writing that will captivate readers. Whether you are interested in writing historical fiction or narrative nonfiction, this workshop will give you tools to improve the flow of storytelling using primary sources.
Strike a Spark!: A Flash Non-fiction Workshop
Does writing an entire memoir seem daunting? Maybe even a full-length essay feels like too much at the moment? In this workshop we will focus on the art of flash creative non-fiction, which focuses on short, short-short, and micro-length writing about the self. The workshop begins with an introduction to various forms of short non-fiction, moves to writing prompts, and asks attendees to begin revising their pieces in the hopes that some or all participants will share their masterpieces at the end. Information about where to publish short non-fiction and other helpful tips will be provided.
CJ Farnsworth
CJ Farnsworth is a poet/writer and Wheeling resident. Her first book of poetry, If You Keep Making That Shameface…, was published by Sheila-Na-Gig, Ed. in 2024.
Leap Before You Look
Enjoy a brisk dip in the pool of association. How does a poet leap without losing footing? How do associations hold a poem together without holding readers out?
I Do Declare
In English grammar, a declarative sentence is a sentence that makes a statement, provides a fact, offers an explanation, or conveys information. How does poetry, a genre of subtlety and complexity, use the declarative with powerful effect?
Michael Dittman
Michael Dittman is a professor of English and Creative Writing who lives and writes near Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania surrounded by the palimpsest of the Appalachian Rust Belt and its ghosts. His most recent novel is Who Holds the Devil. He is also the author of Jack Kerouac; A Biography, Masterpieces of the Beat Generation, and Small Brutal Incidents. His short stories and poetry, as well as his journalism and non-fiction, are widely published and anthologized. He has been awarded the Hicks Prize for Poetry, a Pennsylvania Arts Council Special Stipend Grant Award, a Pennsylvania Artist in Education Grant, the Small Press Distribution Lannan Literary Grant, and the Brennecke Award for Outstanding Scholarship. He is the poetry editor of Appalchain Lit. He was a National Poetry Slam Semi-Finalist and performed his spoken word with the Lollapalooza tour. Contact him at Michaeldittman.com.
Crafting Suspense in Verse
Explore the intriguing dynamics of tension in poetry in our workshop. In poetry, tension serves as a powerful tool to captivate and engage readers. This workshop delves into how tension—similar to suspense—is not merely about eerie or mysterious subjects but is crafted through skillful manipulation of poetic elements. Discover how to create a taut, compelling poem by employing techniques like strategic repetition. Through guided exercises and group discussions, you’ll learn how to weave tension into your work, using it to build and maintain interest while enhancing your overall poetic craft. Join us to master the art of crafting poems that stretch and hold your reader’s attention from start to finish.
From Letters to Lines: Creative Approaches to Poetic Form
Join us for an inventive generative poetry workshop, “From Letters to Lines: Creative Approaches to Poetic Form.” In this session, you'll start by creating a letter addressed to someone—past, present, or imagined—under the premise that they will never see it and based on ideas gathered from flash cards. As you transform this personal letter into a poem by breaking it into poetic lines, you'll explore how to convey deep emotions and insights through verse. You'll learn to balance mystery with clarity, anchoring emotions in vivid, concrete details. This workshop offers a hands-on approach to experimenting with poetic form and structure, helping you discover new ways to express your voice and refine your poetic technique.
Randy Underwood
E. Randolph (Randy) Underwood is a retired civil engineer living in Martinsburg, West Virginia where he enjoys fly fishing, fly tying, taking English and Appalachian studies at Shepherd University, writing, and participating in West Virginia Writers activities. He has self-published a memoir about growing up in and around the little town of Salem and six works of fiction, including five mysteries and a novella – all set in West Virginia. His short stories, poetry, and a mine wars essay have also appeared in various volumes of the Anthology of Appalachian Writers.
Developing Believable Characters from Folks We’ve Seen
Nobody likes a story full of unrealistic, predictable, or ‘cardboard’ characters. The presentation will discuss the concept of instilling bits and pieces of what we’ve observed in people we’ve encountered into our characters so that our readers can visualize and believe in them. The presenter will briefly discuss the concept, provide examples, and encourage participants to create their own characters from people they’ve observed and discuss how these characters can be incorporated into existing or future writings.
Burke Allen
Veteran talent manager Burke Allen assumed responsibility as National Vice President of the National Conference of Personal Managers, the nation’s oldest trade association for entertainment, music, and talent managers, in 2020. Mr. Allen heads Allen Artists Management, a division of his metro Washington, DC-based Allen Media Strategies, which provides strategic and tactical advisement for the career development of national entertainers and media personalities. His clients include America’s Got Talent winner and recording artist Landau Eugene Murphy Jr., Voices of Classic Soul, featuring former lead singers of some of the most legendary groups of all time, solo artist Bob Malone, played in the John Fogerty’s Band for over a decade, New York Times #1 bestselling author Homer Hickam, whose book Rocket Boys was the basis for the Universal Pictures film October Sky, award-winning children’s author and Denver Foundation head Dreama Denver, wife of late Gilligan’s Island star Bob Denver, Theatre West Virginia, upcoming singer-songwriter Kate Boytek, and many more.
Book Publicity 101: How To Get The Word Out
Learn how to get free publicity for your books -- it could be on TV, radio, print, or online -- and then how to turn that coverage into readers.